https://www.reformes.ch/religions/2025/03/accepter-les-femmes-pretres-cest-accepter-la-fin-du-celibat-catholicisme-femmes
Marie Mandy
Director of the documentary Women Priests, Forbidden Vocations
Why did you want to make this film?
MARIE MANDY My initial motivation came from my discovery, in 2006, of the existence of women priests ordained on the Danube in the presence of a bailiff: this story seemed to me both romantic and transgressive. I contacted the founder of the movement, Christine Mayr-Lumetzberger, who agreed to participate in a film. As my research progressed, the question of the impeded vocation of these women struck me. I was raised Catholic. I am not a believer, but this question challenged me. It seems almost spiritual to me: how can we ensure that everyone can fulfill themselves in life? This became the driving force behind the film. In addition, no doubt also, my indignation at a Church with which I could no longer identify: throughout my childhood, masses were celebrated by men, the institution's positions on abortion, homosexuality... never ceased to shock me. Why should men in dresses decide issues that concern women?
SUMMARY What is blocking the ordination of women priests? To investigate, director Marie Mandy follows three prominent figures, including Zurich-based theologian and journalist Jacqueline Straub (editor-in-chief of the German-speaking website Kath-net.ch), who wants to become a priest, writes about the subject, and interviews three Vatican cardinals on camera. Christina Moreira, a Franco-Spanish priest ordained in the tradition of the "clandestine ordinations" of the Danube organized since 2002, exercises her priesthood in Spain. We discover in her wake that there are nearly 300 women priests throughout the world, despite the excommunication incurred! Finally, in the United States, African-American priest Myra Brown, head of a parish of 1,500 faithful, confronts us with a surprising reality: the Roman Catholic Church, disconnected from the realities of its time, finds itself in some places simply supplanted by progressive communities. This wonderfully well-crafted research mixes societal innovations and Vatican statements—blowing hot and cold, but showing an awareness of the issue.
Women Priests, Forbidden Vocations , documentary by Marie Mandy, 78 min, 2024, to be found on March 12 on RTS1, April 12 on Arte and May 18 on SRF (in German). Available on RTS.ch until May 12.
What obstacles did you face? In one memorable scene, your team is arrested along with a woman in priestly attire in St. Peter's Square and taken to the police station...
The obstacles were twofold. First, persuading producers and broadcasters to finance the project took a lot of effort. Between 2006 and 2020, I was told that the subject was a minor phenomenon, a niche film, or that it also needed to include female rabbis. Finally, Arte, Belgian television (RTBF), RTS, and Canadian public television agreed to co-produce the film.
Then, it was necessary to return to the Vatican, which was very complicated since the subject was a priori forbidden in the Church from the moment John Paul II had acted on the definitive ban on ordaining women, considered irrevocable.
To address this "forbidden" issue, I wanted to hear from cardinals close to the Pope and legitimate on the subject—and we succeeded. But I went through many intermediaries, relays, journalists to get the right contacts, to connect with the right people. I couldn't say I was making a film about the priesthood of women. We had to send our questions in advance—and the whole point was knowing when we could unmask ourselves! It was the first time I operated like that, and I was quite humiliated. I had to face blackmail, some interlocutors tried to make me feel guilty, and so on. I realized that it's an entire system that protects itself. I think I stood my ground because I'm not a believer. A Catholic might not have dared to resist, because the methods we faced were truly harsh—as the arrest scene shows.
You also choose to give voice to American feminist theologians...
In the USA, there is a freedom of speech that makes them more openly feminist than in France: they can allow themselves to criticize the Church while retaining their position in a Catholic institution. French female theologians cannot openly question doctrine: they do so in a roundabout way. American women clearly say that ordaining women means dismantling sexism in what constitutes the last great patriarchy still in place on the planet, a male-dominated world, a world of celibate men who have no connection with women.
Indeed, researcher and sociologist Josselin Tricou speaks of a "priestly lock" to demonstrate the link within the Church between the priesthood—which prohibits male sexuality—the exclusion of women from power, and heteromarital discourse. After your research, do you also see a link between these three elements?
Yes, I do think it's a "package." There are already 300 women priests, 20 women bishops, all married, mothers, even grandmothers, and all of them very good at their jobs. If the Church included them, how would it cope with childless men? Accepting women priests means accepting the end of celibacy. Since these women all operate within inclusive communities (they marry same-sex couples, for example), they also go against the founding Catholic idea of the complementarity of the sexes—which would dictate that only heterosexual men and women can found a family.
The Church responds with outdated arguments: no woman has been ordained for 2,000 years (the tradition argument), the apostles are all men (the historical argument—contested since Mary Magdalene is recognized as an apostle to the apostles), and the priest "in persona Christi" must be able to embody Christ, and therefore be male (the gender argument). We return to the same observation: a patriarchy that locks everything down.
It took you nine years to make this film. Things have changed in the meantime. What are your visions for this subject?
On the bureaucratic level, it's true that the Vatican has changed a lot. Last month, a woman was appointed prefect . But even if women are given important positions of responsibility, access to the sacred is still forbidden to them for reasons of power, and I don't think that will change. I believed at the beginning of Francis's papacy that this would change, but the Curia is standing behind him to block any change. It's difficult to know if it's him or his entourage. We can hope for a more progressive next pope—Francis having replaced the entire college of cardinals according to his ideological line. But I believe, conversely, that the next one will be more conservative. Everything will also depend on how the current pontiff negotiates the end of his reign: resignation or not. In any case, there will be a battle for his succession.
How is your film received?
In the United States and Europe, the Vatican doesn't have the same status. In Europe, the Church remains a moral authority; the Pope is a head of state and a spiritual leader. But discussions after the screenings raise other issues: behind the spiritual and doctrinal questions lie financial and geopolitical issues. The Church is also funded by conservative movements. And African churches are very conservative on the issue of women's rights and sexual minorities. What surprises many viewers is discovering that these female priests exist, that there are already 300 of them, and my goal in making this film was really to show them on the ground, to bring this image of a woman dressed as a priest into the collective imagination so that mentalities can evolve.
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