Please call your representatives and express your opposition to the proposed budget:
$880 billion in cuts to Medicaid which will result in 36 million poor people losing their healthcare coverage and the closure of rural medical facilities.
$230 billion in cuts to food stamps or SNAP which could impact over 40 million hungry families
The dissolution of HeadStart which provides childcare for 650,000 poor and low-income children
AT THE SAME TIME, Congress is proposing:
$4.5 trillion in tax cuts for billionaires, while requiring the poorest 20 percent of Americans to pay more in taxes
Hundreds of billions of dollars for increased militarization of our communities, deportations of our immigrant neighbors, and war abroad.
I just called the three legislators from Florida and left them this message.
An aide in Rep. Steube's office answered the phone.
Pope Francis was the most progressive pope I’ve known — and I’m 75. I really supported him on environmental issues, climate, immigration, the poor and preventing war. I wish he would have supported women priests as I am one in the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests. I’m an activist priest with the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests. I work with the Baltimore Nonviolence Center and the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker in Washington, D.C.
Oregonians remember Pope Francis as a champion for the poor, for action on climate change and for a more inclusive world.
Pope Francis, 88, died Monday following a stroke. Many Oregonians say they will miss him.
“I was shocked. We saw him up and recuperating from his illness,” said Suzanne Theil, a Bishop with Roman Catholic Women Priests USA. “I don’t think we expected him to have died quite so suddenly.”
The Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests (ARCWP) Mourns the Death of Pope Francis, Honors His Legacy of Inclusion and Justice
The Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests joins Catholics and people of goodwill across the globe in mourning the passing of Pope Francis on April 21, 2025. We give thanks for his courageous leadership and compassionate heart, and for his transformative vision of a Synodal Church—a Church that listens, learns, and walks together with all, especially those on the margins.
Pope Francis was a shepherd of profound humility and Gospel-centered faithfulness. His papacy was marked by a deep commitment to the poor, to ecological justice, to interreligious dialogue, and to the full dignity of all people—including LGBTQ+ Catholics, refugees, and those historically excluded from full participation in the Church. His historic encyclical Laudato Si’ called the global community to care for our “common home” and inspired urgent ecological action rooted in a spirituality of kinship with creation.
Francis’s deep pastoral presence, his efforts to decentralize clerical power, and his emphasis on dialogue and mutual respect opened doors long closed in Church tradition. He embodied a theology of encounter—one that echoes the ministry of Jesus—drawing near to the wounded, the overlooked, and the oppressed.
Pope Francis was not only a pope for the Roman Catholic Church—he was a moral leader for humanity. Now we mourn the passing of a holy man—a prophet who, amid tremendous resistance, sought to steer the Church back to the radical love and inclusion at the heart of Jesus' message.
As women priests serving inclusive Catholic communities across the world, we at ARCWP honor Pope Francis’ efforts to lead the Church toward justice, compassion, and reform. We share his longing for a Church that fully reflects the Gospel’s call to equality and welcome. While we grieve his loss, we also reaffirm our commitment to continuing the work he so boldly began: building a Church where all voices are heard, all vocations are honored, and no one is left behind.
May Pope Francis now rejoice in the eternal embrace of the God he served with tenderness and truth. And may his legacy continue to inspire the global Church to rise, to reform, and to remember that the Church is always at its best when it is a Church for all.
Media Contact:
Bridget Mary Meehan Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests www.arcwp.org
May Pope Francis dance with the angels and continue to bless us!
I give thanks for his pastoral presence and vision of a Synodal church for everyone. This is the reason we ordain women in the international Roman Catholic Women Priests Movement to create an inclusive Church of baptized equals called to follow Jesus in ordained ministries .
Alleluia! Let us rejoice in the good news of the Easter message.
