German Bishop Calls for Women’s Ordination and Full Equality in the Catholic Church

My Response;

The courageous witness of this German bishop reflects the growing movement of the Spirit throughout the global Church calling for the full equality of women in every dimension of ministry, including ordination. Like the women priests of Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests and the broader Roman Catholic Women Priests movement, he recognizes that the exclusion of women from ordained ministry is not only a justice issue, but a Gospel issue. Across the world, faithful Catholics are listening to the cries and gifts of women whose vocations have long been affirmed by their communities and empowered by the Holy Spirit. His prophetic voice joins a growing chorus within the Church calling for a renewed model of ministry rooted in baptismal equality, shared leadership, and the inclusive love of Christ.

Bridget Mary Meehan ARCWP 

GERMAN BISHOP CALLS FOR FULL EQUALITY OF WOMEN[Translation from German original presented at Catholic Day 15 May 2026 in Würzburg, Germany]

Auxiliary Bishop Ludger Schepers

Stand up for women’s rights: The denied vocation – A plea for full justice

I. A new beginning: No more excuses

I know that many of you are tired of hearing this phrase:

‘The role of women is a central concern of our Church.’

For in recent decades, this phrase has become a rhetorical sedative, whilst in reality hardly anything has changed in the rigid power structures.

I stand before you today as a bishop at this Catholic Day because I sense the deep alienation that pervades our halls here, our Church, our society. We must stop pretending that we need even more working groups or theological reports. We do not have a problem of understanding. We have a problem of implementation. When we speak today of women’s rights in the Church, we are speaking of the viability of Catholicism in a free society. Anyone who denies women full participation in ministries, ordination and decision-making undermines the sacramental credibility of the Church at its very roots.

II. Official Documents: The Architecture of Exclusion

Let us take an unbiased look at our documents. The Second Vatican Council gave us in Gaudium et Spes (Art. 29) a clear task: All discrimination based on sex must be overcome as “contrary to God’s plan.” This has been stated there since 1965.

But let us look at current canon law: The Codex Iuris Canonici still functions as a bulwark of clerical privileges.

• The Monopoly of Power: As long as the “final decision-making power” (can. 129 §1) remains exclusively tied to male ordination, any promotion of women in the Church is merely “participation on demand.”

• The Statistics Trap: The latest figures from the German Bishops' Conference (March 2025) do show an increase in women in leadership positions to 32.5%. But as a member of the Women's Commission, I tell you: statistics are not justice. A woman who heads a diocese but has no sacramentally secured vote in theological or disciplinary decisions remains structurally inferior. We are legally cementing a "doctrine of inequality" that we can no longer afford theologically.

III. Theological Depth: God Became Human, Not Male

The theological resistance to women's ordination often rests on an argument that the dogmatic theologian Julia Knop aptly describes as "sacramental biologism." It is claimed that the priest must be a man to make the "masculinity of Jesus" visible.

To this I say: This is a dangerous oversimplification of the event of salvation.

1. Anthropology of Wholeness: If we claim that only the male body can represent Christ, we are de facto declaring women incapable of fully reflecting the image of God. This contradicts the biblical truth of Genesis 1:27. Women are not "less capable of Christ." God became human, not merely male.

2. Sin Against the Spirit: The theologian Johanna Rahner speaks of a systemic "forgetfulness of the Spirit." When women feel an authentic calling and we reject them uncritically because of their gender, we as an institution claim to know better than the Holy Spirit. This is a form of hubris that we can no longer afford.

3. The Apostle to the Apostles: Mary Magdalene was not a silent helper. She was the first proclaimer of the Resurrection. A Church that celebrates Mary Magdalene but forbids her female successors from speaking at the altar is acting against its own founding story (Apostle Junia).

IV. Sociological Analysis: The Price of Exclusion

From a sociological perspective, the Church is currently undergoing a kind of "identity retreat."

• The exodus of women who carry meaning: The latest data from the Church Membership Survey (CMS) is a warning sign. We are currently losing women under 50 on a massive scale. These are the women who used to provide religious socialization within families. When they leave, the social foundation of our Church collapses. They are not leaving because they no longer believe, but because they can no longer maintain their integrity within a discriminatory structure.

• Abuse of power and homogeneity: The MHG study and its successors have demonstrated that purely male, celibate power circles are susceptible to abuse of power and cover-ups. The full integration of women into leadership positions is not a matter of courtesy, but a vital measure for the separation of powers. We need correction by women as equal decision-makers with their own right to vote – not as “maternal accessories”.

V. Concluding Remarks: The Hour of Truth

This Catholic Congress is marked by a new beginning. But a new beginning means conversion – metanoia.

