PRESS RELEASE
Contacts: Ree Hudson 636-933-0387 or 636-208-5598
Bridget Mary Meehan, RCWP Media Spokesperson USA 703-283-2929
Roman Catholic Womenpriests are honored to participate in the “Shadow Synod” which is being held in Rome in October 2008, at the same time as the Vatican Synod of Bishops on the Bible. Ree Hudson, a Roman Catholic womanpriest from St. Louis, is representing the Roman Catholic Womenpriests USA. Although a few women have been invited to participate as experts, decision-making at this Synod will once again be limited to male clerics. “In contrast, Roman Catholic Womenpriests are offering the church a renewed model of priestly ministry, rooted in the New Testament,” Bridget Mary Meehan, media spokesperson, said. “Jesus, who treated women and men as equals and partners, offered an example of Gospel equality that led to the practice of ordaining women as deacons, priests and bishops in the early church. The good news is now there are Roman Catholic Womenpriests serving the Roman Catholic Church in grassroots communities in the U.S., Canada and Europe.” Jesus chose the Samaritan woman to announce the good news to her entire village, and the Samaritans accepted Jesus as Messiah because of her testimony. Mary of Magdala, the first witness to the resurrection, was commissioned by Jesus to be the apostle to the apostles (John 20:1-18).
The Pontifical Biblical Commission echoed the sentiments of Jesus in concluding there is no biblical reason to prohibit women’s ordination. Women and men are created in God’s image, and both may represent God as priests. “In the image of God, God created humankind, male and female, God created them” (Genesis 1:26-27). Following a two-year study of scripture, the Pontifical Biblical Commission, in 1976, agreed by a vote of 12-5 that neither the Bible nor Christ excluded the ordination of women. The vote in favor of women’s ordination was 14-3.
Although the Roman Catholic leadership has been all male for the past 900 years, Christianity’s first millennium saw numerous women serving with distinction as deacons, priests and bishops. Roman Catholic Womenpriests are reclaiming our ancient heritage and shaping a more inclusive Christ-centered church of equals in the twenty-first century. Womenbishops, ordained in full apostolic succession, continue to carry on the work of ordaining others in the Roman Catholic Church. We are living a new model of priestly ministry united with the people with whom we serve. Ordained women are serving the people of God in many ways, including house churches and parish communities, celebrations of weddings and baptisms, hospital and hospice chaplaincy, prison ministry, anointing of the sick and elderly, ministering with homeless people, peace and justice witness, and spiritual direction.
Our movement is receiving enthusiastic responses on the local, national and international level. Following Maryknoll Father Roy Bourgeois’ participation in the ordination of a Roman Catholic womanpriest in Lexington, Kentucky, on August 9, 2008, the Maryknoll Community has called for a worldwide dialogue on the issue of justice for women in the church, including the ordination of women as priests.
Roman Catholic Womenpriests stand in solidarity with our biblical sisters who reflect the feminine face of God. Womenpriests remind us that women are equal images of the holy. Twenty-five women share their stories of call to priestly ministry in our new book, Women Find a Way: The Movement and Stories of Roman Catholic Womenpriests. The call for full equality of women in the church is the voice of God in our time.
Roman Catholic Womenpriests will join the Women’s Ordination Conference (WOC) and Women’s Ordination Worldwide (WOW), the international coalition that advocates women’s ordination, beginning on the feast day of Saint Teresa of Avila, October 15, in Rome. There will be a press conference that day, followed by four days of actions and events.
Oct. 15: Press Conference on the feast day of Saint Teresa of Avila;
Oct. 16 & 17: Demonstrations at the Vatican;
Oct. 18: Tour of women’s leadership sites in Rome;
Oct. 19: Evening Feminist Liturgy and educational social event with other church reform groups.
For further information:
http://www.romancatholicwomenpriests.org/FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: October 15, 2008
Media Inquiries:
Aisha Taylor, U.S. office: +1 202 675-1006, Rome cell phone from October 14-20: +39-348-4705361,
ataylor@womensordination.orgChristian Weisner, cell phone: +49-172-5184082,
media@we-are-church.orgCatholic Representatives from around the world call for women’s ordination during Bishop's Synod in Rome
Women's Ministry: a reality in the early Church – indispensable in today's Church!
ROME, Italy – Today, at 11:00 o’clock in the office of redazione di ADISTA, Via Acciaioli 7, 00186 Roma, representatives of Catholic organizations from around the world call for the full and equal participation of women in the Roman Catholic Church, including ordination as deacons, priests and bishops. The press conference takes place on the feast of St. Teresa of Avila, one of only three female
Doctors of the Church, and will launch a weeklong campaign of events, including a demonstration at Saint Peter’s Square immediately following. These events occur as 240 delegates continue the Synod of Bishops on the “Word of God in the Life and Mission of the Church.” Representatives from Britain, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Portugal and the United States are participating in the campaign events.
