Why Do You Think the Vatican is Reaffirming Ban on Women Priests as "Definitive", 10 Years after they have done so? What's up with that? Bridget Mary Meehan #womenpriestsnow

St. Joan of Arc, patron saint of all who follow their consciences in prophetic obedience to the Spirit in spite of church condemnation

The Roman Catholic Church celebrates the feast of St Joan of Arc, who was burned at the stake for following her conscience on May 30th. Ten years ago, on her feast day, the Vatican reaffirmed the ban on women priests and decreed that the penalty for violation of the ban would be automatic excommunication. Now they have reaffirmed the ban on women priests as definitive teaching. Why now, 10 years later? What's up with that?
Let's consider possible reasons:
1. Every ten years the Vatican wants to open a new dialogue on the topic.
2. They want us to issue a progress report. Yes, we keep growing and flourishing. There are approximately 250 in the international RCWP Movement.
3. They connect us with St. Joan of Arc, the patron saint of all who follow primacy of conscience in living the Gospel of prophetic obedience today. 
4. They are considering ordaining women deacons and want to make sure no one is confused that women priests are coming soon!
 What do you think? Email me at sofiabmm@aol.com
Bridget Mary Meehan #womenpriestsnow, https://.arcwp.org
Flash Back to 10 Years Ago: 
https://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/31/world/europe/31vatican.html

Vatican Asserts Rule That Bars Female Priests

By ELISABETTA POVOLEDOMAY 31, 2008

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ROME — The Vatican on Friday reaffirmed a ban on ordaining women as priests, warning that the consequences of any such ordination would be the automatic excommunication of anyone involved.

The decree was a reaction to specific episodes of “so-called ordinations in various parts of the world,” according to Msgr. Angelo Amato, the secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which issued the decree. In recent years, dozens of women have been ordained by individuals acting outside of the church’s authority.

The document was also drafted to give bishops uniform guidelines on an increasingly contentious matter, as a growing number of Catholics contest the church’s position that only men can be ordained as priests.

In an interview for Vatican Radio, Monsignor Amato reiterated that the church did “not feel authorized to change the will of its founder, Jesus Christ.” The Vatican, he added, felt “in good company” because the Orthodox and ancient Eastern churches have also preserved what he said was a 2,000-year-old tradition.

The decree went into effect on Thursday, after it was published in the Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano.

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Last March, the archbishop of St. Louis, Raymond L. Burke, excommunicated two women in his diocese and another living in Germany after they were ordained as priests as part of the Roman Catholic Womenpriests organizationIn the past six years, the organization says it has ordained more than 50 women and some men as priests and deacons in North America and Europe. In 2002, the Vatican excommunicated the first seven women shortly after the organization designated them priests. On Friday, Bridget Mary Meehan, a spokeswoman for the group, said the excommunication, which extends to both the women and the bishops ordaining them, was a positive sign “that the Vatican is taking us seriously.”Excommunicated Catholics cannot participate in the sacraments or public ceremonies or hold any ecclesiastical position."