https://open.substack.com/pub/dianabutlerbass/p/good-friday-now?r=2kfqor&utm_medium=ios
Living Gospel Inclusivity and Empowerment Now- https://bridgetmarys.blogspot.com/2025/10/rev-dr-bridget-mary-meehan-arcwp-chat.html
Friday, April 18, 2025
Thursday, April 17, 2025
Celebrating blessing of chrism oil with Lee Breyer- a priest in Mary Mother of Jesus Community at Angels Resident Living
With Lee Breyer praying blessing over sacred oil and anointing each other in this celebration of priestly ministry on Holy Thursday at Angels Senior Living Residence in Sarasota, Florida
Wednesday, April 16, 2025
Interview with Christina Moreira ARCWP in Religion Digital
https://www.religiondigital.org/espana/Cristina-Moreira-presbitera-sacerdotisa-Victorino-altar-Papa-Gaillot_0_2770522935.html
Cristina Moreira, priest:
"Something tells me that there's not much time left, that the process is accelerating. If it's from God, it will be."
Very soon, little Cristina began to realize that, in her Roman Catholic tradition, there was only one way to make her dream come true: to become a priest. But that was unthinkable.
“And yes, passion, in all its meanings—including that which leads to Calvary—with all that it entails in terms of total and unconditional love; passion for the Meaning without which my life would have no meaning; passion at any price, and passion to share, without limits or restraints, as far as God and life allow me to live it.”
As he feared, when he told his dream, "they told me to shut up forever, I was showered with criticism, insults, and even arrests, and a lot of misunderstanding."
"My husband, Victorino, was the first priest who dared to listen to my story of vocation without fear and with openness, with affection and reciprocity, accepting my testimony as valid, without judging me or prohibiting me from doing anything."
Even as a child, Cristina Moreira had a passion: “To celebrate Mass, to perpetuate the memory, to obey Jesus' last will, the bread, the wine, to wash feet, to gather her friends around his table and pray until they tried to understand and experience what he wanted: the communion of heart and life, made of service and love.”
Very soon, little Cristina began to realize that, in her Roman Catholic tradition, there was only one way to make her dream come true: to become a priest. But that was unthinkable. “It wasn't possible in my imagination to imagine myself in that profession.”
Then, “the passion for the only way open to obedience to the command heard in my heart was born… foolish me, foolish Jesus who trusted me to receive him and carry out what I was sent to do?”
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But passion doesn't ask if it has the right to be born in the heart, nor does it explain the steps to take to make it a reality. It simply arises and grows. "And yes, passion, in all its meanings—including that which leads to Calvary—with all that it entails in terms of total and unconditional love; passion for the Meaning without which my life would have no meaning; passion at any price, and passion to share, without limits or restraints, as far as God and life allow me to live it."
A taboo passion in the Catholic universe that Cristina had to hide for a long time . “Thirty years of my life hiding a secret, a treasure I feared would be trampled like the pearls of the Gospel. And that could have been destroyed so many times afterward, when I told it.”
Because, as he feared, when he told his dream, “they told me to shut up forever, I was showered with criticism, insults, and even arrests, and a lot of misunderstanding . ”
But Cristina didn't give up on her dream and learned "to forgive as she went along, to get up again and again." And after years of discernment, "first alone and then accompanied and valued from outside, I studied theology and set out with the ARCWP, to receive the sacrament of Holy Orders from the Roman Priests and their bishops."
Moreira was ordained a deacon in A Coruña in 2013 by a female bishop. Or a female bishop, a word that is recognized by the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE). Two years later, in 2015, he became a priest, but to do so he had to travel to Florida; that wasn't possible in Spain.
A sacrament that he now practices daily in the midst of his “wonderful” Christian Community of Home Novo in A Coruña .
One of her faithful followers is her husband, who is also a priest and prestigious theologian: Victorino Pèrez Prieto .
“My husband, Victorino, was the first priest who dared to listen to my story of vocation without fear and with openness, with affection and reciprocity, accepting my testimony as valid, without judging me or prohibiting me from doing anything. For the first time, I heard a priest say: 'Of course you have a vocation and you would deserve to fulfill it. I understand.'”
