Bridget Mary Meehan ARCWP -Presiding at Eucharistic Liturgy
On Thursday, October 18, 2024, the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests ordained six 4 women and 2 transgender persons on the Tiber as a prophetic witness that gender equality in ordained ministries is a reality now. Our movement, whichI call a holy shakeup, is a spiritual revolution that is bringing new life and inclusivity to the Roman Catholic Church was covered by international media from France, Germany, Austria, Spain, Italy and the United States.
So, it should come as no surprise that Mary Theresa Streck and I were stopped by the Roman Police and Vatican guards as we entered St. Peter’s Square for the Canonization Mass of eleven martyrs on the following Sunday. A security guard approached me and said: Are you Bridget Mary Meehan? Suddenly, we were surrounded by several guards with badges, some of whom, werein uniforms. They asked for our passportsand examined our bags. WE noticed that no one else was detained. They did not ask us any questions and assured us sometimes they do enhanced checks. I noticed that one official in the group was speaking to someone on the telephone. I wondered who he was speaking to and what was being said!.Finally, after about 25 minutes, one of the security guards escorted us to our seats.Obviously, someone approved of our attendance and the canonization liturgy was beautiful. In the end, we enjoyed seeing Pope Francis riding around the Square in his pope mobile!
On Friday, we gathered at the Jesuit center in Rome for a book signing of Rev. Jim Martin’s new book, Lazarus, Come Forth. I asked Fr. Jim if he would share our request for a conversation in the Spirit with Pope Francis in the coming Jubilee Year. He assured me that he would do so and asked that I send a formal request directly to the Pope which we did.
While Pope Francis is not comfortable ordaining women as deacons, the Synod on Synodality voted by a two-thirds majority to keep the ordination of women deacons on the table for ongoing discernment. In their words: “the question of women’s access to diaconal ministry remains open. This discernment needs to continue.”
The synod calls for greater involvement of women in the church, in decision-making. “There is no reason or impediment that should prevent women from carrying out leadership roles in the Church,” …what comes from the Holy Spirit cannot be stopped.”
And this is where I stand in faith, hope and love!
Indeed, nothing will stop the global movement toward gender equity-including ourmovement for gender equality in ordained ministries. We are walking in the footsteps of Rabbi Jesus who invited everyone to an open table of outpouring of love for all people and all creation.
I believe that what has been missing in the discernment process on women deacons is a conversation in the Spirit with Roman Catholic Women Priests on our 22 years of ministerial experience in fostering a church in which all are welcome to receive and celebrate sacraments including the divorced and remarried and LGBTQ+. We have grown from 7 to over 270 ordained ministers who are serving people-empowered, non-clerical sacramental communities of equals in 14 countriesaround the world.
Our holy shakeup is a spiritual revolution, that is building builds bridges of compassion and reconciliation by making connections between hurting hearts and broken spirits at the disengaged edges of Catholicism to create what Pope Francis calls a “church for everyone.”
We are prophets of the future engaged in the work of justice, equality, and evolutionary openness to growth.
Prophetic leader Sun Kyi’s advices that in the face of complex circumstances and injustices to:
“Don’t just stand there despairing, She says, do something!”
Just start somewhere!
This is what we are doing- making a path by walking it now, assured that “what comes from the Holy Spirit cannot be stopped!”
May God bless and keep us.
May God’s face shine upon us and be gracious to us
May God give us peace, justice and equality everywhere!
Link to Roman Catholic Women Priests in Rome- Media Coverage
From right to left, Christina Moreira ARCWP, Mary Theresa Streck ARCWP and Bridget Mary Meehan ARCWP in Rome 2023 Casa Bonus Pastor, (Diocese of Rome Seminary Residence)
A pair of small birds, male and female, busily hunt for tiny insects hiding in the bark of a tree. The male approaches the female, food in beak, and offers it to her. She eats.
White-breasted Nuthatch Pair
What drives one small bird to ensure the well-being of the other? Where does that instinct come from? Somehow, in some part of his tiny being, does he know that the eggs developing in her body will carry something of his very self into the future? Does he know that for their species to survive, she must survive and thrive?
