360 Vision - The Rebellion

This story features exclusive footage of the first Roman Catholic ordination of women in a church in Canada.Answering the call

360 Vision exclusive: an Ontario woman defies the Vatican's ban on female priests

Documentary report is 360 Vision's final episode

Irene Deshenes is going to a place that terrifies her - a place she wanted never to see again. She is going to church.

As a 10-year-old girl growing up in Chatham, Ont., Deshenes was sexually abused by her priest. She was just one of his many young victims. To this day, entering a church triggers terrible memories.

Why is she going now? Because of Marie Evans Bouclin, a Sudbury, Ont. woman who has chosen to defy the Vatican and seek ordination as a Roman Catholic priest.

In an exclusive report, VisionTV's Gemini Award-nominated current affairs series 360 Vision finds out why Bouclin's decision alarms the Catholic hierarchy - and why it gives hope to women like Deshenes.

The program airs on Wednesday, May 30 at 10 p.m. ET, and repeats on Monday, June 4 at 8:30 p.m. ET.

This will be the final edition of 360 Vision. The acclaimed series is wrapping production after five seasons on VisionTV.

Roman Catholic women are increasingly pushing back against the Church's ban on female priests. In 2002, seven women were ordained, only to be excommunicated by Rome. Three later became bishops.

"There is a shortage of priests," Bouclin tells 360 Vision's Kevin O'Keefe. "Women feel called. If the spirit is calling women, why is the hierarchy not listening?"

Bouclin, a former nun, studied theology after leaving the convent, and has written extensively on the abuse of women by clergy. Once ordained, she plans to minister to abused women like Deshenes, who would never feel able to seek counsel from a male priest.

The site of Bouclin's ordination is a United Church in Toronto. Despite her trepidation, Deshenes believes it is important to be there. "I've missed too many weddings and baptisms and funerals as a result of the abuse," she tells O'Keefe. "I don't want to be a victim anymore."

For five seasons, 360 Vision has been the only weekly Canadian television program dedicated to probing the intersection of spirituality and daily events.

Sadia Zaman, Executive Producer, says the show's production team has reason to feel proud. "I have never worked with a more talented, more committed and more professional group," she says. "To oversee these gifted journalists as they have poured their hearts into creating the best possible program has been a great privilege."

Says Senior Producer John Scully: "This team had the courage to take risks, to tell stories that other programs would not take on and reveal truths that people did not always want to hear. I believe that 360 Vision has set a lasting standard for reporting on faith and spirituality in Canada."

For more news and information on 360 Vision, please visit www.visiontv.ca.

Executive Producer: Sadia Zaman
Senior Producer: John Scully

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• 360
• Vision
• spirituality
• ordination
• roman
• catholic
• exclusive
• Bouclin

[thephonographsniper]

For your information, women cannot be ordained, thus any suggestion of women being ordained is incorrect. This isn't chauvinism. This is the law of the church, as handed down from the disciples, and helps to make it holy, and serve for the greater sanctification and glory of God.

[patboyuk]

Wow, throughout history the church directed the most crimes against humanity. Look at the crusades, inquisitions, and the holocausts. Millions of innocent people were tortured, raped, and killed by the followers of the church. It is terrible they rape and exploit their own as well as others. WHAT ABOUT THE OTHER MILLIONS OF PEOPLE THE CHURCH FOLLOWERS RAPED AND HURT? Do you think child molestation among church officials is something NEW? Is it only a big deal only when i happens to their own?

[jaja63040]

i believe women have just as much right to be ordained as men do. seeing the earlier comment with 6 thumbs up makes me very sad. fyi, i'm the 1 thumbs down. i bet this is the vatican's way of getting back at california's lift on the ban on gay marriage.