Rating: 
Summary: I really think this is the only opinion that matters:
Review: "All of you are children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. All of you who have been baptized in Christ, have clothed yourselves in Christ. Thus there is no longer Jew nor Greek, free nor slave, male nor female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus." - Galatians 3,27-28.
Vincent, though guided by the Holy Spirit, popes have erred before in our Church's history, and she has overcome wrong ways of thinking to grow in holiness and enlightenment. It's only a matter of time for women's ordination.
Rating:
Summary: Coming alive out of the depths can impact the Church
Review: "Out of the Depths" by Mariam Winter is the story of Ludmila Javarova, a Czechoslovakian woman, ordained a Catholic Priest 30 years ago. She was ordained in secret by Bishop Felix Davidek, a man of intense devotion and spurred with new ideas to fire the Church with God's Holy Spirit. Ludmila lived most of her ministry in secret, out of personal devotion to God. In 1996, a news headline riled the pope who revoked her priesthood. As Ludmila said, "I'm a priest forever," even though she couldn't carry out any priestly duties. Although Protestant, I found this a very moving testimony of the Power of God in a woman's life, as well as enlightening of the effort of certain Catholics who kept their faith strong through the underground church during the reign of Communism just a few years ago. After Miriam Therese Winter listened to Javarova, visited her home in the in what was Czechoslovakia, and found a soulmate in Ludmila, she wrote the story so personally that the book feels like an autobiography. Ludmila Javarova is still coming alive out of her own depth of spirit, making a contribution to the changing face of Catholicism as women rise up.
Rating:
Summary: Coming alive out of the depths can impact the Church
Review: "Out of the Depths" by Mariam Winter is the story of Ludmila Javarova, a Czechoslovakian woman, ordained a Catholic Priest 30 years ago. She was ordained in secret by Bishop Felix Davidek, a man of intense devotion and spurred with new ideas to fire the Church with God's Holy Spirit. Ludmila lived most of her ministry in secret, out of personal devotion to God. In 1996, a news headline riled the pope who revoked her priesthood. As Ludmila said, "I'm a priest forever," even though she couldn't carry out any priestly duties. Although Protestant, I found this a very moving testimony of the Power of God in a woman's life, as well as enlightening of the effort of certain Catholics who kept their faith strong through the underground church during the reign of Communism just a few years ago. After Miriam Therese Winter listened to Javarova, visited her home in the in what was Czechoslovakia, and found a soulmate in Ludmila, she wrote the story so personally that the book feels like an autobiography. Ludmila Javarova is still coming alive out of her own depth of spirit, making a contribution to the changing face of Catholicism as women rise up.
Rating: 
Summary: Poorly written
Review: ...that is, the "opinion" (read: authoritative judgement) of Christ's Visible Representative on earth, the Holy Father, Pope John Paul II (emphasis added):"4. Although the teaching that priestly ordination is to be reserved to men alone has been preserved by the CONSTANT and UNIVERSAL Tradition of the Church and FIRMLY taught by the Magisterium in its more recent documents, at the present time in some places it is nonetheless considered still open to debate, or the Church's judgment that women are not to be admitted to ordination is considered to have a merely disciplinary force. Wherefore, in order that ALL DOUBT may be removed regarding a matter of great importance, a matter which pertains to the Church's divine constitution itself, IN VIRTUE OF MY MINISTRY OF CONFIRMING THE BRETHREN (cf. Lk 22:32) I DECLARE that the Church has NO AUTHORITY whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that this judgment is to be DEFINITIVELY HELD by ALL the Church's FAITHFUL."
-Pope John Paul II in his 1994 Apostolic Letter, "Ordinatio Sacerdotalis" Those who have "ears to hear", let them hear.
Rating: 
Summary: Out from under Felix Davidek
Review: I had high hopes in starting out in reading this work. Interested in all-things-Slovak and how Czechoslovakia functioned under communism, I expected this book to be a credible account of Ludmila Javorova's priestly ordination. Instead, I am sad to admit, I've come away thinking that Javorova was the unfortunate victim of a spurned megalomaniac. I hesitate to use such strong and disrespectful language, but after reading Javorova's story (which could be titled "The misadventures of "Bishop" Felix Davidek"), I, too, wonder about the validity of her priestly 'ordination.' Not that Javorova wasn't sincere in her faith: she desired to begin her religious vocation at age 15 but in 1947, Czechoslovakia was poised to become "liberated" by the Soviet armed forces. Father Felix Davidek, 11 years her senior, was arrested by Soviet authorities for continuing with clandestine religious activities. After his release from prison in 1964, he looked up Javorova, a neighbor and family friend from their native Brno and enlisted her help in ensuring the survival of the underground church in Czechoslovakia. Together, they established and ran Koinotes, a Catholic fellowship group out of which Davidek secretly recruited and educated men for priesthood in the Catholic Church. Once Davidek pushed his agenda for the ordination of women, though, Koinotes splintered and he lost much of his power and influence in the underground church. It is after this that Davidek's behavior began to border on the bizarre and his ever-increasing demands on Ludmila just more evidence of his deteriorating mental health. By 1970, when he insisted on ordaining her into the priesthood, Javorova felt that they were 'rushing' things. His controlling demands on her time eventually took their toll and she suffered from exhaustion and fell seriously ill. This did not diminish Davidek's demands on her and both of their reputations suffered irrevocably. In 1976, the Vatican officially ordered Davidek to stop his "work" as a Bishop in the Church and declared his ordinations and consecrations invalid. He refused to cease functioning as a bishop and a few years later, Ludmila finally succeeds in making a clean break with Davidek. Sour grapes again, Davidek engaged in some very un-Christian meanspirited actions against her. When he falls ill a few years later, Ludmila extends forgiveness toward him and nurses him until his death in 1988. Out of the depths is written well enough and proceeds in a chronological order. If the reader is not familiar with the hierarchy and politics of the Roman Catholic Church, he may find himself baffled at its political machinery. Therese Winter, the author of the book, never questions the validity of Ludmila's ordination and the reader must read carefully between the lines to pick up on Javorova's frustations at times in dealing with Davidek.