For one to survive, so must the other. These two little beings are a mutual configuration, a pair. They are partners in a project called Life. Is this love?
A vast network of the gossamer threads called mycelium spreads through the soil of the forest. These root-like structures are the underground parts of fungi that occasionally send up fruits which we see above-ground as mushrooms. Many mycelia interweave with the tiny rootlets of trees. There, underground, these fungi feed the tree nutrients which they have collected from the soil. They also pass water to the tree. And in return, the tree feeds the fungi carbohydrates, which it has made through photosynthesis, and which the fungi lack the capacity to produce on their own.
One large being helping another. On some unknown level do they know that for each to live a healthier life so must the other? Is this love?….
Praised be You, my Lord, through our sister Mother Earth, who sustains and governs us and produces various fruits with colorful flowers and herbs. —St. Francis of Assisi, “Canticle of the Creatures.”
This philosopher and theologian, trained at the Instituto Teológico Compostelano and the Pontifical University of Salamanca, has spent more than three decades structuring the theoretical corpus that he himself has defined as “eco-spirituality” or “eco-theology”, a path in which he has drawn on figures from the Christian tradition as well as scientists and humanist thinkers to make an ecological reading of religious texts, but also to unite science and mysticism as a palliative path to the environmental disaster that the world is facing.
It is a word composed of the words ecology —although I actually prefer the word ecosophy— and spirituality. It arises from the moment you aspire to put the feeling of caring for the earth in contact with what spirituality attempts, which is to develop the human being in a close relationship with God, called to be with Him; as Saint Augustine already said, “You made us for yourself, Lord.” It is a spirituality that develops the human being with the awareness that he is earth, that we are with everything, we are not something apart; sometimes in spirituality the human being is superior, he has to become spiritualized. When we talk about ecology, we are not only talking about caring for nature; there is a cosmic dimension, that is, much higher, and it has to do with everything that is being human, the material and the spiritual.
Eco-spirituality helps me to have an idea of God that is more in line with what He really is, because that despotic, arbitrary, murderous God who sends evil does not exist, or at least He is not the God of Jesus; He was invented by the dominating patriarchy. On top of that, look at the absurdity of theology in thinking that God is masculine, when God is both mother and father—I remember a student walking out of my class at a Franciscan university in Bogotá when I said that. God cannot be the old man with a white beard. Eco-theology helps us to discover these lies that we have believed and to get closer to the reality of God.
You talk about reading the Bible in an ecological sense. Where do we find this interpretation?
When one reads the Bible in an ecological sense, it is fascinating. There are the psalms, which are wonderful poetry and are full of authentic hymns to creation. At the beginning of the Bible, Paradise is mentioned, but a poor interpretation led to it being underestimated, to thinking only of Adam and Eve and the apple. The first two chapters of Genesis are extremely wise. To begin with, the biblical author knew perfectly well that there was no man called Adam and no woman called Eve. Adam is a Hebrew word that means “earth,” that is, it means “coming out of the earth,” and Eve, “from the rib.” They are symbolic names that are expressing what the Earthly Paradise is: a world in total harmony with creatures. And what happened to the Earthly Paradise? Well, the rupture, the division of the human being, which begins precisely with hatred or fear of sex: that is the rupture of harmony.
Ecology speaks of the harmony that must exist between the Earth and the cosmos, between human beings and nature. That is the beginning of the Bible, and when one knows how to read in an ecological sense, one notices that in Deuteronomy, for example, when the people are going to enter the Promised Land, God gives them the rules for living there—which, when broken, cause them to lose harmony with nature and perish—sin is the breaking of harmony with nature. There is another beautiful text from Isaiah that speaks of when the tyrant falls and even the trees sing of that fall, because the woodcutter will no longer cut them down for weapons of war, that is, our brother forest is suffering from human violence.
