As faulty as Laurie Goodstein's article was last week, the offering from Dirk Johnson (Sun., 7/31/11) doesn't fare much better. Johnson's one-sided piece omits a number of important facts in reporting the issue.

Johnson's article is essentially a positive profile of a dissident, Chicago-based group named Call to Action (CTA). In the name of "reform," for the last several years CTA has been attempting to push the cause for female "priests" in the Catholic Church. It has forcefully supported a schismatic priest, Fr. Roy Bourgeois, from the Maryknoll Order, who has openly opposed Church teaching and supported female "priests."

Johnson's article leaves out a number of important facts:

1. In reporting the dissident Fr. Bourgeois' conflicts with Church authorities, Johnson makes no mention of the fact that the priest was reportedly excommunicated from the Catholic Church on November 24, 2008. (Goodstein made a similar mistake last week.)

2. Johnson makes no attempt to explain that Holy Orders, by which men are ordained to the priesthood, is a sacrament in the Catholic Church. This is an important distinction. Most Protestant denominations and other "churches" don't recognize this. The Catholic Church affirms that sacraments were instituted by Jesus Himself, and the Church simply "has no authority whatsoever" to change the nature of something that Jesus established. (See Pope John Paul II's 1994 "Ordinatio Sacerdotalis.")

As with Goodstein a week earlier, Johnson attempts to portray Call to Action and the movement for "womenpriests" as being much larger and influential than it is. As we relayed last week, the "womenpriest" movement is a contingent that is small, geriatric, and schismatic.

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As slanted as Johnson's profile is, an ugly piece on the same issue by Michele Somerville at Huffington Post may be even worse. While committing many of the same mistakes as the NYT's Goodstein and Johnson, Somerville actually characterizes the Pope and those who surround him as a "gang of mean, power-drunk perverts who aren't all that interested in God." Wow …

Somerville then goes on to falsely claim that the impossibility of female ordination in the Catholic Church is "arbitrary and flimsy, it's a variation on 'because we said so.'"

In claiming that the all-male priesthood "is a man-made 'law'," Somerville illustrates perfectly that one can write for HuffPostReligion without actually knowing much about religion.

Interestingly, Ms. Somerville identifies herself as a poet.

Amen to that.

Unfortunately, Goodstein's record only gets worse after another faulty and misleading front-page article (Sat., 7/23/11).

In attempting to trumpet the case for "female priests" in the Catholic Church, Goodstein and the Times profile a small number of dissident and ignorant Catholics who seek "change" in the 2,000-year-old institution. And in doing so, Goodstein misleads her readers in a number of ways:

1. Goodstein gives false the impression that the loopy Fr. Roy Bourgeois, a well-known dissenter and advocate for "womenpriests," has yet to be excommunicated from the Catholic Church. In fact, Bourgeois openly acknowledged to the Catholic News Service in 2009 that he had already been excommunicated on November 24, 2008, and that his order confirmed his excommunication. (Even Laurie's friends at the Boston Globe have recognized this.)

2. Goodstein reports that "Church experts" (who remain unidentified, of course) think it is "surprising" that 157 priests signed a statement in support of the wacky Fr. Bourgeois. Well, considering the fact that there are 410,593 Catholic priests in the world, 157 is not very impressive. (If my math is correct, that is .00038 (or 0.038%) of all Catholic priests.)

3. Goodstein briefly mentions Pope John Paul II's 1994 apostolic letter, Ordinatio Sacerdotalis, which further declares the impossibility of women in the priesthood. However, Goodstein misleads her audience by failing to mention that Holy Orders, by which men are ordained as priests, is a sacrament in the Catholic Church. Many Protestant denominations and other "churches" do not recognize this, and this is an important distinction. The issue of "female priests" will never be "up for a vote" when "another Pope" comes along. It just won't happen, no matter how many articles Goodstein writes. (By the way, Paul reminds readers (in 1 Cor 12, Rom 12:4-8) that the priesthood is about role in the Church; it is not about "power" or "sexism," as Goodstein and advocates of "womenpriests" often state.)

4. Goodstein quotes an Australian priest to imply that "the shortage of priests" necessitates that women fill the role. In fact, while it is true that the numbers of priests in North America, Europe, and Oceania have been decreasing, the number of Catholic priests worldwide has been steadily increasing. There were 5,000 more Catholic priests in the world in 2009 than there were in 1999, according to a recent Vatican report.

The bottom line: These women who dress up as Catholic priests are as genuine as children who dress up on Halloween claiming they are Superman. This is a contingent that is small, geriatric, and schismatic. The Times is pretending to trumpet it as being larger and more influential than it is.

A far more interesting – and far more useful – article from Goodstein would have been relaying how these dopey advocates of "womenpriests" became so ignorant and dissident in the first place.

For the second time in two weeks, Time has published an article trumpeting women who are pretending to be genuine Catholic priests. As we noted last week, Dawn Reiss was the culprit in a flimsy piece. Now the bleary-eyed Tim Padgett is in on the act.