"They found the stone rolled away from the tomb… (Luke 24:2)
So, the women left the tomb quickly with great joy, and ran to tell his disciples. And they came to him took hold of his feet, and worshiped him. (Mt. 28-29)
Mary Magdalene went out and told those who had been with him while they were mourning and weeping. But when they heard that he was alive and had been seen by her, they would not believe it. (Mk: 16:10-11)
The Risen Christ first appeared to Mary Magdalene, not to Caesar or the chief priests. A woman, once silenced, is entrusted with the message: He is risen! Today we proclaim Christ rises again and again in us and in the chaos and turmoil of our world.
Elizabeth Johnson, feminist theologian, reminds us:
“Resurrection does not cancel the crucifixion but reveals God’s presence precisely in its midst, turning suffering into hope.” (Elizabeth Johnson, Consider Jesus)
And so, we honor the wounds of the world—not by ignoring them, but by allowing resurrection to rise from within them.
Christ is presentamidst the suffering, death, and chaos prevalent in our world. We believe all shall be well because death will not prevail. In our living and dying we are held in love.
I saw that today in the thousands of women and men who held up signs to resist oppression and stand up for justice for all in our peaceful demonstration in Sarasota, Florida.
Ilia Delio invites us to see the Resurrection as a cosmic event, a sign of God's creative presence unfolding throughout the entire universe. “The Resurrection of Jesus is the unleashing of a new reality, a new potentiality for life, for creation,” she writes. For Delio, Christ's resurrection is not just about overcoming death but about opening all of creation to its full potential for life in God. As she beautifully states, “Resurrection reveals a new creation, where death is not the end, but the beginning of a deeper life.”
As we reflect on the meaning of Resurrection today, we can turn to the insights of Richard Rohr, who urges us to see Christ rising not just in the past but in the present. He writes, “We see the risen Christ today, wherever transformation is happening, in places and people that show the power of new life emerging from death.”
In a powerful way, Pope Francis reminds us that the risen Christ is especially present in the poor and marginalized For the Pope, the resurrection is most clearly visible in those who are suffering, those who have been forgotten by society.
Here are four strong examples of living resurrection amid today's struggles:
1. Marches for Fair Representation and Justice
The resurrection is not just about life after death — it’s about new life rising from systems of oppression. When people organize to support democratic institutions, such as advocating for Social Security and Medicaid amidst discussions of budget cuts, they emphasize the significance of individual participation in society. This is resurrection power: reclaiming equity and inclusion.
2. Survivors of Violence Becoming Healers
Women and LGBTQ+ leaders in post-conflict regions (like Colombia, Rwanda, and South Sudan) are turning trauma into transformation. Their reconciliation truth-telling initiatives promote healing and awareness. These efforts are the initial steps toward improved relationships and understanding.
3. Church Communities Welcoming the Marginalized
Inclusive Catholic communities like MMOJ and those affiliated with ARCWP and Roman Catholic Women Priests offer Eucharist to all — especially those long excluded. Every time a person who was once rejected finds home at the table, resurrection happens.
4. Inner Resurrections: Awakening from Shame or Fear
As Lisa Miller describes in The Awakened Brain, when a person moves from spiritual numbness to a felt sense of purpose, connection, and love — they are experiencing resurrection from within. New life bursts forth when someone finally knows: I am beloved.
This Easter let's work together for everyone's well-being and rise with Christ to embrace new life within and around us!
Let us become witnesses to the Resurrection not only in word, but in the way we live:
When we stand for justice, we rise with Christ. When we welcome the outcast and refugees, we rise with Christ. When we speak truth with love and resist systems of domination, we rise with Christ. When we build inclusive, coequal communities of faith, we rise with Christ.
Beloved community, we are rising with Christ in love and action for justice every day! Alleluia! Happy Easter!
(Bridget Mary with assistance from Chat GPT)
Community Sharing: What in the readings or video awakens to your call to encounter the Risen One ‘s call/message for our world today!
