42016 ROME-ADISTA. A «holy jolt», an act of disobedience «to an unjust and man-made canon law that discriminates against women» but in prophetic obedience to the Spirit: a few hundred meters as the crow flies from the Vatican – where the Synod of Bishops is taking place, from which it seems reasonable not to expect any progress on the role of women in the Church – more than sixty people, including journalists from various countries, attended and participated in the ordination to the diaconate and priesthood of some Catholic women belonging to the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests. On October 17, on a boat anchored on the Tiber, Bishop Bridget Mary Meehan ordained as priests Belen Repiso Carrillo from Spain, the Americans Anne Malloy La Tour and Mary Katherine Daniels and three deacons, Loan Rocherfrom France and the Spanish Maria Teresa Ribeiro Rosa and Txus Garcia Pascual , two of whom are transsexuals, in a joyful liturgy that lasted over two hours, in which the assembly played a very active role and in which the candidates were introduced one by one in an affectionate and personal way.
The event is certainly not the first of its kind and took place in privacy, in the presence of only accredited persons, to avoid possible disturbances. Its meaning is the promotion of gender equality in the ordained ministry, in a Catholic Church that does not grant the ordained ministry to women and instead punishes with latae sententiaeexcommunication , that is, automatic, "both the one who has attempted to confer the sacred order on a woman, and the woman who has attempted to receive the sacred order" (art. 1024 of the Canon of Canon Law; see also no. 1379,3).
In her homily, the bishop emphasized how women have always played the role of deacon in the Church. Placing particular emphasis on the role of Mary Magdalene, the first female apostle sent to proclaim the good news of Jesus' resurrection, the bishop appealed for women to be admitted to the priesthood and diaconate: "We are ready!", she said at the end of the homily amid applause.
A story that goes back more than twenty years
Let's take a step back, because this movement has a long history, which began on June 29, 2002 on another river, the Danube, in the German city of Passau, when the first seven women were ordained by the Argentine bishop Romulo Antonio Braschi , founder of the "Charismatic Apostolic Catholic Church of Jesus the King". According to the National Catholic Reporter at the time , Bishop Braschi claimed to have been consecrated bishop twice: the first time, in 1998, by the Argentine bishop Roberto Padin , of the Catholic Apostolic Church of Brazil, and the second time, in 1999, by Jeronimo Podestá , a canonically legitimate figure in the affair, bishop of the diocese of Avellaneda in Argentina from 1962 to 1967, then removed from office for having married, and dying in 2000. This second consecration, of which there is a certificate, placing Braschi within the apostolic succession, would make the ordinations he celebrated legally valid – although illicit, according to Canon Law, since women cannot be ordained. However, Braschi was not the only "bishop" in that 2002 ordination: alongside there was the former Benedictine monk Ferdinand Regelsberger , who had been consecrated bishop by Braschi himself the month before. It seems that there was also a third bishop, probably a Czech bishop, perhaps consecrated in the context of the Czechoslovak underground Church at the time of the persecution of the Catholic Church by the communist regime, who remained anonymous to protect his identity. He too was a protagonist of clandestine female ordinations, and the seven women – who never revealed their identity – would have asked him for a second ordination, if the first was not considered valid. The bishop recounts in her homily: «There is an unconfirmed story according to which Bishop X, a Roman Catholic bishop in apostolic succession, who was traveling for this ordination was locked up in a monastery. They took his car keys and he did not arrive in time. However, on May 19, 2003, Bishop X ordained Christine Mayr-Lumetzberger and Gisela Forster as our first female Roman Catholic bishops." Similar ordinations, always celebrated on a river, followed in subsequent years: in 2005 in Lyon on a boat on the banks of the Saône; the same year, on the St. Lawrence River in Canada.
At the time of the first ordination, condemnations and criticisms did not come only from the institutional Church. A distancing had also been expressed by movements such as “We are Church”, and by www . womenpriests . org , which fights precisely for female priesthood. The fight to have women priests, they had said, must originate in the Catholic mainstream.
There is no equality in the Church
Today, these differences seem distant, and this fight for equal rights for women in the Church, even in the ordained ministry, has become common. We are Church International, present with a delegation during these days of the synodal assembly, displayed a banner with the words “Equality. For women, lay people, LGBT+, married people, everyone” during the Angelus on October 13 in St. Peter’s Square. Within minutes, the group was surrounded by the police, who ordered the banner to be removed and held seven members of the group in handcuffs for hours, demanding that they delete all the photographs taken.