I am not calling for adaptation to a fleeting spirit of the age. We are calling for a return to the radical nature of the Gospel, which knows no privilege. As a bishop, I say to you: The Catholic Church will only have a future if it stops sorting God's gifts according to gender.

We must liberate the ordained ministry from male exclusivity in order to reclaim it as a service to the unity of all the baptized. Justice is not a topic for the next synodal report. Justice is the litmus test for the seriousness of our faith.

Let us stand up together – for a Church that finally becomes what it is meant to be: A community of brothers and sisters of equals. Now.

Breath of Holy Wisdom A Pentecost Prayer-Poem by Bridget Mary Meehan ARCWP

Artist: Nora Kelly
Commissioned by BASIC, Ireland 

UNVEILING PENTECOST

What are we doing here tonight? We are unveiling Pentecost. First of all we are presenting this beautiful new interpretation of Pentecost by the wonderful Irish artist, Nora Kelly. It is a stunning picture, which dramatically recreated a scene that had previously been indelibly printed on the minds of anyone who had received the sacrament of Confirmation in Ireland – or indeed anywhere. Where once we had a fairly begrudging Holy Spirit that had only thirteen flames to spare, now we are presented with a wholly new image of a scintillating Spirit that is prodigal in her gifts, showering down light on all and sundry. I love the movement in the painting, the sense of the strong wind blowing the women’s skirts, and apparently blowing balding old apostles almost off balance. There is an impression of joy and fear, awe and excitement, and right in the very centre of the painting, a small child points upwards in delight. And is that Peter in front of the table who seems as if he is about to bound, bare feet and all into a glorious new future? The most marvellous thing of all is that this painting is more faithful to the original event as portrayed by Luke in the first chapter of the Acts of the Apostles than all the traditional paintings down through the centuries.

I imagine that when people first see this painting, they will experience some of the same reaction as they had to the first painting produced by BASIC and Avoca Publishers, The Last Supper. Some saw it as a novelty designed by those who had nothing better to do with their time. Some saw it as a feminist conspiracy designed to upset innocent and honest people, as feminists are wont to do. Some, however, looked and said: “I always knew this deep in my heart. I recognise this scene from deep in my own psyche.” And others looked and realised that something really profound was taking place, a shifting of the Christian universe, an opening of doors into a new world, familiar but quite new. I have experienced all these responses and more, especially to a copy of the painting that I gave friends as a wedding gift. It is hanging in their dining room and dinner conversation has never been the same.

Adrienne Rich speaks of the moment of awakening consciousness as a moment of exhilaration accompanied by feelings of disorientation and some confusion. It is a moment of re-visioning, of seeing with fresh eyes, of entering an old world from a new critical direction. She comments that “it is no longer lonely to open one’s eyes.” For many women, such revisioning is an act of survival, an act of moving beyond old and confining ways of imagining ourselves, of moving beyond images that have both trapped and liberated us. Such a painting, such revisioning breaks the hold that one kind of imagery, one kind of language, one set of interpretations has held over us. There is a whole new psychic geography to be explored, a wholly new spiritual realm to be entered, a whole new spirit to be encountered, and a wholly new and ever-new Holy Spirit to be welcomed with joy.

I have been thinking of definitions of the Spirit of God that I have encountered in my delving into Christian literature. There is the traditional conciliar “third person of the Trinity” definition, expanded by Augustine into the love that united the other two persons. All authentic and orthodox, but a little static and weighted down with centuries of sound teaching. I resonate rather with the recent joyful shout of acclamation of the Spirit by the brilliant Korean feminist theologian, Chung Hyun Kyun, when she sees the Spirit as the “wild rhythm of life”. Even more dear to my historian’s heart is the voice of Hildegard of Bingen, who saw the Spirit of God rising in the sap of trees and plants and creating the healing goodness in herb and flower. That is why she ended all her letters to bishops with the valediction: “Stay green and moist, your lordship!”

This is a painting of Pentecost, so it is appropriate to ask: What is Pentecost? The scene recalls the event when a group of the disciples of Jesus gathered to celebrate the Jewish feast of Pentecost, the celebration of God’s gift of Torah to Moses on Mount Sinai. It was the inauguration of the New Israel. No wonder then that Luke, the author of the Acts, would choose such a. scene to portray the event which would act as a bridge between the life of Jesus and the life of the Christian Church. The scene in Acts Chapters 1 and 2 tells us that the whole group was together, apostles, disciples, the women, the brothers of Jesus (they always forget his sisters) and Mary, and “they were all filled with the Holy Spirit.” These were all Jewish women and men, celebrating a Jewish feast in a Jewish setting. The one difference from other groups at this time was that they were also gathered in memory of Jesus. Since this is clearly the biblical description of the scene, why did we – and the whole tradition – end up drawing pictures of twelve men around the Mother of Jesus? What led us to airbrush all the other women and men out of the picture? The fact that we were not seeing the scene before our eyes was first pointed out by feminist exegetes and we have now been rendered capable of seeing again. Even Pope John Paul ll sees the Pentecost scene differently, as he explains in his 1988 document on women, Mulieres Dignitatem.