And from that shared vocation and passion, love was born between them . “It was only to be expected that such a shared relationship would unite us more than any other bond. It is the unbreakable and eternal quality of our marriage, which was first a communion of soul to soul.”
And the culmination of her joy was when her young daughter took up and embraced her mother's passion . "My daughter surprised me on the day of my diaconal ordination, which she participated in with pride and joy, saying that she had always known who her mother was, that you can't hide that from a daughter."
And how does the Church hierarchy react to the challenge posed by Cristina Moreira? Well, although it may seem surprising, the majority reacts with respect toward the priestess, sometimes in silence and other times even with gestures and words. "I remember a cardinal I met with during the Synod in Rome, who tried to convince me to redirect my vocation, and I convinced him. We said goodbye, I saw he was moved, and he concluded by saying: 'You've shaken me out of my certainties. I don't know what to think anymore. I want to see you again. We have to keep talking.'"
Shortly before her ordination, Christine went to visit Jacques Gaillot , the famous bishop of the poor , forced to resign by John Paul II for his radical criticism of ecclesiastical clericalism. To ask for his advice.
-“If you tell me to back down, I will,” she said, absolutely convinced.
- “I just have one question before I give you my opinion: Do you have ground under your feet?” asked the bishop.
-“Yes, a community has sent me that I am going to serve.”
-“Then go ahead, you have my blessing.”
After the meeting, in which Christina received the French prelate's approval, they met the rector of the Paris major seminary in the courtyard of Gaillot's residence . The bishop, prophetic as ever, said to her: "I present Christina. She is to be ordained a priest." To their surprise, the rector congratulated her.
Therefore, Cristina, always conciliatory, concludes: "There is much goodness left within the walls of the Church, and I can attest that I have enjoyed some of it. The critics? May God help them understand that we have come to help."
And what do ordinary people, on the street, say to the priestess? “The most common thing is surprise, admiration, and lots of questions of all kinds. It makes me very happy to talk to ordinary people, with whom everything is usually very logical and reasonable. Anyone who has attended our community celebrations doesn't come away criticizing us. We are family-oriented, warm, hospitable, joyful, and people of faith, adults, and responsible.”
After so much struggle, Cristina sees a clear horizon for her passion to be fully fulfilled and for the glass ceiling that the female priesthood still has in the Church to fall . “I believe that time and space are inventions that allow people to realize the love that we are, necessary frameworks for life. Kairos, God's time, will come when it is ripe. Something tells me it's not long now, that the process is accelerating. If it's from God, it will be.”
That's why it hurts her even more that Pope Francis, the Pope of Spring, didn't want to receive her or her fellow priests . "It hurts that a brother doesn't receive you. I have so many things to tell him, so much to say, even from Jesus. I would love to keep nothing inside in his presence. Women, all human beings, are needed in this family, as in all, in their beautiful and holy diversity. God's plan is humanity standing, dignified, free, and loving. That is the Eucharist, and something tells me we need it."
Tuesday, April 15, 2025
Women of Holy Week by Paula Gooder on Spotify
Women of Holy Week
Introduction
https://open.spotify.com/
The First Woman: Miriam’s Story
https://open.spotify.com/
The Second Woman: Sarah’s Story
https://open.spotify.com/
The Third Women: Anna’s Story
https://open.spotify.com/
The Fourth Woman: Susannah’s Story
https://open.spotify.com/
The Fifth Woman: Joanna’s Story
https://open.spotify.com/
The Sixth Woman: Salome’s Story
https://open.spotify.com/
The Seventh Woman: Mary Magdalene’s Story
https://open.spotify.com/
The Eighth Woman: Mary Wife of Clopas’ Story
https://open.spotify.com/
The Ninth Woman: Mary Mother of Jesus’ Story
https://open.spotify.com/
Tuesday, April 8, 2025
A Simple Healing Sacred Breath Practice to Access Your Soul-Power in Times of Stress by Bridget Mary Meehan ARCWP
Do you need a prayerful time out during this time of chaos in our country and world? I know I do!