You also talk about a green Jesus…
If we jump to the New Testament, Jesus, as I have written several times, was an ecologist, a man who lived in harmony, who did not overexploit the land; he was a carpenter and, therefore, he had to cut down trees to obtain wood, but one thing is cutting down trees and maintaining the balance of the forest in order to live with dignity, and another thing is the predatory capitalist spirit. A logging company does not just want to cut down a few trees in order to live with dignity: what it wants is to earn more and more, and “if I destroy the forest, I don’t care.” The spirit of Jesus is exactly the opposite of that and that is why he is always using rural images, of the seasons or of the harvest. Jesus’ parables constantly use elements of nature: the wheat that sprouts, the fig tree that is cared for so that it produces. Jesus’ culture is tremendously rural, and the man and woman of the countryside are people who truly love the land. When Jesus speaks of the Father’s care, he is telling us: “Look how the birds are not aware of themselves; However, his beauty leaves us absorbed; look at the beauty of the grass of the field that grows and tomorrow it is reaped, enjoy that presence”, this tells us that he was a man with his feet on the ground; he was not an abstract Greek philosopher, he was one of very concrete discourses.
When do you think this message was distorted?
The Enlightenment and scientific and technical thought have exacerbated the domination over nature. For many, Descartes is the father of contemporary thought. I have read Discourse on Method many times , I have read Descartes in depth in French and I think I am anti-Cartesian: Descartes is the thought of domination over nature. That is why his typical phrase, “man is the master and possessor of nature”, implies that nature is at his service and from there arises the creation of the machine and the technique to dominate it. However, this rupture has been there from the beginning, since Alexander the Great or in the Roman Empire, but the Christians who were first persecuted by the Empire later blessed it, and it continued to crush the barbarians with the blessing of the popes of Rome. Unfortunately it has always been like this.
And the cross was also used in the conquests of the New Continent…
Obviously, with the Renaissance and the conquests, the search for more wealth, which is destruction, of course. That means that the Master's message, the original message of the Bible, was quickly corrupted. Already in the first centuries of the Church, the corruption of Christianity began: in the Acts of the Apostles we find people who wanted to take advantage of the community. I like history and every time I go to a place, it is always the same: ruins. This means that some have tried to build and then others have destroyed. We have all heard about Jericho, which was such an incredibly fertile space, surrounded by desert. All civilizations wanted to dominate Jericho. So what is Jericho? Layer upon layer, destruction. That violent, predatory and dominating spirit is there. Domination means oppression, what I oppress will oppress me, that is always the case.
“I published my first book on ecology almost 30 years ago — Ecologism and Christianity (Sal Terræ, 1999) — so I have been thinking about this for some time. Today, the text of Jesus in the desert is not usually read in this way, and look how wonderful: Jesus is in harmony with the harshness of the desert and that is why he can remain there for all that time, because the elements are not against him. One imagines Jesus like these Hindu sages in the lotus position and able to spend days or weeks without moving and even without needing to drink. For me, this text is the expression of the cosmic and natural harmony that Jesus had,” he explains.
Your first great reference in this idea was Saint Francis of Assisi. How do you get to him?
St. Francis was such a seductive figure that he was canonized a few years after his death. He knew how to live and recover that broken harmony with nature. His contemporaries say that he cried when contemplating nature. It was not a pose: he was able to write not only a cosmic and mystical hymn, but a literary piece of magnificent size. The “ Canticle of the Creatures” is at the birth of the Italian language, which is why it is so valued: the Romance languages were just beginning, but were still a corruption of Latin. The poem is born from his experience of the harmony between the earth and the cosmos. That is why I say that St. Francis is not only the patron saint of ecologists, but he is also their father.
And what about the cases of St. John of the Cross and Teilhard de Chardin?
Saint John is a tremendously ecological man. There are anecdotes told by his disciples and when one reads the “Spiritual Canticle” in an ecological key, one sees how everything fits together: the delicate care, the flowers to be seen, not to be plucked: “I will neither pick the flowers nor fear the beasts. And I will cross the forts and borders,” he writes. From him we learn a balance between the earth and the cosmos. Teilhard de Chardin is really the pinnacle, above all because he wrote and reflected on it much more; he speaks of the fact that matter is beautiful, that we are children of the earth, and that, if you are able to communicate with God, it is thanks to matter. It is the maximum mystical expression of the communion between spirit and matter, between God and the creature.
