Why I Believe in a Paradigm Shift
An Interview with Kathy Sullivan Vandenburg
(Ed. note: Ms. Vandenberg was “ordained” as a “womanpriest” in 2007 by a woman “bishop” who has already received official notice of excommunication from the Vatican. While sorrowful over her actions, Secretum Meum Mihi editor Kristen West McGuire asked her to explain the spirituality that led her to this move.)
Q. Tell me about your family of origin.
A. My father didn’t go to any church. But he had a great reverence for nature. My mother was a good mother--so supportive. She made sure I went to church and CCD on Sunday. We lived in rural Waukesha County. I would read and sit and think out in the back forty acres behind our home. I first became aware of God’s presence there.
Q. What was your religious education like?
A. I never went to Catholic school, so I wasn’t aware of the inside technicalities and subtle religious practices that students in Catholic schools had to deal with every day. CCD was a pleasant religious experience, taught by nuns. I don’t really remember my first communion.
Q. As a young mother after the Second Vatican Council, how did the changes strike you?
A. We had home Masses, and study groups of families. We realized that God wasn’t out there, but in our homes, on our living room tables. It didn’t have to be so rigid -- you could grow in spirituality without going to Church. I was involved in the parish council, and liturgy committee, and was very active in starting a preschool. I was a very good Catholic and I continue to be a very good Catholic. Before, it was very easy to be a Catholic; whatever Father said, you did. Through prayer, I learned I had to make my own decisions. Father doesn’t have all the answers, but God does. If you’re connected with God, God speaks to you. God is a nag! When I started prayer journaling, God would say to me, “Great things are coming, beyond your wildest expectations.” My best expectation at the time was to raise my children -- that remains my greatest accomplishment. That’s what I was called to do.
Q. What brought you to believe that you were being called to the priesthood?
A. I went to a Lutheran minister for counseling during my divorce. One day he asked, “What do you feel that God is calling you to?” And I responded, before I knew what I was saying, “God is calling me to ordained ministry.” Then he said, “I knew you were going to say that. You act just like the seminarians.” I knew there was something different within me. I told my spiritual director, and asked him, “What do you think I answered?” And he said, “You’re called to ordination in the Catholic Church. You act just like the men in the seminary act.” But then, what do you do? There weren’t any options for women then. So, I got a masters in counseling at University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.
Q. But you did go to seminary?
A. My decision to go to St. Francis Seminary was difficult. The whole time, people would ask me why I was there, and I told them, “Because I am going to be ordained.”
Q. When a woman becomes a nun, people see her as “married” to Jesus. When a man becomes a priest, people think of him as “married” to the Church. How do you view your “ordination” in that light?
A. (a long pause) I hadn’t thought about it that way before. I don’t see it as a marrying of the Church. This is a new paradigm. I guess I am learning how to be a “womanpriest”. I don’t expect to ever be in a parish-- my ministry is to the disenfranchised.
Q. Like me, many of my readers disagree with the recent step you took. How would you explain to them what you did?
A. It was “prophetic obedience”. After listening carefully to what God is saying,
checking it out with prayerful people, and reading scripture, I had to be obedient to what God wanted for me to do. I didn’t want to go as far as I have. They kill the prophets. They do…