So who was present at Pentecost according to Luke? There were the original 11 members of Luke’s beloved Twelve with the addition of the newly elected Matthias, chosen instead of Judas. Then there were the brothers and sisters of Jesus together with his mother. And then there were “the women”: these would have been led by Mary Magdalene, who leads every list of women in the gospels, as Peter leads the lists of men; Mary of Bethany and her sister Martha, and probably Lazarus; also Mary the mother of James, Susanna, Salome and Joanna – all mentioned as women disciples; added to these would also be the widow of Naim, the anointing woman, the bent women now standing tall and straight, and so many others filling the room, as the painting indicates. All of these received the Holy Spirit. All were destined to become active agents of the Spirit in the life of the new church. All were called to go and preach the gospel to the whole world. All participated in an inclusive discipleship, with, as yet, no bishops, priests or deacons, and no division between clergy and laity. We know that this was not what happened – and hence we see the profound importance of this painting, which destabilises centuries of one particular and incomplete version of the Pentecost story. 

In Peter’s Pentecostal sermon interpreting the event for all, he mentions the new dispensation where “sons and daughters will prophesy, and your young men will see visions and your old men shall dream dreams; yea and on my menservants and maidservants in those days I will pour out my Spirit….” (Acts 2, 14 – 20). Nevertheless already he addresses a church where only men are seen to be members, if we are to judge by the rest of his sermon to the “brothers” who are the “men of Israel”.

Here we see the workings of an androcentric canon of the scriptures, chosen specifically for the political motive of establishing men as the core membership and leadership of the new community. Even at this early stage of the Church, according to Luke’s version, women are being excluded from the telling of the story. What this painting is doing is relativising this interpretation and delegitimising it as the sole truth of the Christina story. This painting provides us with an authentic biblical image, which indicates that the Truth may not have been as we thought it was. We can choose to imagine ourselves playing a different role in the story rather than at its margins. It is no trivial thing to deconstruct the official identity formation imagery of Christianity.

It is no small thing to take up again the task of creating a Christian biblical canon, which has never reached the stage of universal Christian consensus. One of the meanings of canon in the ancient world was the official list of texts and persons who were absolutely significant for the true telling of the Christian reality. We are now adding to that list. Women, of course, have always been members of the Christian community, but every history text and every theology class for centuries has found it quite easy to omit women from the telling of the core Christian story.

Another meaning of canon is the essential framework for the whole body of belief and teaching about Christian revelation. This framework is now expanded. If the original story traced back apostolic succession to the Pentecost event, what of apostolic succession now? Are the lines of authentic teaching as straight as we thought they were? Are the authentic teachers as defined a group as we thought they were? Are the gospel preachers as exclusive a group as we thought?

The women were there and they all received the Holy Spirit, just as Mark shows us the women as the sole witnesses of the resurrection, and therefore the only ones capable of saying what really happened. The same is true of the resurrection, as we all know. What is the significance of this extraordinary presence of women, sometimes as sole witnesses, at the foundational events of Christianity? We now have to tell a different story. We have to cleanse our images. Wed have to see what bis really there. We have to re-vision women at the centre of Christianity, not on the periphery. Whenever I used to discuss this kind of thing with my mother, she always said, “ Sure Mary, I always knew that”. I have a sense that this is true of many women. Now we must open our eyes, re-imagine ourselves at the centre of the story and stand with our brothers as among all those who received the gift of the Spirit. This painting provides a wonderful impetus for this earth-shattering task.

Mary T. Malone

Mary T. Malone was born in Ballycanew, Co. Wexford, in 1938, 3rd child and first girl in a family of eight. After secondary school in Bunclody, she joined the FCJ’s (Faithful Companions of Jesus) and spent 17 years with the community. BA at UCD in 1962, B. Ed, Manchester 1963. She went to Canada in 1964, attended University of Toronto and got a Ph. D. in 1970 in Classics Department. Her thesis dealt with Christian attitudes towards women in the first four centuries.

She taught at Toronto School of Theology 1974 – 1987 in the faculty of the Archdiocesan Seminary, St. Augustine’s. She went to St. Jerome’s University, Waterloo 1987 – 1998 to the department of Religious Studies, and was chair of the cross campus department for the last few years there. Taught mostly Church History, History of Women in Christianity, Feminist theology, and courses on Mary and women in World Religions.

She was married to Michael James McCarroll in 1980 and was widowed in 1987.