There's little that separates the two articles, except Padgett accidently pulls the cover off the real agenda at play for these renegade women. The truth is that these so-called "Catholics" aren't very Catholic at all. Padgett notes:

The Womenpriests use a liturgy that stresses gender neutrality ("In the name of God our Father and Mother …"), and they don't toe the Vatican line against birth control and abortion, endorsing instead the Catholic tenet of informed individual conscience. They also favor the kind of new-age, Mother Earth music that can grate on even progressive Catholics.

Oy.

Like Reiss, Padgett fails to note that the ordination of women in the Catholic Church is simply not a possibility. Like Reiss, Padgett makes no mention of John Paul II's 1994 Ordinatio Sacerdotalis, which reiterated the Church's assertion that it simply does not have the authority to change the nature of sacraments, which Christ himself instituted. The issue will never be "up for a vote."

Yet according to a truly warped article by Dawn Reiss in Time magazine (9/25/10), it's already happened. In fact, "three women have entered the priesthood" in the Chicago area alone, says Reiss.

Is this true? Is Alta Jacko (rhymes with "wacko"), "the mother of eight children" whom Reiss profiles, really "an ordained priest in the Roman Catholic Church"? No. Jacko is as much a Catholic priest as she is the Vice President of the United States.

But Weiss' falsehoods don't end there.

Weiss asserts that "Biblical passages refer to female clergy." Uhh … No, they don't. Weiss advances the common feminist gobbledegook that a reference to a possible "Junia" in Romans 16:7 signifies women "clergy" in the early Church. (For clarification on this passage, read this and this.)

Then there's the laughable photo and caption that accompanies Weiss' piece. The caption in part reads, "Alta Jacko’s ordination to be a deaconate on Nov. 1, 2008." As Mollie Ziegler at the GetReligion blog smartly pointed out, "[Weiss] managed to not just misuse the word diaconate but misspell it, too." D'oh!

Most notably, however, Weiss misleads her audience by giving readers the false impression that the issue of "women ordination" is simply a case of "waiting it out" until another Pope comes along and "changes policy." Although Weiss and others may wish otherwise, this will never happen. The issue is will never be "up for a vote."

In the Catholic Church, the ordination of priests occurs through Holy Orders, a sacrament. The Church maintains that sacraments were instituted by Christ himself. As Pope John Paul II reiterated in his 1994 letter Ordinatio Sacerdotalis, the Church simply does not have the authority to change the nature of something that Christ instituted. The authority in this matter is not a Pope or anyone else; the authority is Christ. Indeed, "this judgment is to be definitively held by all the Church's faithful," as Pope John Paul II wrote.

Take the sacrament of baptism. The very nature of the sacrament requires that the individual be baptized with water. The Church could not decide tomorrow to baptize with orange juice. Baptisms are done with water. In the same manner, Jesus chose only men to be his apostles, and the Church guards what it believes to be a visible sign of God's grace.

The Church also asserts that the priesthood is about role, not power. In his Letter to the Romans (Rom. 12:4-8) and his First Letter to the Corinthians (1 Cor 7 (all)), Paul teaches readers about roles in the Church.

Although it may seem uncharitable to say, Weiss' article is simply bad, bad journalism.

It. Will. Not. Happen.

This is not a case of Pope Benedict XVI being "inflexible," as NBC's Today show erroneously claimed this morning (9/16/10) in reporting about the Holy Father's high-profile trip to England. NBC needs to know that this is not a case of "waiting it out" until another Pope comes along and "changes policy." The issue will never be "up for a vote."

In the Catholic Church, the ordination of priests occurs through Holy Orders, a sacrament. The Church maintains that sacraments were instituted by Christ himself. As Pope John Paul II reiterated in his 1994 letter Ordinatio Sacerdotalis, the Church simply does not have the authority to change the nature of something that Christ instituted. The authority in this matter can never be a Pope or anyone else; the authority is Christ. Indeed, "this judgment is to be definitively held by all the Church's faithful," as Pope John Paul II wrote.

Take the sacrament of baptism. The very nature of the sacrament requires that the individual be baptized with water. The Church could not decide tomorrow to baptize with orange juice. Baptisms are done with water. In the same manner, Jesus chose only men to be his apostles, and the Church guards what it believes to be a visible sign of God's grace.

The Church also asserts that the priesthood is about role, not power. In his Letter to the Romans (Rom. 12:4-8) and his First Letter to the Corinthians (1 Cor 7 (all)), Paul teaches about roles in the Church.

Although it may seem uncharitable and/or unkind to say, the protesters waving signs and screaming for the "ordination of women" (like those seen in England this week) are simply unknowledgeable of their faith.

But I can't imagine the Today show reporting that!

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Dave Pierre is the author of the heralded new book, Double Standard: Abuse Scandals and the Attack on the Catholic Church.