“We have come to Rome to ordain deacons and priests and promote gender equality in the ordained ministry in a Church for all,” the bishop began in her homily. “We have come to Rome to share the good news that Catholic women are now serving as deacons and priests in inclusive peer communities that are expanding the tent of the Church throughout the world. We have come to Rome to engage in a ‘conversation in the Spirit’ with Pope Francis and the synod delegates. We ask that Pope Francis remove all barriers that excommunicate those who respond to the Spirit’s call to ordination.” “On April 24, Pope Francis rejected the possibility of ordaining women deacons in an interview with CBS on“60 Minutes.” When asked if a girl could ever have the opportunity to be a deacon, he said “no,” explaining that “If it’s a deacon with Holy Orders, no.” (…) My answer, if a little girl asked me if – in the future – she could become a deacon, would be: Yes, come and see!».
In April 1976, Meehan continued, the Pontifical Biblical Commission “unanimously concluded that no valid argument can be made against the ordination of women based on Scripture. In other words, stop blaming Jesus. He did not ordain anyone, male or female, at the Last Supper! Scripture scholars remind us that the Gospel writers said that women, many women, followed Jesus.” The Church’s discriminatory view “contradicts our fundamental baptismal equality. In Christ, ‘there is neither male nor female…all are one in Christ Jesus’ (Gal. 3:27-28). It is time to fulfill 1 Cor. 12:13: ‘Through their baptism into Christ, women and men equally receive the gifts of the Spirit.’ The time for change is now!”
The homily was marked by a constant reference to the Scriptures and to female diaconal figures of the New Testament, in Christian communities where women’s gifts were affirmed in a variety of leadership roles. “We claim our equal spiritual authority in ordaining women to public ministry in apostolic succession”; an apostolic succession which, “as a matter of justice and fidelity to the Gospel, I believe includes the apostles Mary Magdalene and Junia and all the holy women who have served the Church throughout history.”
The history of women ordained priests continues
Since that day in 2002 on the Danube, 18 women have been consecrated bishops, who in turn have ordained nearly 300 women priests from 14 countries. “Like Jesus who called his first disciples out of the fishing boat to follow him in proclaiming God’s love for all, Catholic women and people of marginalized genders today are following Jesus’ call to serve renewed communities of faith, anchored in inclusivity and equality,” said Bridget Mary Meehan. She, an American of Irish descent, has been a bishop since 2009.
Of course, candidates for ministry follow a preparation offered through preparatory courses. But as a "new paradigm of priestly ministry", "we cannot put new wine in old wineskins", and therefore the preparation, in the wake of theologian Matthew Fox , operates a shift "from factories of knowledge to schools of wisdom. We believe that the Spirit of God speaks through the people of God. As co-creative traveling companions, we share the wisdom of God in our sacred texts, theologies, sacred practices, sacramental celebrations and lived experiences", we also read on the Association's website. The courses "integrate the evolutionary consciousness of the new cosmology with the community of empowerment presented in feminist, liberation, mujerista, womanista, evolutionary, mystical, and sacramental theologies (theologies of blessing) and aim to prepare candidates to minister in a community of equals that is egalitarian, empowered, inclusive, mystical, and prophetic," "we work for justice and equality for all, especially those on the margins of our Church."
“Since 2002, the international movement of Catholic women priests has lived its vocation in prophetic obedience to the Spirit,” reads the press release issued for the occasion, “ordaining women deacons, priests, and bishops ( contra legem ) to promote full equality for all those called to ordained ministries. Women priests serve inclusive communities of equals where all, including divorced and remarried people and LGBTQ+ people are invited to receive the sacraments.” They preside over celebrations of the Eucharist, weddings, baptisms, and anointings of the sick in their areas, including “online communities without walls.” They also care for “those who have experienced physical, emotional, and spiritual abuse and exclusion within the Church,” it is explained. “We offer a renewed model of priestly ministry to accompany God’s people on their journey toward the fullness of God’s love for all.”
But for the movement it is not just about ordaining women priests: there is also a "challenge to oppressive patriarchal culture and the promotion of economic and social justice for women, children and marginalized genders throughout the world. We believe that all questions of justice are interconnected and therefore we support all human rights initiatives". In compliance with the prescriptions of the Second Vatican Council: "Every form of social or cultural discrimination in the fundamental rights of the person, based on sex, race, color, social conditions, language, religion, must be repressed or eradicated, because it is incompatible with the plan of God" ( Gaudium et Spes 29).