After 34 years in Canada, she returned to Ireland in 1998 and “feels like a cherished citizen of two countries”.

She is the author of a trilogy on Women and Christianity (2000, 2001, 2003); Praying with the Women Mystics (2006); The Elephant in the Church: A Woman’s Tract for Our Times (2014): and Four Women Doctors (2015).

 

How Roman Catholic Women Priests’ Liturgies Are Renewing the Church - Expanding the Participation of the Gathered Community in the Eucharist by Rev. Dr. Bridget Mary Meehan ARCWP

The Roman Catholic Women Priests movement is renewing the Church by reclaiming an ancient understanding of Eucharist as the sacred action of the whole community, not the performance of one ordained person standing above the people. In our inclusive Catholic communities, liturgy is not something done to the faithful; it is something created with and by the gathered community as the People of God.

This renewal flows directly from the vision of the early Christian communities and from the promise of the Second Vatican Council, which called for the “full, conscious, and active participation” of all the baptized in the liturgy. Yet, in many parish settings, participation often remains limited to responses and ritual gestures while the priest remains the central actor. In contrast, Roman Catholic Women Priests communities are living a renewed ecclesiology in which all are invited to share their gifts, voices, wisdom, and leadership in the celebration of Eucharist.

In our communities, people do not merely “attend Mass.” Together, we create liturgy through shared preaching, dialogue homilies, communal Eucharistic prayer, creative ritual, music, silence, storytelling, and participatory leadership. The Spirit speaks through the entire assembly. This reflects our belief that the Church is a community of baptized equals in which every person bears the image of the Holy One and carries the Spirit within them.

The Eucharist becomes a living experience of Gospel equality. During the Eucharistic Prayer, the gathered community often joins in praying the words of consecration and remembrance together. This shared prayer reflects the theological conviction that Eucharist is the prayer of the People of God. The presider serves within the community, not above it. In this model of priestly ministry, the priest is a sacramental presence of servant leadership and communal love rather than an isolated sacred authority.

This renewed participation transforms consciousness. Many people who come to our liturgies describe profound healing after years of exclusion, silence, or spiritual marginalization within the institutional Church. Women, LGBTQ+ persons, divorced Catholics, seekers, and those wounded by clericalism often discover, sometimes for the first time, that they are truly welcome at Christ’s table.

Inclusive language also plays an important role in renewing the Church’s liturgical life. Language shapes spirituality and theology. For centuries, almost exclusively masculine imagery for God reinforced patriarchal understandings of authority and holiness. In our liturgies, we pray to the Holy One, Sophia, Shekinah, Creator, Loving God, and Spirit of Life. These images expand our awareness of the Divine Mystery beyond male domination and affirm that women, too, reflect the fullness of the image of God.

As feminist theologian Elizabeth A. Johnson reminds us, if women are fully created in the image of God, then female imagery for God is necessary for spiritual balance and theological wholeness. Inclusive language is not simply about changing words; it is about transforming consciousness and healing distorted images of God that have harmed countless people.

Women priests’ led liturgies also reflect a shift from atonement theology toward a theology of blessing, healing, liberation, and radical compassion. Jesus is not presented as a sacrifice demanded by an angry God, but as the embodiment of divine love who reveals our sacred worth and calls us into compassionate relationships with one another and with all creation.

This renewed theology shapes our preaching and liturgical life. Dialogue homilies invite everyone to reflect on Scripture and share how the Gospel speaks to their lived experience. Feminist biblical scholarship helps communities recover the voices of women in the early Church such as Mary Magdalene, Phoebe, Junia, Lydia, and the Samaritan woman. These women were leaders, apostles, teachers, evangelizers, and proclaimers of resurrection faith. Their stories challenge centuries of patriarchal interpretation and remind us that women have always exercised spiritual leadership in the Jesus movement.

The very presence of women presiding at Eucharist is itself a sacramental sign of renewal. When communities witness women preaching, consecrating Eucharist, baptizing, anointing, and leading worship, many experience a profound transformation in their understanding of priesthood and Church. Women priests embody a renewed image of ordained ministry rooted not in power or clerical privilege, but in service, compassion, collaboration, and Gospel equality.

Of course, inclusive communities continue to discern the balance between creativity and faithfulness to the Gospel tradition. Liturgical renewal must remain grounded in communal discernment, pastoral wisdom, and the liberating message of Jesus. Yet authentic renewal has always required courage. Throughout Church history, the Spirit has continually called communities beyond rigid structures toward deeper inclusion, justice, and compassion.

The inclusive communities began by ordained members of the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests and Roman Catholic Womenpriests may be small mustard seeds today, but they are offering the wider Church a living model of renewed priestly ministry and participatory Eucharistic community.

