Olga Lucia Alvarez Benjumea ARCWP: My Experience of Priesthood, Seven Years After Ordination in Colombia, South America

Olga Lucia Alvarex Benjumea ARCWP, Colombia, South America

May I share my experience as a woman priest in my 7th year of ordination?

Thank you! With your permission I'll tell you.

When I was ordained my close friends questioned me from head to foot:

"Why did you become a priest ? To be like the priests? "Dressed like them?" "Celebrating just like them?" "We need priests, yes, but different from them." "Very easy, to be a priest, they only seek” power, and to be revered", "Everything very comfortable, they just expect that people come to the temple". "Why does the Church reject you?"

My answers: I became a priest to make the Gospel known, breaking the walls and the distance between the altar and the faithful, following the example of the pioneers of the Gospel: Mary, the mother of Jesus, who runs carrying him in her womb to share him with his cousin, crossing dangerous territories; and Mary of Magdala, who also hurries to deliver the announcement, as Jesus mandated her to bring it to his friends in Galilee. Although the boys did not believe her very much. It seems that same thing happens today. Isn't it?

The alb I use is a Guajira manta. I put on my adornments and earrings and even a little perfume.

We have no temples. We go wherever they call us, request a service, look for and support.

I go there walking, by bus, by Metro. Or by Transmilenio (Bogota). I do not have bodyguards.

Sacramental blessings and graces: we receive them free of charge from God, and free of charge we share them.

The Church does not reject us. The Church are you, are all of us. No, we have not left the Church. No one can erase, snatch away or remove my Baptism. In the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy there is a norm written by men, it is Canon 1024, which says: "Only baptized men can be ordained." It is a law, quite strange. We are asking that it be abolished, and for this to happen we hope to count on your support. The issue is more one of culture and society than a religious matter, that is why it concerns all of you with more reason.

I believe, the Gospel has a feminine face.

There is another Canon very interesting and not so negative, but it does not apply, can 1026 says: "It is necessary that whoever is going to be ordained enjoys the necessary freedom; It is strictly forbidden to compel anyone in any way and for any reason to receive the orders as well as to remove from their reception one who is canonically suitable. "

Up to here my brothers and sisters. Another day we continue ...

 * Catholic Woman Priest