Out of the Depths: The Story of Ludmila Javarova, Ordained Roman Catholic Priest [Hardcover]

Miriam Therese Winter (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 2001

Miriam Therese Winter traveled to the Czech Republic to interview Ludmila Javorova, a courageous woman ordained in the Roman Catholic underground church in 1970. Out of the Depths is based on exclusive interviews with Javorova and tells her life story.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

"If we wait for a man to approve this, it will never happen, so we must go ahead without it." Felix Davidek spoke these urgent words in 1970 before secretly ordaining Ludmila Javorova, his trusted aide and a woman, as a Roman Catholic priest in Czechoslovakia's underground church. Winter, a Medical Mission Sister in the United States, tells Javorova's full story for the first time in this compelling chronicle of the Koinotes, the fellowship that Davidek, in partnership with Javorova, formed in the 1960s while Czechoslovakia was under harsh Communist rule. Winter's account of Koinotes is disjointed and clumsy in places, but its essential facts are so intriguing as to cover even a multitude of literary sins. Though told in Javorova's voice, the story reaches beyond her extraordinary ordination to embrace the man who made it possible: Davidek, the passion-filled priest who was consecrated a bishop in the underground church in 1967. Davidek died in 1988, before the fall of Communism in 1989 and before his protge's clandestine ordination became widely known. Although she is barred by the Vatican from functioning as a priest, Javorova has emerged as a heroine of the women's ordination movement, particularly in the American Catholic Church. Proponents of the cause will applaud her courage, and even opponents will find it difficult to not be impressed with her spirituality and humility.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

A Medical Mission Sister, Winter (liturgy and feminist studies, Hartford Seminary; The Gospel According to Mary) writes on Czech-born Ludmila Javorova (b. 1932), a Catholic who ministered to the underground church in Czechoslovakia under communism. During the long, complex process of spiritual survival, Javorova was ordained in December 1970 by a friend of her family, Bishop Felix Davidek (1921-88), himself clandestinely consecrated. A scholar and physician, he served a large hidden network of believers, despite his imprisonments and illnesses, and ordained several unnamed women and some married men. The book combines Winter's own commentary, lengthy texts from her taped interviews with Javorova, and the story of controversial Bishop Davidek. An official Vatican statement in February 2000 declared the ordinations invalid while compassionately recognizing the severe circumstances under which they occurred. The humble Javorova never celebrated mass publicly and accepts official church teaching. This informative personal record of suppression of basic human rights is recommended for academic and public libraries. Anna M. Donnelly, St. John's Univ. Lib., NY
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: The Crossroad Publishing Company; First Edition first Printing edition (June 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0824518896
• ISBN-13: 978-0824518899
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,414,496 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great story, could have been more in "depth", April 18, 2002

By 

K. Jefferson "baseball and music lover" (Massachusetts) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Out of the Depths: The Story of Ludmila Javarova, Ordained Roman Catholic Priest (Hardcover)

When I first heard about Rev. Javorova, I was anxious to hear her story. So naturally I bought this book as soon as it came out. I give it high marks simply for being the first account of this historic event, and I recommend it highly for that reason. But in many respects, I was disappointed with the book. I looked forward to, but did not get, an account of Ludmila's sense of "calling"; I don't know if Ms. Winter didn't ask about it, asked but didn't write about it, or if Rev. Javorova declined to answer. But this issue to me is central to defending the validity of this ordination. I also felt that I was reading two different accounts: One was what would be expected from a biographical account: the writer's narration, based upon and peppered with Rev. Javorova's own words. The other was more like a diary: paragraph after paragraph of direct quotation from Rev. Javorova. I guess the bottom line is that I just wasn't crazy about the manner in which Ms. Winter put this together.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Out from under Felix Davidek, January 21, 2002

By 

slovakgirl5 (Cleveland, Ohio USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Out of the Depths: The Story of Ludmila Javarova, Ordained Roman Catholic Priest (Hardcover)

I had high hopes in starting out in reading this work. Interested in all-things-Slovak and how Czechoslovakia functioned under communism, I expected this book to be a credible account of Ludmila Javorova's priestly ordination. Instead, I am sad to admit, I've come away thinking that Javorova was the unfortunate victim of a spurned megalomaniac. I hesitate to use such strong and disrespectful language, but after reading Javorova's story (which could be titled "The misadventures of "Bishop" Felix Davidek"), I, too, wonder about the validity of her priestly 'ordination.' Not that Javorova wasn't sincere in her faith: she desired to begin her religious vocation at age 15 but in 1947, Czechoslovakia was poised to become "liberated" by the Soviet armed forces. Father Felix Davidek, 11 years her senior, was arrested by Soviet authorities for continuing with clandestine religious activities. After his release from prison in 1964, he looked up Javorova, a neighbor and family friend from their native Brno and enlisted her help in ensuring the survival of the underground church in Czechoslovakia. Together, they established and ran Koinotes, a Catholic fellowship group out of which Davidek secretly recruited and educated men for priesthood in the Catholic Church. Once Davidek pushed his agenda for the ordination of women, though, Koinotes splintered and he lost much of his power and influence in the underground church. It is after this that Davidek's behavior began to border on the bizarre and his ever-increasing demands on Ludmila just more evidence of his deteriorating mental health. By 1970, when he insisted on ordaining her into the priesthood, Javorova felt that they were 'rushing' things. His controlling demands on her time eventually took their toll and she suffered from exhaustion and fell seriously ill. This did not diminish Davidek's demands on her and both of their reputations suffered irrevocably. In 1976, the Vatican officially ordered Davidek to stop his "work" as a Bishop in the Church and declared his ordinations and consecrations invalid. He refused to cease functioning as a bishop and a few years later, Ludmila finally succeeds in making a clean break with Davidek. Sour grapes again, Davidek engaged in some very un-Christian meanspirited actions against her. When he falls ill a few years later, Ludmila extends forgiveness toward him and nurses him until his death in 1988. Out of the depths is written well enough and proceeds in a chronological order. If the reader is not familiar with the hierarchy and politics of the Roman Catholic Church, he may find himself baffled at its political machinery. Therese Winter, the author of the book, never questions the validity of Ludmila's ordination and the reader must read carefully between the lines to pick up on Javorova's frustations at times in dealing with Davidek.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best book ever about women and priesthood, May 24, 2001

By 

Krista Buchman (Portland Oregon) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Out of the Depths: The Story of Ludmila Javarova, Ordained Roman Catholic Priest (Hardcover)

Out of the Depths brings to a wholly new level the discussion of women as leaders in the church. As Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza demonstrated many years ago in In Memory of Her, there is evidence that in the early church, women had leadership roles that were later forbidden them. The beauty of Schussler Fiorenza's book is its careful use of historical sources. Its limitation is that, as she herself noted, we really don't have a lot of information about the church of that period, so it's hard to reconstruct exactly what happened. With Out of the Depths, we have a specific historical narrative of what one woman experienced as a Roman Catholic priest. If you read this book, you'll never again think "can women be priests one day?" or even "what was it like for women if they were priests?" This book shows that one woman was a priest, and it shows what it was like for her in a day to day way. It's exciting and fun to read, too.