ARCWP Debra Meyers Ordination Homily by Bridget Mary Meehan (May 25, 2013)

Homily: “Samaritan Woman -Apostle of Gospel Equality”

By Bridget Mary Meehan, ARCWP

We rejoice because Debra Meyers, a professor of history and women’s studies at Northern Kentucky University, will be ordained today as the first Roman Catholic Woman Priest in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Debra Meyers joins her sister priests Janice Sevre-Duszynska, Donna Rougeux, and Rosemarie Smead in sacramental ministry to the people of God in the Kentucky and Ohio area.

Today, like the Samaritan woman, Debra will leave her water jar behind and proclaim a new Pentecost of God’s love for all as she ministers on the margins as a woman priest, living God’s compassion and justice in a community of equals!

 The ministry of Debra Meyers is a living witness to our liberating God’s presence in this local community. Debra serves single mothers in her work as a professor and student advisor in order to empower women to break the cycle of poverty. In our society one out of six Americans lives in poverty. Single mothers and their children represent a disproportionate share of the impoverished and many women can only find jobs that pay less than a living wage.  According to UN statistics, two-thirds of the illiterate, the hungry and the poorest of the poor are women. The vast majority of single mothers have little hope of escaping the desperate cycle of poverty without a college degree. 

Debra follows in the footsteps of giants like feminist theologian  Sister Joan Chittister, a long time advocate for social, cultural, and economic changes that will allow women to rise from poverty."In a recent article from her column published in the National Catholic Reporter entitled: “Where I Stand”,  Sister Joan commented on the reasons given by the Vatican for the hostile take-over of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious: “Because, they say, the work of the nuns has been "tainted by radical feminism." Well, if working to elevate the role and status of women around the world is tainted work, then we are obviously guilty as charged. After all, nuns were the first people in the church to set up schools to educate Catholic girls. ..From where I stand, if that's what it is to be "tainted by radical feminism," then finally, finally, let the Gospel begin in this entire church.”

Another nun, Sister Megan Rice, like the prophets in the bible, reminds us of the cost of standing up for justice. Last summer, the 82 year old nun, accompanied by fellow social justice activists, Michael Walli and Gregory Obed broke into a Nuclear Weapons Facility in Tennessee. Sister Megan sums up their courageous witness in these words:”It’s idolatry putting trust in weapons. Weapons are always false gods because they make money. It’s profiteering.”When the three prophets were apprehended by a guard, they lit candles and prayed. A jury found them guilty. They were immediately jailed and await sentencing. (“The Prophets of Oak Ridge, by Dan Zak, Washington Post, April 30^th, 2013)

Rejection, hostility, and jail are nothing new for followers of Christ, either in the Gospel or in our contemporary world. Once again, we celebrate Pentecost fire empowering us and the Spirit of God calling us to live the fullness of our baptism as prophets and apostles today in the new creation.

The good news is that women in the Gospels, and women today are prophets and apostles and that Jesus was a radical feminist. The story of the Samaritan woman reveals that Jesus engaged a woman in the longest conversation in the Gospels. Jesus began by asking her for a drink.

This is such a wow moment! Jesus chose this bright, assertive woman on the margins for an in- depth theological conversation that revealed his identity as Messiah, and she immediately becomes an apostle.  Can you imagine the photos and story running in the Tabloids today? “Female Sex Worker turned Evangelist Converts City; Religious Leaders Appalled!”

Scholars remind us that the story of the Samaritan woman reflects the esteem that the Johannine community had for its women leaders. Jesus offered a profound example of Gospel equality that shocked his male apostles then, and continues to shock today- especially the Roman Catholic hierarchy.

Their response to why women can’t be priests today goes along these lines: “God calling women to be priests? You have got to be kidding right! Jesus was a man. Only men have the right equipment, so to speak!?”

Today God is calling women to be leaders in the church proclaiming freedom and equality in ways that will liberate and heal us from the bondage of sexism and patriarchy. Perhaps, this encounter with the woman at the well, reminds us that rule- keeping and social or religious acceptability is not what true religion is about. Now more than ever we need to proclaim by our words and lives that God is love and that all people are loved and blessed by God. No one is excluded from the divine embrace. All are invited to the Banquet: the divorced and remarried, gays, lesbians, transgender, women and men, all races, all cultures, everyone! We don’t need to be perfect, we just need to show up, to have a conversation or even an argument with God! Isn’t that what being an apostle, a prophet. a Christian is all about?

Now I would like to share with you a brief overview of the Roman Catholic Women Priests Movement. Roman Catholic Women Priests are ordained in apostolic succession because a male bishop with apostolic succession and in communion with the pope ordained our first bishops! The anonymous bishop told the women that he ordained them to promote justice in our church.

 It has been over ten years since seven women were ordained on the Danube in 2002. In 2006, 12 women were ordained in Pittsburgh in the first U.S. Ordinations. Now there are over 150 in our movement in Europe, U.S., Canada, and Latin America. There are over 60 inclusive communities in the U.S. led by women priests, and we are in 30 states.

As part of an international Roman Catholic Women Priests initiative, the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests claims justice as constitutive of the Gospel and equality as a human right. Our vision is justice for all, justice for the poor and marginalized, justice for women, and justice for women in the church including ordination. 

 Women priests are visible reminders that women are equal images of God, and therefore worthy to preside at the altar.  We are living prophetic obedience to the Spirit by disobeying an unjust, man-made, canon law that discriminates against women in our church. Sexism, like racism, is a sin. Like Rosa Parks, whose refusal to sit in the back of the bus helped to ignite the civil rights movement, the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests are not leaving the church, but leading the Catholic Church into a new era of justice and equality. No punishment, including excommunication, can stop this movement of the Spirit. In fact, one could argue that Pope Benedict, who canonized two excommunicated nuns, has made excommunication the new fast track to canonization! 

Now the question is how will Pope Francis respond to the women priests’ movement in our church? I pray that our new pope will follow Jesus’ example of Gospel equality and that he will appoint women to some of the top positions in the Vatican to help reform the clerical structure in our church.


 Now we ordain our Sister, Debra Meyers.  Like the  Samaritan woman, Debra will proclaim the depths of God’s love and welcome all to the Table of Plenty. Let us rejoice with Debra Meyers as she is ordained a Roman Catholic Woman Priest today!


Bridget Mary Meehan, D.Min., a Sister for Christian Community, was ordained a Roman Catholic priest in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on July 31, 2006. Dr. Meehan is currently Dean of the Doctor of Ministry Program for Global Ministries University, and is the author of 19 books, including Praying with Women of the Bible, and   Living Gospel Equality Now: Loving in the Heart of God.
She presides at liturgies in Mary, Mother of Jesus Inclusive Catholic Community in Sarasota, Florida and celebrates liturgies with groups in N.Va. She was ordained a bishop on April 19, 2009. Dr. Meehan can be reached at   sofiabmm@aol.com