In our liturgies, we glimpse what the Church can become:

a community of equals gathered around an open table,

where all are welcome,

all are valued,

all are heard,

and all are invited to help break open the Bread of Life together.

From Phoebe to the Synod: Women Deacons and Priests Are Already Here — “What Comes from the Spirit Cannot Be Stopped” by Bridget Mary Meehan ARCWP

Deacon Loan Rocher ARCWP  and Priest Mary Kay Daniels ARCWP - Ordination October 2024 in Rome
 

Phoebe’s witness in Romans 16:1-2, the Synod on Synodality’s affirmation of women’s leadership, and the prophetic ministries of the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests (ARCWP) and Roman Catholic Women Priests (RCWP) together reveal the Holy Spirit calling the Church toward the fullness of Gospel equality. In the Synod’s Final Document, paragraph 60 affirmed that “there is no reason or impediment that should prevent women from carrying out leadership roles in the Church” and acknowledged that discernment on women in the diaconate must continue. 

These words echo the reality of the early Church where women like Phoebe served openly as deacons, leaders, benefactors, and trusted ministers within Christian communities. Today, ARCWP and RCWP continue this prophetic witness by embodying a synodal model of Church rooted in baptismal equality, shared leadership, and inclusive sacramental ministry where women serve as deacons, priests, and bishops in communities of equals.

“I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a deacon of the church at Cenchreae, so that you may welcome her in the Holy One as is fitting among the saints, and assist her in whatever she may require from you, for she has been a benefactor and leader of many, including myself.”²

Phoebe stands as a luminous witness to the leadership of women in the earliest Christian communities. Paul does not describe her merely as a helper or servant, but as a deacon (diakonos) of the church at Cenchreae. The same Greek word is used elsewhere for ordained ministers, including Paul himself and other male leaders in the early Church. Paul also calls Phoebe a prostatis—a patron, protector, and leader of many, including Paul himself.³ These titles reveal that women exercised recognized ministerial authority, pastoral leadership, and missionary responsibility in the apostolic Church.

For me, Phoebe is not simply a figure from the past. She is a mirror reflecting the future to which the Spirit is calling the Church today. The Synod on Synodality has invited Catholics into deeper listening, shared discernment, and co-responsibility in the life of the Church. In many ways, inclusive Catholic communities led by deacons and priests in ARCWP and RCWP are already living this synodal vision through collaborative leadership, dialogue homilies, open-table Eucharist, and communities where all the baptized are recognized as equal in dignity and giftedness.

Yet, while affirming women’s leadership is an important step, genuine equality in the Church cannot stop short of ordination. Women cannot be fully equal while remaining excluded from sacramental and ordained ministry solely because of gender. Baptismal equality must lead to sacramental equality. Anything less leaves women in a subordinate place within the institutional Church and contradicts the Gospel vision proclaimed by Jesus, who called women and men alike to discipleship, leadership, and service.

The women priests movement witnesses publicly that the Spirit continues to call women to ordained ministry today. Like Phoebe, women priests and deacons carry the Gospel across boundaries of exclusion and injustice. We serve inclusive communities where all are welcome—married or single, LGBTQ+, divorced and remarried, believers and seekers. Around our Eucharistic tables, leadership is shared and the community prays together as a people of equals. In these communities, we experience what the Church can become when hierarchy gives way to partnership and domination yields to mutual service.

Phoebe’s ministry is not an isolated historical footnote hidden in Scripture. She is a prophetic sign for our time. As the Synod calls the Church to become more synodal, participatory, and inclusive, Phoebe reminds us that the future of the Church may actually be a return to the Spirit-filled inclusivity of its beginnings. For the fullness of Gospel equality to flourish, women must be ordained and welcomed fully into every dimension of ecclesial life and sacramental ministry. Only then can the Church truly become the community of equals envisioned by Jesus—rooted in justice, mutual service, compassion, and the liberating love of Christ.

¹ Synod on Synodality, Final Document, Paragraph 60, 2024.
² Romans 16:1-2, inclusive translation.
³ See Gary Macy, The Hidden History of Women’s Ordination; Phyllis Zagano, Women Deacons: Past, Present, Future.

Vatican Statement Supports Women’s Leadership in the Church

 #womenpriestsnow

#ordainwomen

Romans 16:1-2 –

“I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a deacon of the church at Cenchreae, so that you may welcome her in the Holy One as is fitting among the saints, and assist her in whatever she may require from you, for she has been a benefactor and leader of many, including myself.”
—Romans 16:1-2 (inclusive translation)

Phoebe stands as a luminous witness to the leadership of women in the early Christian communities. Paul does not describe her merely as a helper or servant, but as a deacon (διάκονος) of the church at Cenchreae. The same Greek word is used elsewhere for ordained ministers, including Paul himself and other male leaders in the early Church. Phoebe was also called a prostatis—a patron, benefactor, and leader—indicating that she exercised authority, pastoral care, and spiritual leadership within the community.