Rating:
Summary: Out from under Felix Davidek
Review: I had high hopes in starting out in reading this work. Interested in all-things-Slovak and how Czechoslovakia functioned under communism, I expected this book to be a credible account of Ludmila Javorova's priestly ordination. Instead, I am sad to admit, I've come away thinking that Javorova was the unfortunate victim of a spurned megalomaniac. I hesitate to use such strong and disrespectful language, but after reading Javorova's story (which could be titled "The misadventures of "Bishop" Felix Davidek"), I, too, wonder about the validity of her priestly 'ordination.' Not that Javorova wasn't sincere in her faith: she desired to begin her religious vocation at age 15 but in 1947, Czechoslovakia was poised to become "liberated" by the Soviet armed forces. Father Felix Davidek, 11 years her senior, was arrested by Soviet authorities for continuing with clandestine religious activities. After his release from prison in 1964, he looked up Javorova, a neighbor and family friend from their native Brno and enlisted her help in ensuring the survival of the underground church in Czechoslovakia. Together, they established and ran Koinotes, a Catholic fellowship group out of which Davidek secretly recruited and educated men for priesthood in the Catholic Church. Once Davidek pushed his agenda for the ordination of women, though, Koinotes splintered and he lost much of his power and influence in the underground church. It is after this that Davidek's behavior began to border on the bizarre and his ever-increasing demands on Ludmila just more evidence of his deteriorating mental health. By 1970, when he insisted on ordaining her into the priesthood, Javorova felt that they were 'rushing' things. His controlling demands on her time eventually took their toll and she suffered from exhaustion and fell seriously ill. This did not diminish Davidek's demands on her and both of their reputations suffered irrevocably. In 1976, the Vatican officially ordered Davidek to stop his "work" as a Bishop in the Church and declared his ordinations and consecrations invalid. He refused to cease functioning as a bishop and a few years later, Ludmila finally succeeds in making a clean break with Davidek. Sour grapes again, Davidek engaged in some very un-Christian meanspirited actions against her. When he falls ill a few years later, Ludmila extends forgiveness toward him and nurses him until his death in 1988. Out of the depths is written well enough and proceeds in a chronological order. If the reader is not familiar with the hierarchy and politics of the Roman Catholic Church, he may find himself baffled at its political machinery. Therese Winter, the author of the book, never questions the validity of Ludmila's ordination and the reader must read carefully between the lines to pick up on Javorova's frustations at times in dealing with Davidek.
Rating:
Summary: Inspiring and visually exciting
Review: Ludmila Javorova is a modern-day saint, not because she is a "woman priest", but because her story shows a woman of deep spirituality. She also gives us a lot of the details of her time under oppressive regimes: the dark rooms where the Christian faithful met, the sounds, the actions they had to take to avoid being discovered by the police. The story will really draw you in.
Rating:
Summary: The best book ever about women and priesthood
Review: Out of the Depths brings to a wholly new level the discussion of women as leaders in the church. As Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza demonstrated many years ago in In Memory of Her, there is evidence that in the early church, women had leadership roles that were later forbidden them. The beauty of Schussler Fiorenza's book is its careful use of historical sources. Its limitation is that, as she herself noted, we really don't have a lot of information about the church of that period, so it's hard to reconstruct exactly what happened. With Out of the Depths, we have a specific historical narrative of what one woman experienced as a Roman Catholic priest. If you read this book, you'll never again think "can women be priests one day?" or even "what was it like for women if they were priests?" This book shows that one woman was a priest, and it shows what it was like for her in a day to day way. It's exciting and fun to read, too.
Rating:
Summary: A treasure!
Review: This is a beautiful book! Ludmila Javorova was ordained in the underground Christian church in Czechoslovakia. A lot of people will buy the book because it discusses a bishop's ordination of a woman to the Roman Catholic priesthood. But it's not only about women's ordination. It's about one person's struggle to discern God's will for her life as she tries to minister to those around her -- those who are struggling in relationships, struggling with faith, struggling under political oppression. The book is really a meditation on what it means to have a vocation in difficult circumstances. I cannot recommend it highly enough. It's a treasure.
Rating: 
Summary: You can't argue about what really happened
Review: This story was moving because of the trials she had to overcome and the denial she had to face. She continues to serve in spite of the ignorance and the complete disregard of the facts of her story. It is amazing to me that her faith stays intact after the Church she has risked her life to serve denies her.
|