Source: Screenshot "Women Priests: The Forbidden Vocation"
Mexico City.- Who measures faith, and how do they decide which faiths are more valuable than others? What happens to women who have miraculous awakenings and cannot be ordained as priests because they are women? This is the basis of the revolution of thousands of women around the world who have risen up to demand that the Vatican and its world of bureaucracy allow the advancement of women; no longer as caregivers and nuns, but as prophets with the power to lead the Church.
Overthrowing a 2,000-year-old system is impossible, especially in a structure as powerful as the Catholic Church, which, despite denying sexism within its ranks, cannot easily disassociate itself from patriarchy. There are no women making decisions; everything is achieved through male consensus; celibate men who will never have wives, much less daughters. It's difficult to fathom how far women's agendas can be hindered, not so much due to a lack of empathy, but rather due to a patriarchal gynophobia—as Evangelina García describes it—that infers an "inability to recognize the female experience."
Marie Mandy's documentary "Women Priests" follows the stories of several women who have demanded that the Church ordain them as priests; many of them threatened and intimidated by the clerical force that has attempted to undermine their faith, claiming it is not powerful enough to be recognized as priests—not out of whim, but because it is a canonical law of the Church that has historically barred women from decision-making.
However, it is important to note that, despite being denied entry to these spaces, women are not denied their work as caregivers and primary protectors of the Church. Their work is extracted; it is women who care for the churches in their communities, who organize, clean, celebrate, and sustain the Catholic faith.
The 7 Danube
On Palm Sunday 2002, seven women were ordained deaconesses by the Catholic Church. One of them, Christine Mayr Lumetzberger, recalls the fear they felt during the ceremony. This group of women, who had dedicated their entire lives to the Church and contributed to community service for decades, were now receiving death threats for their intentions to be ordained; they were warned that bombs would be planted in their church or even a shooting would be started to prevent the ceremony. As a result, the seven Catholics decided to have their ordination on a boat; a private event attended by a Vatican representative who named them deaconesses. The event proved historic and, for Mayr Lumetzberger, marked the highest point of her life; her main purpose in life was to serve God, and with the appointment, her aspirations had been fulfilled. Since they were seven women, they earned the nickname "The Danube Seven"—because of the way they were ordained on water—but they didn't expect a setback from the Catholic Church itself. "They were furious, and it was intimidating," Mayr Lumetzberger recalls. Their persecution began, and they denounced each other for being made out to be a "true coven of witches," as if their appointment had been a complete violation of God's will; an unforgivable act that would condemn them forever.
Source: Screenshot from "Women Priests: The Forbidden Vocation"
At that time, John Paul II spoke out in a visibly dissatisfied manner, denouncing that the appointment of the Danube 7 would never have the authorization of the Lord and after 6 weeks of intimidating public acts, this group of nuns was excommunicated by the Church: "They decided to punish us," says Gisela Forster, who belongs to the Danube group.
However, the struggle did not end there, and after a hard fight against the Church, only two of them managed to return to ecclesiastical work. Mayr Lumetzberger and her counterpart, Gisela Forster, were appointed bishops. This, of course, upset many members of the Church, and to this day, they continue to reject the appointment, making it clear that their faith and their work are invalid.
Despite the collective rejection of the Catholic bureaucracy, and with power in their hands, Gisela and Mayr initiated a complete revolution by ordaining more women. It was through their experience that they were able to expand their faith; they listened to the experiences of many more women who claimed to have miraculous revelations and their helplessness in serving the Lord. As a result, both bishops have managed to ordain:
9 women in the St. Lawrence River in Canada
8 women in the Ohio River, Pittsburgh, United States
1 woman named Genevieve Beney in Lyon, France
The first African-American woman named Myra Brown in New York, who was recognized as a deaconess in 2015 and two years later, was elevated to priestess
Myra Brown has been a key player in New York's social movements, calling on her Church to actively participate in the Black Lives Matter movement . The now-priestess recalls that she dedicated her entire life to the Church and always heard the priest speak of "The Man," as if it were synonymous with humanity. However, when she looked around, "85% of the people there were women. Women kept the church going," says Myra Brown.