Part of his interest is to find the parallels between science and mysticism. For him, there are even scientific clues in sacred books and in the centuries-old statements of St. Francis of Assisi or St. John of the Cross, or what the Eastern mystics were already saying is what physicists are now concluding. “We are one with the cosmos, with the earth, we are not here to dominate, but to care, and sin against the earth always turns against us, which is what Deuteronomy says: 'If you do not comply with these laws, you will die', and the laws are to maintain balance and care for the earth: do not be a predator, be a gardener,” he says.
Science has told us over the last 20 or 30 years that the world works as a system, and that what we do at one latitude of the planet will have repercussions elsewhere, a bit like the Butterfly Effect. What is the relationship between eco-spirituality and the scientific and conservationist vision?
My book begins by talking about the science of complexity, which is born from quantum physics, which goes back to an old physics that goes back to Albert Einstein. The great Einstein, when he spoke with Max Planck, said: “This is madness. God does not play dice.” But quantum physics says: “Yes, God does play dice.” Edgar Morin says: “The world is a chaosmos , a chaocosmos .” And how is it maintained? Precisely because of a harmony that is never broken by disharmony. The physics of complexity speaks of the interrelation of everything with everything else. The most important thing that science has discovered is the relational reality of the cosmos: that matter, rather than corpuscles, is packets of waves in motion.
So how do you get to mysticism through science?
There is a book by my teacher Panikkar in collaboration with the director of the Max Planck Institute in Munich, Hans Peter Dürr, entitled Love, the original source of the universe . It was written by an agnostic physicist and a Christian theologian, and both agree on the title, that is, the origin of the universe is love or the search for harmony. I am not a supporter of creatio ex nihilo —that which is created from nothing—, but of creatio continua —the continuous creative activity of God. The Bible does not say that God made the world from nothing; what it says is that God, from chaos, made cosmos, separated light from darkness. This awareness is, to a certain extent, what physics defends most today. Advancing through the philosophy of Edgar Morin's complex thought and the relational thought of Panikkar has allowed me to walk through religions, then through the Bible and through Christian theology, to arrive at mysticism. Science and mysticism are intimately linked, they are saying the same thing. That is why I start from the branches, I start from the material and from reality; I am not a theologian who is inventing a discourse, but I use other thinkers; we walk on the shoulders of giants, which is a brilliant expression from the Middle Ages, that is why we can see further.
It's interesting that you talked about enlightenment and humanism earlier, because another very interesting idea also emerged at that time, that of the noble savage, by Rousseau, who claims that as a society we have lost certain values, but it is the native peoples who have preserved them. You have said that, as a civilization, the Mayans and the Aztecs ended up destroying themselves. In Mexico, there are those who see them as idyllic societies.
A colleague of yours told me that there were the Mayans, that they were an ecological culture. And yes, but do you know how the Mayans ended up? We have a lot to learn from these pre-Columbian cultures and from the concept of Pachamama, for example. But at the same time we must be critical, as with Christianity, which is the most sublime message of the centuries – critical, not of Christ, but of Christianity and the Church. We must also be critical of other cultures, before and after; that is the past, which was idyllic, as you said about Rousseau. Cavemen were beasts with women. Patriarchy overcame matriarchy by the truncheon, because it was stronger, but women had wisdom. Empires win because they have more lethal weapons. In my book, the wisdom of all these pre-Columbian cultures appears, or the wisdom of the Celts. Of course, we can say that those cultures were indeed wise and that the conquistadors came and finished them off. But then, why did the local people flee from the Mayans or the Aztecs? Why did the smaller towns favour those who came from outside? This must always be kept in mind. The ancestral wisdom is there and we do very well to learn from it. But, be careful! Do not idealise, because all of them are touched by Adam's sin.
What do you mean by Adam's sin?
Adam symbolises humanity, he is human history. The Earthly Paradise is not really a past, but a future, it is the messianic kingdom. Primitive man was no less a beast than today, only his weapons were not as lethal. Panikkar speaks of the “new innocence”, as opposed to a presumed Adamic innocence that is unreal; what we need is a new innocence, that is, to reach an authentic balance. In that sense, this question is good in your context, that of the Jesuits. I am critical of my Church, but it is my Church. I am a Christian because I believe that the best message that has been given in all centuries is that of Jesus. I am not a Muslim, although I am very interreligious and I have Muslim friends; they respect Jesus very much, as a prophet, and in this sense I believe that we Christians must learn from other religions and other cultures, and we must investigate more in our Christian roots, because that is there; the problem is that it is buried by a Western, rationalist and dominating interpretation.