For women deacons and priests today, Phoebe’s witness is both affirming and prophetic. She reminds us that women’s ordained ministry is not a modern invention but is rooted in the Gospel and in the lived experience of the early Church. Long before institutional barriers excluded women from holy orders, women like Phoebe preached the Good News, led house churches, offered pastoral care, and served as trusted emissaries of the apostolic community.

Phoebe’s story challenges the Church to remember its own origins. The Spirit called women and men alike to ministry through baptism and gifted them for service according to their charisms, not according to gender. In our own time, women deacons and priests continue Phoebe’s legacy by serving inclusive communities where all are welcome at the Eucharistic table and where leadership is shared in a community of equals.

Like Phoebe, women in ordained ministry today carry the Gospel across boundaries of exclusion and injustice. We proclaim through our lives that the Holy One calls women fully and equally to preach, preside, and serve the People of God. Phoebe’s ministry is not an exception hidden in Scripture—it is a signpost pointing toward the Church’s future: a renewed Church rooted in Gospel equality, mutual service, and the liberating love of Christ.

Letting Go into Infinite Love by Bridget Mary Meehan ARCWP

When I am tempted to dwell on my past mistakes or failures, I have learned again and again that healing cannot happen if I keep reopening old wounds. Forgiveness of self and others means letting go and trusting that God’s love within us is more than enough to make us whole.

There is a difference between honestly acknowledging our pain and becoming trapped in endless reflection on it. At some point, we are invited to trust enough to let go and allow God’s healing love to mend the wounded places within us and within our relationships. When we surrender ourselves to Infinite Love, our hearts slowly open again. Compassion replaces bitterness, peace quiets our fears, and our prayers become blessings flowing outward to others.

For me, praying with an open heart helps me place the past into God’s loving hands and trust in Divine Providence to guide me forward with greater understanding, humility, and grace. Prayer becomes a kind of divine therapy that gently releases me from useless anxiety over situations that belong to the past and cannot be changed, fixed, or undone.

I am learning that forgiveness and healing invite us not to remain imprisoned by old wounds, but to open ourselves to the transforming power of Infinite Love. As we grow spiritually, we begin to see ourselves and one another more as God sees us — not defined by our failures, fears, or conflicts, but as beloved companions on the journey, completely loved and continually becoming.

This does not erase accountability or the lessons life teaches us through suffering and struggle. Rather, it allows us to move forward with tender hearts, deeper wisdom, and renewed compassion for ourselves and for one another. I believe this is part of the sacred work of becoming ever more fully the Body of Christ in our world today.

Rev.Teresa Keogh ARCWP in Ottawa , Canada: Serving God’s people as a Chaplain, Presider , and Pastor

Teresa is a priest who presides at liturgies -

in  St. Phoebe’s Catholic Community in Ottawa, Canada 

She serves as both a Priest and Music Minister 

Teresa presided at her mother’s and brother’s funeral Liturgy in England

Teresa has served as a Chaplain on a Cruise Ship

Teresa ministers to staff on Cruise Ship

Teresa prays with workers on Cruise Ship Restaurant 

Teresa ministers as a Chaplain in a hospital in Ottawa, Canada

Books by Bridget Mary Meehan on Amazon

 https://author.amazon.com/books

"Come to the Well": A Prayer Journey for Women Called to Ministry Today by Bridget Mary Meehan

https://open.substack.com/pub/bridgetmarymeehan/p/come-to-the-well-a-prayer-journey?r=2kfqor&utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web

Today we come carrying our own water jars:

our hopes and fears,

our callings and doubts 

our wounds from exclusion

our longing to serve your people.

Meet us here, O Christ,
as you met the Samaritan woman—
without judgment,
without hierarchy,
without fear.

Awaken within us the fountain of living water
that no institution can silence
and no patriarchy can contain.

Amen.

Article in English: "In Spain, the woman priest who defies the Vatican -Christina Moreira ARCWP

https://www.lemonde.fr/le-monde-des-religions/article/2026/05/10/en-espagne-la-femme-pretre-qui-defie-le-vatican_6687671_6038514.html 

"Christina Moreira, who claims the right of women to the priesthood, was excommunicated by the Vatican for coveting a place reserved for men. She continued her vocation as a Priest, which disturbed even the top of the Church, in a Galician parish. By Pierre Terraz (A Coruña (Spain)

In Spain, the woman priest who defies the Vatican

Christina Moreira, who claims the right of women to the priesthood, was excommunicated by the Vatican for coveting a place reserved for men. She continued her vocation as a priestess, which disturbed even the top of the Church, in a Galician parish.

