Media links to Stories on Atlanta Ordination of Diane Dougherty as a Roman Catholic Woman Priest: "Former Nun Faces Excommunication"/WXIA/NBC)/Story updated on Oct. 20th

Woman to ordained as Ga's first female Catholic priest MyFox Atlanta However, the Roman Catholic Church says she will be excommunicated because the church does recognize women priests or the ordination service she will ...

Atlanta woman faces excommunication for seeking to be a priest WXIA-TV The Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests has ordained, worldwide, some 140 women as priests in its organization, so far. The campaign for women ...

Statement from Atlanta Bishop Wilton Gregory on ordination of women WXIA-TV The attempt to "ordain" women by the group titled "Roman Catholic Womenpriests" brings division and fractures unity in the Church. The Congregation for the ...

Diane Dougherty warned she'll be excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church if she's ordained as a priest by The Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests.

(Source: WXIA/NBC)

 

ATLANTA (WXIA/NBC) - "A Georgia woman, a former nun, is seeking to change the Roman Catholic Church, realizing she will soon be excommunicated from the church.

On Saturday Diane Dougherty is going to be ordained as a priest, not in the Catholic Church, but in an organization called The Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests.

It is an international organization that the Catholic church condemns.

Dougherty wants to be part of changing the church she loves, realizing and accepting the consequences of what the church considers her defiance and disobedience.

She is just obeying God, she said Wednesday.

"God calls all of us, and if we happen to be a woman, there shouldn't be these structures that keep us from it," Dougherty said.

The Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests has ordained some 140 women as priests in its organization so far.

The campaign for women priests drew Pope Benedict's personal condemnation this past April.

"If God calls, you have to respond," Doughtery says, never more certain that her mission is divinely inspired and led. "So I've said I'm not leaving Catholicism, I'm just going to lead it in a different direction."

Dougherty plans to serve as priest to a community of believers in Atlanta that wants the church to change...."

Bridget Mary's Reflection:

There is one incorrect face in the above article. The international  movement has approximately 150 members. The Association is one of the branches of the international movement  who has branches in Europe, Canada, U.S. and South America. Our model of governance is egalitarian and our mission includes promotion  of social justice as constitutive to the Gospel: justice for all, justice for the poor and marginalized, justice for women and justice for women in the church including ordination in a renewed priestly ministry in a community of equals. www.arcwp.org