“Just as Saint Theresa of Avila demanded over 400 years ago for the hierarchy to stop rejecting talented women simply because of their gender, we urge the delegates of the synod to recognize that the Bible itself calls for the full and equal participation of women and that any other interpretation is incorrect and unjust,” stated Angelika Fromm of We are Church and the Purple Stole Movement in Germany. “In 1976, the Vatican’s own theologians – and theologians the world over since that date – have found that there is no scriptural reason to prohibit the ordination of women.”
“By including women as priests, the Church would not only model Jesus’ radical example of equality as recorded in the Bible, it would have a powerful and positive impact on solving the complex problems we face today,” stated Aisha Taylor, executive director of the Women’s Ordination Conference in the United States. “In a world divided by poverty, stunned by economic crisis, and continually reeling from sexism, racism, homophobia, and many forms of oppression, it is long overdue for the Vatican to use all of its resources to work toward a solution.”
“While I agree with synod delegates who have stated the importance of combining spirituality with critical scholarship when studying the Scriptures, it is paramount that Church leaders preserve the historical-critical method of study,” stated Marleen Wijdeveld of Roman Catholic Womenpriests in the Netherlands. “Following the highest standards of contemporary scholarship has enabled theologians the world over to discern women’s rightful place in the Church—as equal partners in ministry. In this day and age of the Roman Catholic Church, that means women should be ordained as deacons, priests and bishops.”
“I am called by God to serve through priesthood, and our loving and all-powerful God who created women and men of equal stature and dignity is capable of empowering women to be priests,” stated Anne Brown, of New Wine in Great Britain. “There is no reason to exclude women from ordination and every reason to include us.”
“We are heartened by the fact that the bishops were addressed by Shear Yashuv Cohen, of Israel, because this is the first time a representative of another faith has addressed a synod of bishops,” stated Jennifer Stark, coordinator of Women’s Ordination Worldwide. “The hierarchy needs to expand its interfaith and ecumenical work and follow the example of those Christian Churches and other religions that now include women on terms of full equality in all ministries. This issue has implications for the well-being of women everywhere and the worldwide Roman Catholic Church should be leading the way, not lagging behind.”
The Pontifical Biblical Commission determined in 1976 that there is no scriptural reason to prohibit the ordination of women. The Bible describes how women were prominent leaders in Jesus’ ministry and early Christianity. In all four gospels, Mary Magdalene was the primary witness to the central event of Christianity—Christ’s resurrection. The Scriptures also mention women who led small house churches, including Lydia, Phoebe, Priscilla, and Prisca.
"It is our hope that the synod delegates heed the call of Catholic theologians and Scripture itself, which proclaims women are equally created in the image of God (Gen. 1:27), and that there is no distinction between men and women through Jesus (Gal 3:28)," Taylor concluded.
After the press conference and demonstration at 17:00 hours Catholic women’s ordination activists gather outside the church S. Maria in Transpontina (Via della Conciliazione) for a public prayer service. Immediately afterward, the representatives will deliver a petition, signed by 1,571 Catholic organizations and individuals, urging Pope Benedict XVI to reinstate women in the diaconate.
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The “Purple Stole” Movement (“Lila Stola”) intercedes for equal access of women to all church functions, for an equal mentioning of women and men in church publications, for a female image of God and a female liturgy.
Roman Catholic Womenpriests (RCWP) is an international initiative within the Roman Catholic Church that advocates for a new model of priestly ministry united with the people with whom they serve. The movement is an initiative within the Church that began with the ordination of seven women on the Danube River in 2002. Women bishops ordained in full apostolic succession continue to carry on the work of ordaining others in the Roman Catholic Church.
Founded in 1975 and based in Washington, D.C., the Women's Ordination Conference is the oldest and largest national organization working solely for the ordination of women as priests, deacons, and bishops into an inclusive Catholic Church. WOC also promotes new perspectives on ordination that call for more accountability and less separation between the clergy and laity.
Founded in 1996, the Women's Ordination Worldwide is an ecumenical network, whose primary mission at this time is the admission of Roman Catholic women to all ordained ministries. Member groups represent thirteen countries and reach many others through international groups.
In the first Roman Catholic Womanpriest (RCWP) ordination in Chicago, Barbara Zeman (Chicago) was ordained a priest, and Alta Jacko (Chicago), Linda Wilcox (Afton, MN), and Mary Styne (Milwaukee, WI) were ordained deacons by Bishop Dana Reynolds of California in St. Paul's United Church of Christ in Chicago, Illinois.
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