St. Therese of Lisieux: Called to Be a Priest, Patron Saint Accompanying Women Called to be Priests

St. Therese of Lisieux, pray for women called to be priests in Ireland and throughout the world, walk with us and accompany us on the journey to inclusiveness, justice and equality in our church and everywhere. 

When we were leaving the U.S. for Ireland, we saw this plane on the runway in Newark! We thought our trip would be blessed to grow ta movement for women priests in Ireland. Indeed, our Women Priests Ireland Initiative has been profoundly blessed. WOW: Women's Ordination Worldwide

This reflection from We Are Church Ireland was published in their Fall Newsletter.

At a young age, St Thérèse testified in her diary: “I feel in me the vocation of PRIEST; with what love I would carry you in my hands when, at my words you would descend from Heaven” (Story of a Soul 8 Sept 1896).  In 1910, her sister Celine described how Thérèse had the courage to give expression to her vocation by having her hair tonsured (this shaving of the crown of the head was part of the ritual of ordination). St Thérèse of Lisieux died at the age when she would have gone forward to the priesthood if she had been a man. It is well documented that she preferred death to enduring an unfulfilled vocation. She believed God had let her become sick so she would not be disappointed. It is long overdue that the Roman Catholic Church free itself from the sin of sexism and practice radical inclusion, as Jesus did.