Email this page
Print this page
del.icio.us
digg
FeedJane Via
Profile
BY DAY, JANE VIA is a deputy district attorney in San Diego. On Sundays, she wears a different hat——actually, it’s a robe. Via was ordained a priest in 2006, aboard a boat in international waters off Switzerland, Austria and Germany, by three female bishops (also ordained in secret). It’s all part of a movement known as Roman Catholic Womenpriests, and it aims to fundamentally transform the Catholic Church into a more inclusive, accepting religion.
“Radical inclusion characterized what Jesus did,” says Via. “He was very open toward women, included them among his followers and traveled with women who weren’t members of his family. It’s what got him into trouble with the religious authorities at the time.”
And it’s what may get Via into trouble with the religious authorities of our time. When she decided to pursue ordination, it was essentially her own brand of civil disobedience. But as a Catholic feminist, she felt she had little choice.
“I was born with a strong sense of justice and injustice,” she says, “and from very early childhood, it was clear to me who got the important roles in our society and in our church——men.” She’s not alone in wanting to change that. Though unsanctioned by the church, about 40 Catholic women have been ordained as priests since 2002, and more than 120 are in training for ordination, according to a recent New York Times story.
Via converted to Catholicism as a freshman at Purdue University and briefly considered becoming a nun, but instead went on to pursue a Ph.D. in theology and religious studies at Marquette, a Catholic university in Milwaukee. She came to San Diego in 1974 to teach New Testament studies at the University of San Diego, where she attended law school in the evenings. In 1985, Via became a deputy district attorney, all the while growing more and more disillusioned with the church.
She sees the Catholic Church’s lack of inclusiveness——whether it’s the Vatican’s steadfast posture against women priests or its intolerance of homosexuality, divorce and abortion——as patriarchal blindness. Over the past 1,500 years, she says, church leaders have developed a “professional insulation and ignorance” that is “inexcusable, given the power they wield and the authority they claim.”
On Sunday evenings, you can find Via leading Mass at the church she founded, Mary Magdalene Apostle Catholic Community, in a space provided by the Mission Hills United Methodist Church. In November 2005, when she was still a deacon, Via held her first service there with a male priest friend.
“We thought there would be 10 or 20 people,” she recalls. “We had 100.” Today, regular attendance fluctuates between 60 and 80.
Every time she leads a service, Via risks excommunication from a religion that has been a vital part of her life for the past 40 years. Despite the risk, Via says it’s an incredible privilege to lead and shape the religious experience of a community. She is committed to transforming Catholic ministry from something she says is based on “status, authority, power and money” to one based only on service. But it won’t be easy.
“This system is very strong, rigid, patriarchal and run by individuals who benefit from it being that way. Changing it would deprive them of the benefits they currently experience,” she says. “And that means there’s really no incentive for them to change.”
Do you like what you read? Subscribe to San Diego Magazine »