Deriving from this, the priestess came to the greatest revelation:
"God has never sought a specific gender"
Source: Screenshot from "Women Priests: The Forbidden Vocation"
"Women should keep quiet"
The documentary follows the story of Jacqueline Straub, a journalist and theologian who, since the age of 14, claims to have been sought by the Lord. This process is known as "the calling," however, according to the Church, this feeling can only be experienced by men; men whom the Lord seeks with the important mission of spreading his work and word.
However, in a world where women represent half the population, it is difficult to understand how no woman can have the capacity to experience "the Lord's call." Therefore, Jacqueline Straub has incisively knocked on the doors of the Vatican to obtain answers to what has so called her, but also to understand the resistance that keeps women away from the priesthood.
In letters sent to various Vatican officials, Jacqueline Straub has questioned why women's faith is not given equal value, and the responses she has received are troubling. While some responses are vague, many others are intended to intimidate her; they select passages from the Bible that violate the role of women and underline them in red.
For example, that passage where it says "Women must keep quiet," that letter signed by a certain Alexander was sent to Jacqueline's home, a fact that, at first, made her uncomfortable, but later, made her appropriate this emotion of fear and celebrate that, to a greater or lesser extent, her figure has become a thorn in the side of many men within the Vatican.
The episodes in the documentary where the journalist confronts various clerical authorities are difficult to watch. Particularly her confrontation with Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig, who categorically denies that Jacqueline felt "called by the Lord," as he would never do such a thing; he wouldn't be wrong to call a woman.
A moment of profound tension, where he directly denies the journalist's life experience, telling her that it's most likely all a mistake.
" It's a pointless provocation. Women cannot be ordained priests ," the cardinal responded to the journalist when she spoke to him about the figure of women as the Danube Seven. This response exposes the Church's devaluation of women who, against all odds, have been ordained priests and have dedicated— like any other man —their lives to studying and spreading the word of the Lord.
Although it may seem obvious, Jacqueline recalls something undeniable: the way the Church has "broken" the dreams of thousands of women. She ends her comment by saying she feels deeply hurt and sad, knowing that she will probably never become a priest. During a public appearance with Pope Bergoglio, Jacqueline manages to approach him and tells him to please consider ordaining women and heed the call. However, the Pope simply says, "Be a good woman."
"I hope to see the first women ordained priests, so I can die with a smile on my face knowing I'll have achieved everything in life." (Jacqueline Straub)
Breaking the Dream: Arrested, Punished, and Excommunicated
Christina Moreira "Luz Galilea" was another woman who was ordained, but she faced numerous setbacks in her quest to be recognized in the Church.
A survivor of domestic violence, Christina expresses the feeling of being called by the Lord, a mystical event that came to her as she meditated on the Gospel. She remembers looking at herself and asking the Lord why He had chosen her, and that it was probably a mistake.
Knowing the path wasn't easy, Christina chose to suppress her faith, as she would never succeed as a priestess. This fact broke her emotionally and psychologically, so much so that she even considered leaving the Church. She wanted to eliminate faith from her life rather than fight one of the most powerful bureaucratic monsters.
For security reasons, Christina changed her name to "Luz Galilea," and just a couple of years ago, while standing in Vatican Square, she was apprehended and questioned about why she was wearing priestly vestments, even though she had been ordained by another woman years earlier. Despite explaining her work and showing documentation, Christina was taken to the police station where she was questioned for two hours and later had her alb and stole confiscated.
But, where does this total rejection come from? Why can't the Church bear to see women as priestesses? There are two theories that support this segregation.
God chose his 12 apostles as men
Priests are an extension of Jesus, therefore, they must be in his likeness; a woman does not share the characteristics of the Lord.
However, feminist theology has vigorously debated these two facts, under the umbrella of hermeneutics—a reinterpretation of the Bible—which finds that, in fact, women always existed on Jesus' radar; Jesus called all people equally to replicate his teachings.