Jesus assured us that the Spirit blows where it wills and dwells within us, empowering us to do great things- in every circumstance
"Whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these...: (John 14:12-14)
For centuries, mystics and saints have reminded us-like Julian of Norwich- that no matter what happens "all shall be well." For centuries, prophets challenged us to speak truth to power, resist evil and do good.
In times of suffering and darkness, we need to center ourselves in the outpouring love of divine presence dwelling within us. In the midst of our anxieties and anger- we need to take some prayerful "time -outs", so that we can make wise choices in responding peacefully in the challenging situations we find ourselves today.
1. Take one breath and become aware that your heart is the dwelling place of love.
2. Take the second breath to connect to the Presence of God/Spirt/Higher Power within you that is guiding-healing- empowering you.
3. Take the third breath - aware of your soul-power to respond to the situation you are facing wisely and calmly.
Monday, April 7, 2025
Accepting women priests means accepting the end of celibacy.” Interview with Marie Mandy, New Documentary about Roman Catholic Women Priests
https://www.reformes.ch/religions/2025/03/accepter-les-femmes-pretres-cest-accepter-la-fin-du-celibat-catholicisme-femmes
In a documentary broadcast this Wednesday on RTS1 (at 10:40 p.m.), director Marie Mandy examines a taboo in the Roman Catholic Church.
Marie Mandy
Director of the documentary Women Priests, Forbidden Vocations
Why did you want to make this film?
MARIE MANDY My initial motivation came from my discovery, in 2006, of the existence of women priests ordained on the Danube in the presence of a bailiff: this story seemed to me both romantic and transgressive. I contacted the founder of the movement, Christine Mayr-Lumetzberger, who agreed to participate in a film. As my research progressed, the question of the impeded vocation of these women struck me. I was raised Catholic. I am not a believer, but this question challenged me. It seems almost spiritual to me: how can we ensure that everyone can fulfill themselves in life? This became the driving force behind the film. In addition, no doubt also, my indignation at a Church with which I could no longer identify: throughout my childhood, masses were celebrated by men, the institution's positions on abortion, homosexuality... never ceased to shock me. Why should men in dresses decide issues that concern women?
SUMMARY What is blocking the ordination of women priests? To investigate, director Marie Mandy follows three prominent figures, including Zurich-based theologian and journalist Jacqueline Straub (editor-in-chief of the German-speaking website Kath-net.ch), who wants to become a priest, writes about the subject, and interviews three Vatican cardinals on camera. Christina Moreira, a Franco-Spanish priest ordained in the tradition of the "clandestine ordinations" of the Danube organized since 2002, exercises her priesthood in Spain. We discover in her wake that there are nearly 300 women priests throughout the world, despite the excommunication incurred! Finally, in the United States, African-American priest Myra Brown, head of a parish of 1,500 faithful, confronts us with a surprising reality: the Roman Catholic Church, disconnected from the realities of its time, finds itself in some places simply supplanted by progressive communities. This wonderfully well-crafted research mixes societal innovations and Vatican statements—blowing hot and cold, but showing an awareness of the issue.
Women Priests, Forbidden Vocations , documentary by Marie Mandy, 78 min, 2024, to be found on March 12 on RTS1, April 12 on Arte and May 18 on SRF (in German). Available on RTS.ch until May 12.
What obstacles did you face? In one memorable scene, your team is arrested along with a woman in priestly attire in St. Peter's Square and taken to the police station...
The obstacles were twofold. First, persuading producers and broadcasters to finance the project took a lot of effort. Between 2006 and 2020, I was told that the subject was a minor phenomenon, a niche film, or that it also needed to include female rabbis. Finally, Arte, Belgian television (RTBF), RTS, and Canadian public television agreed to co-produce the film.
Then, it was necessary to return to the Vatican, which was very complicated since the subject was a priori forbidden in the Church from the moment John Paul II had acted on the definitive ban on ordaining women, considered irrevocable.
