Janice Sevre Duszynska, Witness for Women Priests and Gospel Equality at Vatican/Conclave

We in Roman Catholic Women Priests Worldwide and  our entire Church, at this historic time,
have reason to be grateful for the continued prophetic witnessing to justice issues that
Janice Sevre Duzynska brings everywhere she goes. Her current issue?
The ordination of women in the Roman Catholic Church.

Janice Sevre-Duszynska at Vatican on March 7, 2013

I recall an account when, some years ago, she vested in a black alb
and prostrated herself on the ground where US Bishops were gathering
for an annual meeting. They could not miss her message as they had to step on her
if they did not step around her. In her body and her posture she signified the condition
of women in the Roman Catholic Church whose calling to priesthood will not be heard
by those who insist on an absolute "NO" to even discussing the issue.

But this past Thursday, March 7, 2013 Janice was temporarily detained by Italian police
for demonstrating in her ongoing petitions for the ordination of women . This time, she
demonstrated in St. Peter's Square  fully vested in her white alb and green stole.
The difference now is that she is a Roman Catholic Woman Priest validly though illicitly
ordained. The reality is that no one can undo her ordination or ours in Roman Catholic Women Priests.
We are here and we invite women to consider ordination as a reality now unfolding.

We invite the Roman Curia to seriously re-consider their views regarding the impossibility of women's ordination.
Because these are deeply misogynist and speak to the sin of sexism, the call is to a conversional experience. As well we are ordained into a model of prieshood  oriented to a non- clerical culture that includes all the People of God
 in discipleship of equals communities. Such communities were  implied already in the Second Vatican Council. and many
people have embraced such ways of worship in the interim  years until now.

In conclusion, for me it is heartening to see Janice and other Roman Catholic Women Priests, as well as women from
World Ordination Conference  and men, such as Father  Roy Bourgeois, standing in solidarity with us and with other reform groups present. In one photo, Janice blesses all in a gesture of peace, the peace sign familiar worldwide and begun for protesting the
injustices of the Viet Nam war.

 To link this well known sign to the injustice of the denial of ordination to Roman Catholic Women opens wells of meaning that merit deep consideration on the part of all willing to engage overall justice within the Roman Catholic Church itself.

Rev. Dr. Michele Birch-Conery
Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests
Nanaimo. BC
Canada