By Pierre Terraz (A Coruña (Spain), special correspondent)

Christina Moreira at the altar of her informal parish in A Coruña, Spain, April 5, 2026.  PIERRE TERRAZ

"This is our low-cost sacristy," Christina Moreira jokes as she opens a locker inside which she retrieves a porcelain chalice and a bottle of Spanish liqueur that will be used as mass wine. This Sunday morning, the woman of religion is busy preparing for the Easter celebration that should soon begin in the heart of this small church in the city center of A Coruña, in northern Spain.

Accustomed to the place, the faithful enter the chapel discreetly nestled on the fourth floor of a residential building by an elevator. Except for this handful of regulars, who have found their way without difficulty and for whom everything seems normal, what is about to happen here is nothing ordinary. The altar is a desk covered with a white tablecloth, the host a loaf of bread bought that morning in a neighborhood bakery, and the priest is a woman.

Ordained in 2015 after an obstacle course, then consecrated bishop in 2025, Christina remembers precisely the day of her call. "I was 14 years old. To prepare for a catechism class, I reread a passage from the Last Supper, Jesus' last supper, surrounded by his apostles. All of a sudden, I was carried to the table next to Christ and I heard him say to me: 'You will do this in memory of me,'" she recalls, still shaken by the event.

Aware that the priesthood was forbidden to women, she decided to open up to her parish priest: a tutelary figure, at the time, for this daughter of Spanish immigrants who had fled the Franco dictatorship (from 1936 to 1975), before landing in the working-class Parisian suburb of Villiers-le-Bel (Val-d'Oise). The latter acknowledges that her vocation seems real, but he orders her never to talk about it again so as not to "hurt" those around her. He encourages her to become a nun, while gradually distancing herself from the young girl. "He wanted to lock me up in a convent, to turn me into a contemplative," says Christina.

A religious procession during the "Semana santa" preceding Easter in the Spanish tradition, in A Coruña, Spain, on April 4, 2026.  PIERRE TERRAZ

What follows is a crossing of the desert. One evening, as she puts on her pajamas, young Christina stands naked in front of the cross hanging on the wall in her room and implores: "Lord, if you call me to serve you, why did you give me this body? Why did you make me a woman? Lost, she finally decided to move away from religion and get closer to her roots.

Obsession

After her baccalaureate, she went to Spain for a holiday during which she decreed that her only goal would be "to go out clubbing and meet boys". There she married a man she had met at a party and moved with him to Galicia at the age of 20. For years, she did everything she could to channel her obsession, which never really left her. Even though she gives catechism classes and invests herself in the life of her parish, Christina refuses to come out again  for fear of being ostracized by the community. A trying period, with a husband who turns out to be violent towards her. In 2010, an event will once again change Christina's destiny. As she reads the motu proprio, a declaration of the pope that promises excommunication to all those who abuse children within the Church, a shock hits her right in the heart. "I was enjoying myself internally as the lines went by. I kept repeating to myself: "Bravo, bravo, my dear Benedict XVI"! It wasn't too soon, with everything we knew... »

At the end of the text, a short mention warns that any woman ordained by a member of the clergy will be entitled to the same treatment, in reaction to an event that took place in 2002 on the Danube: in a boat, seven women were made priests for the first time by male bishops, outside any official jurisdiction of the Catholic Church. "There, we were put squarely on the same level as pedophiles. I was devastated," she says.

The fear of being removed from an institution that she now considers "rotten from the inside" is gone. Christina gets in touch with the "Danube Seven". At the same time, she spoke about her vocation to a Galician priest, Father Victorino, who was the first to support her. "He listened to me without interrupting me and said, 'If you had been a man, you would be a priest today.'"

Immediately excommunicated

Over the course of several discussions, Christina's mystical revelations are studied by the sisters of the community. Christina's call to be a priest is finally judged to be true. In 2015, she was ordained a priest "in the catacombs" — a phrase from the time of the first persecuted Christians, meaning "secretly" — by female bishop Bridget Mary Meehan in the city of Sarasota, Florida.

When the thing got out, Christina was immediately excommunicated by the Vatican. Back in Galicia, she still managed to join an informal parish founded by a progressive priest named Manuel Espiña Gamallo. She was allowed to celebrate her first Masses, during which she was finally able to give the Eucharist, as in the vision she had had as a little girl. The same chapel where Christina officiates today, this Easter.

