Representatives of Roman Catholic Womenpriests Go to Rome to Celebrate with Pope Benedict Women's Call to Priestly Ministry

FOR RELEASE: June 8, 2010

Contact: Mary Ann M. Schoettly, Roman Catholic Women Priests, mschoettly@gmail.com, 973-579-1042 (USA)

(Rome, Italy) – This week, on the occasion of the close of the Year for Priests, designated by Pope Benedict XVI, priests from all over the world are invited to closing celebrations at the Vatican. Representatives of Roman Catholic Women Priests – North America, will join with international representatives from around the world in celebrating, with their brother priests, the call and service of priestly ministry. Between eight and ten women, all supporters of women's full inclusion the Roman Catholic Church, and in collaboration with Women’s Ordination Conference – USA, will gather peacefully in St. Peter’s Square to give witness to the reality of women’s call to ordained ministry which comes through the Holy Spirit of God.

The Roman Catholic Women Priests movement is an initiative within the Church that began with the ordination of seven women on the Danube River in 2002. Reclaiming our ancient spiritual heritage, women priests are shaping a more inclusive, Christ-centered Church of equals in the twenty-first century. Women bishops ordained in full apostolic succession continue to carry on the work of ordaining others in the Roman Catholic Church. We advocate a new model of priestly ministry united with the people with whom we serve. We are rooted in a response to Jesus who called women and men to be disciples and equals living the Gospel.

Roman Catholic Women Priests are at the forefront of a model of service that offers Catholics a renewed priestly ministry in vibrant grassroots communities where all are equal and all are welcome. The voice of the Catholic people---the sensus fidelium---has spoken. Women are no longer asking for permission to be priests. Instead, they are claiming their rightful God-given place ministering to Catholics as inclusive and welcoming priests.

The ordained women of the Roman Catholic Women Priest movement have challenged and broken the Church's Canon Law 1024, an unjust law that discriminates against women. "An unjust law is no law at all", said St Augustine. If a law is not really a law at all, it is argued, one has a right -- even a duty -- to break it. Pope Benedict XVI, as Joseph Ratzinger, said: "Over the Pope as expression of the binding claim of ecclesiastical authority, there stands one’s own conscience which must be obeyed before all else, even if necessary against the requirement of ecclesiastical authority.” (Joseph Ratzinger in: Commentary on the Documents of Vatican II ,Vol. V., pg. 134 (Ed) H. Vorgrimler, New York Herder and Herder, 1967).

After years of considerable study and reflection, the women of RCWP are following their well formed consciences and accepting the gift of ordination.

Despite what some bishops may lead the faithful to believe, the women’s ordinations are valid because they are ordained in the line of unbroken apostolic succession within the Roman Catholic Church. Because the ordinations are not officially approved by the Vatican, the ordinations are, however, illegal.

According to the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, in a statement on May 29, 2008 published in L'Observatorio Romano – the Vatican’s official newspaper - “women priests and the bishops who ordain them are excommunicated latae sententiae.”

Roman Catholic Women Priests reject the penalty of excommunication, stating that the Roman Catholic Women Priests are loyal members of the church who stand in the prophetic tradition of holy obedience to the Spirit’s call to change an unjust law that discriminates against them. The movement is receiving enthusiastic responses on the local, national and international level. The women say that they will continue to serve their beloved church in a renewed model of priestly ministry that welcomes all to celebrate the sacraments in inclusive, Christ-centered, Spirit-empowered communities.

“Catholic people have accepted us as their priests and they continue to support us as we grow from the seven bold women first ordained on the Danube River in 2002. Over 100 ordained women are already ministering in communities across the United States and in Canada and Europe. We are here to stay. We are not going away” (Mary Ann M. Schoettly, RCWP)

For more information, visit www.romancatholicwomenpriests.org
Check out our movement and stories in our book: Women Find a Way.
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Bridget Mary Meehan
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