International Women's Month 2022: Celebrate Women Priests' 20-Year HERSTORY by Bridget Mary Meehan ARCWP

On International Women's Month, we celebrate the gifts of women everywhere. 

On the 20th anniversary of the first Ordination of Roman Catholic Women Priests on the Danube, I invite you to join me in celebrating the gifts of courageous women and inclusive communities who are writing a new chapter of "HERSTORY" in the history of the Church. 

Ordination of Danube 7 on June 29, 2002

ARCWP Retreat -2018

RCWP-USA Gathering

 Their prophetic obedience and spiritual defiance of  a man-made Canon Law, that labels the Ordination of a woman as  a grievous crime against the Church, has created an awareness that real change is possible because women priests are preaching the gospel from their lived experiences, ministering to marginalized Catholics in inclusive communities and, working with diverse groups to foster justice and peace in our world.  These women-led communities provide a spiritual home where everyone is equal, everyone is welcome and everyone can celebrate sacraments around an open table. 

If you would like to express appreciation for the ministry of an individual woman priest who has touched your life, and/or for our liberating RCWP movement, I will publish your letters of gratitude on this blog.

Let's share "HERSTORY"  on the journey to justice and the full equality of women in the Church and world. 

Joanna Moorehead's recent article in The Tablet highlights the talent of 50 remarkable women whose gifts are not being utilized by the institutional Church. She notes that she could have found 500 + women who have great gifts to offer to lead the Church to genuine renewable. 

While it is true that women have always contributed in numerous ways to the growth of Catholicism, they are limited by patriarchal structures that deny their moral agency and prohibit them from priestly ministry. 

Part of the push-back has come from far- right male- dominated clerics , and groups like Opus Dei, who are resistant to accepting women as equal partners in ministry and who are opposed to the progressive reforms initiated by Pope Francis.

 https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/pope-rules-any-baptized-lay-catholic-including-women-can-head-vatican-2022-03-19/

For those who are ready, the good news is that you don't have to wait, women priests are here to serve you now! 

Bridget Mary Meehan ARCWP

sofiabmm.bmm@gmail.com

 https://www.thetablet.co.uk/features/2/21606/leaders-the-church-can-t-have

From article: "Leaders the Church Can't Have" by Joanna Morehead, March 2, 2022,The Tablet

"To mark International Women’s Day on Tuesday The Tablet has compiled a list of 50 remarkable women. They are just a tiny fraction of the women who could, in a Church that drew fairly and equally on the gifts of all the faithful, be sharing in its leadership. These are the women who could be running parishes and managing dioceses. They could be leading Vatican departments (a handful of senior officials in the Roman Curia are women, but fewer than one in 10 of the total). They could be serving on episcopal conferences. They could be presiding at worship – though the Church’s failure to make intelligent use of the gifts and talents of women is a concern that goes deeper and further than the issue of their ordination to the diaconate or to the priesthood. Women could – and should – be redesigning the landscape in a Church that, in 2022, is in urgent need of fundamental change."