Christina Moreira breaks a loaf of bread to give communion, during Easter Mass, in A Coruña, Spain, on April 5, 2026.  PIERRE TERRAZ

The Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests, which campaigns for the ordination of women within the Catholic Church, now lists between 250 and 300 female vocations in the world. All of them made impossible by canon law. However, the Franco-Spanish priestess assures her: "The Church urgently needs women. Many of the faithful have confessed to me that they would not have confessed on certain subjects if I had been a man, especially on issues of sexual and intra-family violence. Mothers also trust me more than others. During his life, dozens of men came to confession in his parish about acts of assault, rape and violence against their spouses, for fear of being rejected if they spoke about it within the "official" Church.

On October 4, 2023, Christina was even called, despite her excommunication, to participate in the opening Mass of the synod on synodality at the Vatican. This event at the initiative of Pope Francis brought together bishops from all over the world to reflect on how the Church could become more inclusive. On this occasion, the priestess is invited to meet important personalities of the clergy, whose identities she is forbidden to reveal, to share her testimony. A cardinal is said to have confessed to him that he was "completely upset in his vision of dogma" at the end of this meeting.

"Women priests, we are a bit like Rosa Parks"

On the same day, she went to St. Peter's Square, where she decided to put on her alb and stole in public. She was arrested by the police, who took her to the police station without knowing what to blame the harmless fifty-year-old for. An agent eventually finds a law introduced under Mussolini prohibiting citizens from wearing the uniform of a profession that is not theirs, to justify police custody.

Christina retaliates, trying to explain that she is a priest and that she has even just been invited to think about a better integration of women in the Church. Ironically, her sacred clothes were confiscated, and she was released without being given a copy of the declaration she had to sign in exchange. "Women priests are a bit like Rosa Parks: we decided to sit in the wrong place, so we are made to pay for it," she concludes with disappointment."

A Prayer of Gratitude on Mother’s Day for my Mother, Bridie Meehan

 

Loving God,
On this Mother’s Day, I hold close in my heart the precious memory of my mother, Bridie Meehan.

I thank You for the gift of her life,
for her love that nurtured me,
for her wisdom that guided me,
for her courage, faith, and compassion that continue to inspire me each day.

Though she is no longer present to me in body,
her spirit lives on in the kindness she shared,
the love she planted in our family,
and the countless blessings she gave so freely.

I remember how she led us in prayer—
the rosary whispered beside the fire
in our cozy cottage in Coolkerry.
Those sacred evenings wrapped our family in love and faith,
while the warmth of the fire and the rhythm of her prayers
made our little home a holy place.

She was a woman of mountain-moving faith,
whose trust in Divine Providence knew no bounds.
In times of struggle and uncertainty,
she believed with all her heart
that God’s love would guide us through.

She showed me what true equality meant as a child
when she shared her homemade scones and loving hospitality
with Mrs. Adams, our wheelchair-bound neighbor next door.
In her gentle compassion, she taught me
that every person is worthy of dignity, friendship, and love.

She was my first teacher in the ways of love,
in the hospitality of Jesus,
in kindness freely given,
and in care for those who might otherwise be forgotten.

Today I remember her smile,
her gentle strength,
her sacrifices and tender care.- the many  cups of tea and soda bread at her table
I remember the ways she reflected Your Divine Love
in ordinary moments made holy by her presence.

May Bridie now rest in the embrace of Eternal Love,
surrounded by light, peace, and joy.
And may I continue to honor her memory
by living into her goodness and kindness,
by welcoming others with an open heart,
and by carrying forward the love she so beautifully embodied.

On this sacred day of remembrance,
I feel her love still with me—
like a quiet blessing,
like a warm embrace,
like a song that never ends.

Amen.

An Offering of Love by Bridget Mary Meehan

 https://substack.com/@bridgetmarymeehan/note/c-256481221?r=2kfqor&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=notes-share-action

An Offering of Love by Bridget Mary Meehan

In the heart of Infinite Love there are no strangers, no outsiders, no one forgotten.

We are gathered like stars in the holy night, each one shining with the light of the Holy One who lives and breathes within us.

Love is the sacred river flowing through every soul, through the broken places, through the joyful songs, through the silent tears we carry into the mystery of becoming.

The Holy Presence wraps the world in tenderness— in the laughter of children, in the courage of prophets, in the wisdom of elders, in the aching hope for justice and peace.

And still, Infinite Love whispers: “You belong. You are my beloved. You are held forever in the embrace of mercy.”

So let us become an offering of love for one another.

Let us set wider tables, heal wounded hearts, lift up those pushed aside, and kindle compassion where fear once lived.

May our lives become Eucharist— bread broken and shared for the healing of the world.

May our hands carry blessing. May our voices speak kindness. May our communities reflect the radiant circle of Divine Love where all are welcome and all are one.

For Infinite Love has no edges, no borders, no ending.

Only the eternal invitation to rise together rooted in hope, rising in love.