Irish Ecumenical Priests risk dismissal from priesthood

I haven't been following this story particularly closely, but this caught my eye:

Priests face Vatican dismissal following ecumenical Mass

Three Augustinian priests who concelebrated Mass with a Church of Ireland clergyman on Easter Sunday could be dismissed from the priesthood by the Vatican.

Fr Iggy O'Donovan, Fr Noel Hession and Fr Richard Goode, prior of St Augustine's in Drogheda, invited Rev Michael Graham, the rector of St Peter's, Drogheda, to join them for the Mass.

The Catholic Church does not recognise the validity of Anglican orders and regards the Church of Ireland as an "ecclesial community" which is not a Church "in the proper sense".

Fr Paul Clayton-Lea, a spokesman for the archdiocese of Armagh, in which the Mass took place, said: "Inquiries are being carried out at the moment by Archbishop Sean Brady."

Because this involved a religious order, it makes it somewhat different to dealing with a diocesan event.

The final outcome would be a matter for the Augustinians.

"However, I don't think there will be any undue delay in the inquiry because this is clearly a matter of great public interest and concern."

The Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) - the Catholic Church's doctrinal watchdog - has exclusive powers to deal with "the concelebration of the Eucharistic sacrifice...with ministers of ecclesial communities which do not have apostolic succession and do not acknowledge the sacramental dignity of priestly ordination".

Read the rest.

So this in Levada's court.

Well, I've been thinking, we need a good nickname for Cardinal Levada now that he is the head of CDF.

Hmm, let's see, if Ratzinger was "God's Rottweiler" and we want to continue the canine theme ... how about "The Golden Retriever" for Levada?

"Golden" because of Levada's San Francisco origins (the Golden Gate bridge...) and "Retriever" because many people consider him to be a glorified messenger boy for the ex-head of CDF, Il Papa himself.

Huh? Dig it? Someone wanna bite? Does it have wings? :-P

If some brave soul wants to photoshop something together I'd be much obliged. ;-)

UPDATE: Jeff took a stab at it... take a look-see!

"That mallard had about as much of a chance as women's ordination."