Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests Response to Most Frequently Asked Questions

Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests, www.arcwp.org, www.bridgetmarysblogspot

ARCWP has valid orders. Our first women bishops were ordained by a male Roman Catholic bishop with apostolic succession. Therefore our ordinations are valid.

We are disobeying an unjust law, canon 1024, that prohibits women’s ordination.  In order to change an unjust law, we must break the law. As MLK said “injustice anywhere is threat to justice everywhere.” We are “Rosa Parks” of the Catholic Church.

We are leading the church, not leaving the church. Women Priests are needed in church to give women voice and vote in church decisions in all areas of church life. Women priests at altar are visible reminders that women are equals images of God. (Genesis,  Gal:3:28)

Disconnect between Pope Francis promotion of equality in the world and institutional church’s practice of discrimination against women in the church.

It is not about what the priesthood does for women, but what women do for the priesthood. We make the connections between discrimination against women in the church and poverty, abuse, violence and injustice toward women in the world.

70 percent the world’s poor are women and their dependent children. The church’s condemnation of artificial birth control plays a major role in keeping women poor and pregnant. Women are free, responsible, moral agents who must control own fertility.

We are not clerical, but a renewed priestly ministry in a community of equals.  

We are serving inclusive Catholic communities where all are welcome to receive sacraments. Including divorced, LGBTIQ, former Catholics, non-Catholics.

Our communities are egalitarian. Everyone is invited to participate in the preparation of liturgies, and in the the governance of the community and celebration of the Eucharist:

Everyone consecrates Eucharist, gives mutual blessing and dialogue homilies.

 We preach the Gospel from women’s experiences which have been missing in our church for centuries. We use inclusive language and feminine images of God in our liturgies.

Our mission is to serve all, especially those whom the Vatican marginalizes. (33 million Catholics have left the church in the U.S.  According to a February 2014 survey by the Pew Research Center, 68 percent of US Catholics said women should be allowed to become priests.

Excommunication does not cancel our baptism.. We call on Pope Francis to lift all excommunications and honor primacy of conscience. Excommunicated today, canonized tomorrow.

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