To address this "forbidden" issue, I wanted to hear from cardinals close to the Pope and legitimate on the subject—and we succeeded. But I went through many intermediaries, relays, journalists to get the right contacts, to connect with the right people. I couldn't say I was making a film about the priesthood of women. We had to send our questions in advance—and the whole point was knowing when we could unmask ourselves! It was the first time I operated like that, and I was quite humiliated. I had to face blackmail, some interlocutors tried to make me feel guilty, and so on. I realized that it's an entire system that protects itself. I think I stood my ground because I'm not a believer. A Catholic might not have dared to resist, because the methods we faced were truly harsh—as the arrest scene shows.
You also choose to give voice to American feminist theologians...
In the USA, there is a freedom of speech that makes them more openly feminist than in France: they can allow themselves to criticize the Church while retaining their position in a Catholic institution. French female theologians cannot openly question doctrine: they do so in a roundabout way. American women clearly say that ordaining women means dismantling sexism in what constitutes the last great patriarchy still in place on the planet, a male-dominated world, a world of celibate men who have no connection with women.
Indeed, researcher and sociologist Josselin Tricou speaks of a "priestly lock" to demonstrate the link within the Church between the priesthood—which prohibits male sexuality—the exclusion of women from power, and heteromarital discourse. After your research, do you also see a link between these three elements?
Yes, I do think it's a "package." There are already 300 women priests, 20 women bishops, all married, mothers, even grandmothers, and all of them very good at their jobs. If the Church included them, how would it cope with childless men? Accepting women priests means accepting the end of celibacy. Since these women all operate within inclusive communities (they marry same-sex couples, for example), they also go against the founding Catholic idea of the complementarity of the sexes—which would dictate that only heterosexual men and women can found a family.
The Church responds with outdated arguments: no woman has been ordained for 2,000 years (the tradition argument), the apostles are all men (the historical argument—contested since Mary Magdalene is recognized as an apostle to the apostles), and the priest "in persona Christi" must be able to embody Christ, and therefore be male (the gender argument). We return to the same observation: a patriarchy that locks everything down.
It took you nine years to make this film. Things have changed in the meantime. What are your visions for this subject?
On the bureaucratic level, it's true that the Vatican has changed a lot. Last month, a woman was appointed prefect . But even if women are given important positions of responsibility, access to the sacred is still forbidden to them for reasons of power, and I don't think that will change. I believed at the beginning of Francis's papacy that this would change, but the Curia is standing behind him to block any change. It's difficult to know if it's him or his entourage. We can hope for a more progressive next pope—Francis having replaced the entire college of cardinals according to his ideological line. But I believe, conversely, that the next one will be more conservative. Everything will also depend on how the current pontiff negotiates the end of his reign: resignation or not. In any case, there will be a battle for his succession.
How is your film received?
In the United States and Europe, the Vatican doesn't have the same status. In Europe, the Church remains a moral authority; the Pope is a head of state and a spiritual leader. But discussions after the screenings raise other issues: behind the spiritual and doctrinal questions lie financial and geopolitical issues. The Church is also funded by conservative movements. And African churches are very conservative on the issue of women's rights and sexual minorities. What surprises many viewers is discovering that these female priests exist, that there are already 300 of them, and my goal in making this film was really to show them on the ground, to bring this image of a woman dressed as a priest into the collective imagination so that mentalities can evolve.
General Meeting of the Pastoral Community of Mary of Nazareth March 21-24, 2025
Encuentro General de la Comunidad Pastoral María de Nazareth
Marzo 21 al 24 de 2025
General Meeting of the Pastoral Community
of Mary of Nazareth
March 21-24, 2025
Colombia, Departamento de Santander, Municipio de Piedecuesta,
Motivadas por el fortalecimiento, crecimiento, el espíritu profético de ARCWP y con el objetivo de consolidar lazos fraternos en libertad, autonomía, autodeterminación, relaciones humanas sanas, solidarias, sororas, abiertas, nos hemos reunido las mujeres presbiteras y aspirantes que conformamos la comunidad Pastoral María de Nazaret de ARCWP.