It is not a question of saying, then, that the problem is sin. It is not just a moral question; sin means rupture, division, lack of harmony. Sin is what St. Paul says: “I do not know what is happening to me. I know very well what I should do, but I do what I should not do.” That has always been the case. And, as Jesus said, the wheat and the weeds will coexist until the end. I believe that the important thing is lucidity. Trying to walk in the light, constantly seeking harmony, fleeing from everything that breaks that harmony.
There are those who claim that the only valid major ethical problem of the 21st century is ecology, which is the discussion we must have as humanity; others might think that we are facing a lost cause, given the state of the world and capitalist development. Where do you think we are moving?
It is important to talk about ecology not only because of the care of nature. For example, for me, as a religious person, we must also talk about eco-theology. Theology is a revealed word, but it is thought, elaboration and logic – let’s say, to the extent that God can be logically elaborated, which is impossible, but oh well…. Why is it important? Not only because we manage to stop the climate problem… I am not at all sure that we will manage to do so, and there are scientists who say that we have almost reached a point of no return, but we are going to free the Earth as much as possible. Eco-spirituality is valid for being and existing here. Existing in a destructive way is not the same as existing in a constructive way. Existing unconsciously is not the same as existing consciously. My book begins by talking about superficiality. Panikkar said that the biggest problem in our world is superficiality. He begins by talking about science, about quantum physics, which seems the most distant thing, and ends by talking about spirituality.
The feast in honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe goes back to the 16th century. Chronicles of that period tell us the story.
A poor Indian named Cuauhtlatohuac was baptized and given the name Juan Diego. He was a 57-year-old widower, and lived in a small village near Mexico City. On Saturday morning December 9, 1531, he was on his way to a nearby barrio to attend Mass in honor of Our Lady.
Juan was walking by a hill called Tepeyac when he heard beautiful music like the warbling of birds. A radiant cloud appeared, and within it stood an Indian maiden dressed like an Aztec princess. The lady spoke to him in his own language and sent him to the bishop of Mexico, a Franciscan named Juan de Zumarraga. The bishop was to build a chapel in the place where the lady appeared.
Eventually the bishop told Juan to have the lady give him a sign. About this same time Juan’s uncle became seriously ill. This led poor Juan to try to avoid the lady. Nevertheless the lady found Juan, assured him that his uncle would recover, and provided roses for Juan to carry to the bishop in his cape or tilma.
On December 12, when Juan Diego opened his tilma in the bishop’s presence, the roses fell to the ground, and the bishop sank to his knees. On the tilma where the roses had been appeared an image of Mary exactly as she had appeared at the hill of Tepeyac.
Reflection
Mary’s appearance to Juan Diego as one of his people is a powerful reminder that Mary—and the God who sent her—accept all peoples. In the context of the sometimes rude and cruel treatment of the Indians by the Spaniards, the apparition was a rebuke to the occupiers and an event of vast significance for the indigenous population. While a number of them had converted before this incident, they now came in droves. According to a contemporary chronicler, nine million Indians became Catholic in a very short time. In these days when we hear so much about God’s preferential option for the poor, Our Lady of Guadalupe cries out to us that God’s love for and identification with the poor is an age-old truth that stems from the Gospel itself.
Bridget Mary:
In Guadalupe, Mary appeared to Juan Diego as an inspiration to the people in their continuing struggle towards the full realization of the kindom of God and to share God’s message that no one is excluded from the kindom.