In addition, it has been shown that he also called women to follow him; powerful women who defended Jesus and were erased by the Church.
" The history of the Church is the history of the erasure of women for their own good and their worldview ," says theologian Jamie Mason.
Among the writings, one of the apostles named Junias has been found , but her name was changed to a masculine one. Likewise, it is known that Jesus named Mary Magdalene "The Apostle of the Apostles," a wealthy woman who gave her life to Jesus and who has been singled out by the Church as a prostitute, sinner, and adulteress, even though there is no record in the Holy Scriptures that explicitly states this, says Jamie Mason.
On a second note, do women really not look like Jesus? It's evident that not all men are like him either. Mason specifically points out that European or Asian men who also don't look like Christ have been ordained. Moreover, most of them are older men. Jesus was 33 years old, and that doesn't mean that Caucasian men in their old age have been prevented from ceasing their priesthood because they don't look like Jesus. And while this may seem ridiculous, it's the same logic that drives the segregation of women; it's archaic to expect one to look like Jesus in order to replicate his word.
Added to this is another, even more interesting layer that feminist theology has brought to the forefront: What if Jesus wasn't a man?
Feminist Theology: A Questioning of the World
In Mexico, liberation theology has been profoundly revelatory and is becoming a very strong part of religious reality, which means that it is not only gaining ground but is also fighting against the extraction of women's wisdom. And when we talk about theology, just as Vélez's work warned, ancestral and spiritual knowledge is also mentioned; this is not about some religious figure, but rather, a pure divinity that we attempt to reach from different fronts.
In an interview with Cimacnoticias , the theologian and current secretary of culture of Mexico City, Ana Francis Mor, explains that one of the things that feminist theology does is study, embrace and recognize all the spiritual knowledge of all traditions, so the conversation is extremely rich in terms of knowledge, from those who are dedicated to healing, to the earth, to the defense of the earth, to those who have been ordained as religious women 50 years ago and everything that has led them to think about their grassroots work.
This is precisely what feminist territory in religion is all about; the struggle to be and live faith from the feminine experience, a tool to which many women are attaching themselves, which is, in essence, a very important part: Diverse women are no longer excluded from the mandates of the Church, but rather free thinkers and builders of their own faith.
«We are women who do not want patriarchal submission, even those of us who are from a position as lesbians, that is to say, as if we have been expelled, you know? We are expelled from faith and spirituality, that led me to think: «Oh, gosh, why? I mean, thinking of faith also as the body, right? It is that territory to reclaim faith - faith, whatever that means for each of us -»
In addition to this same rebellion of women inserting themselves into the Church, another fundamental idea is born: Reappropriating the figure of God.
In a more focused conversation, Ana Francis Mor argues that when we talk about God—the word itself—it's not necessarily something that can be explained, not because it's nonexistent or magical, but rather because it's so vast. And it's this immensity that women are taking in hand to build their own refuges of faith; not the androcentric faith of "what should be" or what institutional frameworks dictate, but rather, from the very experience of living as women and, based on that, beginning to heal the violence to which we have been subjected.
«In many cultures it is the oneness of the whole and when I speak of the whole it is not that anything is God but the whole is like the conjunction of the whole, from all cultures practically all systems of religious knowledge tell you about a future in which everything dissolves into a single thing like a kind of Big Bang in reverse like a return to an energy where we are and where everything is together, -united, but not separated-.
So let's say in this tension, every system of sacred knowledge reflects this longing for it not to exist and this disunity or distance and in one way or another that is God (...) in most systems of sacred knowledge, even seriously in the study, no one suggests that it has even a form, a shape, or a sex, but that it is everything and thanks to patriarchy, we think that God is man" (Ana Francis Mor)
With this last reflection, we build the possibility of continuing to rethink (ourselves) and knowing that, out there, women are placed in every trench to continue breaking down the patriarchal system, some fighting in the streets and others, dynamiting the roots of the Church with the word "woman." No matter where the patriarchy hides, there are always fighters willing to write their own history.