La jornada ha iniciado con una calurosa bienvenida y una rica y calientita comida.
Motivated by the strength, growth, and prophetic spirit of ARCWP, and with the goal of consolidating fraternal bonds of freedom, autonomy, self-determination, and healthy, supportive, sisterly, and open human relationships, the women priests and aspiring priests who make up the ARCWP María de Nazaret Pastoral Community gathered.
The day began with a warm welcome and a delicious, warm meal.
Marzo 22
La Eucaristía se va a desarrollando a lo largo de las actividades del día.
Primer momento: Se inicia nuestra jornada con la reunión con las compañeras obispas de Norte América, conociendo mucho más de ARCWP: la organización, los diferentes ministerios o servicio (círculos), Se fortalece el acompañamiento reciproco desde la autoridad y convivencia circular.
Se contó con el servicio de traducción propio hecho por Inés Leonor, candidata al presbiterado.
March 22
The Eucharist continues throughout the day's activities.
First Moment: Our day begins with a meeting with our fellow bishops and priest from North America, where we learn much more about ARCWP: the organization, the different ministries or services (circles). We strengthen mutual accompaniment through authority and circular coexistence.
We also provided translation services provided by Inés Leonor, a candidate for the priesthood.
El segundo momento estuvo a cargo de la Presbitera Mercedes Segura con el tema la espiritualidad de las mujeres desde un enfoque de género, enfoque pedagógico antirracista, enfoque territorial, enfoque de derechos humanos. Excelente, excelente,
excelente la capacitación y la mándala participativa.
The second session was led by Presbyter Mercedes Segura, who addressed women's spirituality from a gender perspective, an anti-racist pedagogical approach, a territorial approach, and a human rights approach. The training and participatory mandala were excellent, excellent, excellent.
Después del almuerzo y descanso, se llevó a cabo el trabajo de la jornada de la tarde.
Tercer momento: La Presbitera Blanca Cecilia Santana Cortes desarrolló la temática sobre la identidad de María de Nazareth.
After lunch and a break, the afternoon's work began.
Third session: Priest Blanca Cecilia Santana Cortes addressed the topic of the identity of Mary of Nazareth.
Resaltamos la participación en el evento de manera virtual de Inés Leonor, iguaque su servicio de traductora. Excelente
We highlight Inés Leonor's virtual participation in the event, as well as her translation service. Excellent.
Cuarto momento: Consagración.
Fourth moment: Consecration.
En la noche comida y recreación en las frescas aguas de la piscina.
In the evening, food and recreation in the cool waters of the pool.
Marzo 23
El domingo inicia nuestro día con un delicioso desayuno.
March 23
Sunday starts our day with a delicious breakfast
Celebración Eucarística dominical.
Inicia con la procesión girando en torno a la casa con las puertas cerradas.
Símbolo de que las puertas del sacerdocio para las mujeres están cerradas, según los papas y la estructura Eclesial.
Sunday Eucharistic Celebration.
It begins with the procession surrounding the house with the doors closed.
This symbolizes that the doors of the priesthood for women are closed, according to the popes and the Church's structure.
Temas de reflexión en la homilía realizada por todas.
Topics for reflection in the homily given by all.
Se continua con / continue with:
Organización del proceso de formación
Organization of the training process.
Agenda y programación de la comunidad para el año.
Agenda and community programming for the year.
Varios temas generales.
Various general topics.
Evaluación
Evaluation
Marzo 24. Paseo de integración hacia el municipio de Floridablanca.
March24. Integration walk towards the municipality of Floridablanca.
Almuerzo y despedida
Lunch and farewell
Salida
Departure.
Fue un maravilloso encuentro ¡gracias a las bendiciones de la divinidad!!!!
It was a wonderful meeting thanks to the blessings of divinity!!!!
Fraternalmente
Comunidad Pastoral incluyente María de Nazareth de habla hispana. ARCWP Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests
A Renewed Priestly Ministry in a Community of Equals
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