These books are a comprehensive collection of historical documents by two prominent German scholars who were ordained on the Danube in 2002 as Roman Catholic Women Priests. These books are a rich legacy for all who are interested in the emancipatory movement for gender equality in the Roman Catholic Church. In their writings, Dr. Raming and Dr. Mueller critique the patriarchal tradition embedded in the Canon Law prohibiting women's ordination. Their brilliant scholarship illuminates a new liberating path of prophetic obedience that is at the heart of the Roman Catholic Women Priests Movement . Bridget Mary Meehan ARCWP
Books:
The exclusion of women from the priesthood: Divine law or sex discrimination? : A historical investigation of the juridical and doctrinal foundations of the code of canon law, canon 968, 1
55 Years if Struggle for Women's Ordination in the Catholic Church
This book is a must read for anyone interested in women’s ordination and thehistorical foundation of the Roman Catholic Women Priests Movement. Theologian Ida Raming presents a comprehensive collection of historical documents aboutthe 55 year struggle for women’s ordination. This book is a treasure trove of information, documents and footnotes from 1962 tothe present time.
Ida Raming, together with her friend Iris Mueller, were pioneers for the admission of women to priesthood and to all church ministries. She recounts enforced manipulation and brainwashing by the Vatican to stifle open dialogue including their attempt to pass on this discriminatory teaching as dogma binding for all times. Dr. Raming states that Vatican resistance to women priests has no theological justification.
One of the major issues for the all-male hierarchy is the question of power. She writes: “Men do not want to share the power that is associated with ministries and service…I am not giving up, because I trust and believe that “Truth will overcome- the truth will prevail in the end- and not lies!”
In order to achieve gender justice, Idabelieves that women will need to challenge the unjust law. This happened in 2002 when several women from Austria and Germany, including Raming and Mueller, decided to be ordained by a Catholic bishop, contra legem. The women involved “in illegal ordination, she believes,are a “prophetic sign of protestagainst discriminatory teachings and laws.”
According to Dr. Raming, Pope Francis’ theology of women is a major obstacle in the struggle for equality in the Church.His theology of women- his vision of the church (‘she is a woman.’) is a paradox because the Church isrepresented only by men in ecclesial office.
I love Ida’s passionate challenge to Catholic women to affirm the dignity of women, their human rights and work for full equality of women in all ministries in the Church: “Hear my call my dear Sisters! Embrace your responsibility for this important task."
All of us in the international Roman Catholic Women Priests Movement owe Dr. Raming a depth of gratitude for her brilliant, articulate advocacy forgender justice.
Women Find a Way: The Movement and Stories of Roman Catholic Womenpriests Paperback – July 10, 2008
Meet Roman Catholic Womenpriests who are shaping a more inclusive, Christ-centered, Spirit-empowered Church of equals in the twenty-first century. All are welcome at the sacred Eucharistic table. Meet women bishops ordained in full apostolic succession who continue to carry on the work of ordaining others in the Roman Catholic Church. Meet women who are serving the People of God in many ways including house churches and parish communities, hospital and hospice chaplaincy, anointing of the sick and elderly, and ministering with the homeless. Roman Catholic Womenpriests are leading the Catholic Church into a new age in which the identity of priest reflects the experiences of women. For more information, visit www.romancatholicwomenpriests.org All proceeds from the sale of this book go to RCWP-International for the furthering of the movement.
In this book, Bridget Mary Meehan shares treasured memories from her life story and from her journey to priesthood. In a church and a world where women are second-class citizens because of their gender, women priests are rocking the Catholic Church to its foundations as they share women's experiences and claim women's power as spiritual equals, breaking the stained glass ceiling.
Bridget Mary writes: "I believe that on a deep spiritual, mystical level women priests are beginning a healing process of centuries-old deep misogyny in which spiritual power was invested exclusively in men. We are visible reminders that women are equal images of God, and therefore are worthy to preside at the altar." In inclusive grassroots communities Roman Catholic Women Priests are moving the church toward partnership in a Christ-centered, Spirit-empowered community of equals. For some, like the Catholic hierarchy, women priests are a revolution. For millions of people the time has come for a holy shakeup that will bring new life, creativity and justice to the church and beyond.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dr. Bridget Mary Meehan, RCWP, author of eighteen books including "The Healing Power of Prayer," "Praying with Women of the Bible," and "Praying with Visionary Women," is the dean of the Doctor of Ministry program for Global Ministries University. On July 31, 2006, Bridget Mary Meehan was ordained a Roman Catholic priest, one of the first twelve women in the United States, and a bishop on April 19, 2009. Bridget Mary serves as a spiritual leader of The Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests. For more information, visit https://arcwp.org/
