Remembering the Danube Seven- first women ordained priests in the Roman Catholic Women Priests Movement
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| Passau. Danube River |
"The Spirit of God cannot be contained by human imagination or boundaries."
Today, I stand on the banks of the Danube in Passau, Germany. It was right here that a sacred journey unfolded gradually within the life of the church.
For me, this was not simply a visit to a historic site. It was a pilgrimage.
As I stand in silence beside the rushing river, the Danube is no longer just a waterway that carries memories of the past in my eyes. It remains alive, still flowing, still speaking, and brimming with the Holy Spirit that bears hope. It surges forward carrying the prayers, courage, and dreams of those seven women—who trusted the Holy Spirit more than they feared, and dared to envision a new model of priestly ministry. Their witness travels with the river’s current, inviting us to believe that the church God desires, where women and men — all genders- serve as equals, is still unfolding steadily to this day.
The Danube Moment: A Holy Shakeup in the Church
The seven women ordained on the Danube (the “Danube Seven”) are, as women created in the image of God and therefore fully capable of sacramental representation of Christ, the following:
- Christine Mayr-Lumetzberger (Austria)
- Gisela Forster (Germany)
- Ida Raming (Germany)
- Iris Müller (Germany)
- Pia Brunner (Germany)
- Adelinde Theresia Roitinger (Austria)
- Angela White (pseudonym for Dagmar Celeste United States) 1)
The Danube still carries my sisters’ courage in its waters. Standing there, I remembered that twenty-four years later I, too, have been blessed to serve as a bishop in this movement, ordaining women called by God to priestly ministry and accompanying communities that embody a renewed vision of Gospel equality.2)
Twenty-Four Years Later: What Has Emerged
People often ask whether the Danube ordination"actually had any impact." Standing on that same riverbank today, the answer is clear: it did. Although the official law of the Roman Catholic Church still bans the ordination of women, the movement that began in 2002 has changed the actual religious practices of Catholics in important ways by providing a new model of priestly ministry in communities of baptized equals.
1. Inclusive Eucharistic Communities
Across North America, Europe, South America, and beyond, Roman Catholic Women Priests serve communities where all are welcomed at the Eucharistic table without exclusion. LGBTQ+ persons, divorced and remarried Catholics, women long excluded from leadership, and spiritual seekers have found belonging in communities marked by radical hospitality.3)
2. A Relational Model of Priesthood
Women priests have helped redefine ordination to the priesthood as collaborative rather than hierarchical. Leadership is shared collectively, spiritual discernment is carried out as a community, and ministry is exercised through service—echoing the vision in the Gospels of Jesus washing his disciples’ feet.
3. A Renewed Ministry of Healing
Many who had left the Church for years have returned after encountering communities shaped by compassion rather than exclusion. Pastoral ministry in these settings emphasizes accompaniment, listening, blessing, and healing prayer, restoring trust where it had been broken.
4. Recovery of Women’s Early Church Leadership
The movement has also helped recover the memory of women leaders in early Christianity—Phoebe, Junia, Prisca, Lydia, Mary Magdalene, and others whose ministries were foundational but often forgotten. Their witness affirms that women’s leadership is not innovation but restoration and renewal.4)
5. A Global Expansion of Vocation
From the original ordinations has grown an international movement of women bishops, priests, and deacons serving across multiple continents. Their ministries testify that vocation cannot be confined by institutional boundaries when it is rooted in conscience and call.
A Movement, Not an Event
What I witnessed in Passau today is not a memory of something completed, but the ongoing unfolding of a movement.
They revealed what becomes possible when conscience, faith, and courage converge: a Church that is more inclusive, more relational, and more faithful to the radical hospitality of Jesus.
The transformation they initiated is ecclesial in the deepest sense—it concerns how the Church understands itself as the People of God. 5)
Leaving Passau
A River That Continues to Flow
As I gazed upon the Danube, I realized that this river has become more than a place on a map. It is a living symbol of the Holy Spirit, whose life-giving power cannot be confined by fear, prejudice, or institutional laws or boundaries.
The Danube does not ask permission to flow.
It simply flows.
It winds through beautiful green hills nourishing the land and finding new pathways whenever obstacles arise.
So it has been with the prophetic witness of the Danube Seven.
On these very waters, seven courageous women trusted the call of the Holy Spirit more than the restrictions of ecclesiastical law. They believed that God’s invitation to priestly ministry could not be silenced because it arose from the same Spirit who called Mary Magdalene to proclaim the Resurrection, Phoebe to serve the early Church, and countless holy women throughout history to lead, teach, heal, and bless.
What began here on June 29, 2002, was far more than an ordination. It was the birth of a movement of Gospel equality that continues to ripple across the world. Like the Danube itself, it has flowed beyond every attempt to contain it—reaching communities hungry for an inclusive Church, inspiring women to answer God’s call, and offering healing to those wounded by exclusion.
Standing on these riverbanks today, I felt profound gratitude for the faith and courage of the Danube Seven. Their prophetic “yes” became a widening river of grace that continues to carry women and men toward God’s dream of a Church where all the baptized are welcomed, all gifts are honored, and all who are called may serve.
As the Final Document of the Synod on Synodality (2024, paragraph 60 declares “What comes from the Holy Spirit cannot be stopped,”declares, “What comes from the Holy Spirit cannot be stopped.”
Rev. Dr. Bridget Mary Meehan, ARCWP
https://natcath.org/NCR_Online/archives2/2002c/071902/ordinations.htm
Notes:
Bridget Mary Meehan, My Story: Called to Be a Woman Priest in a Holy, Joyful Shakeup of the Roman Catholic Church (2026). See chapters describing vocation, pilgrimage, and the spirituality of call.
1. John L. Allen Jr., “Seven Women ‘Ordained’ Priests June 29,” National Catholic Reporter, July 1, 2002. This eyewitness report describes the June 29, 2002 ordination aboard the MS Passau on the Danube River near Passau, Germany, and identifies the seven women who participated.
And
John Wijngaards, “The Ordination of Catholic Women in Austria on 29 June 2002,”
2. Bridget Mary Meehan, My Story: Called to Be a Woman Priest in a Holy, Joyful Shakeup of the Roman Catholic Church (2026). See chapters describing vocation, pilgrimage, and the spirituality of call.
3.Roman Catholic Womenpriests, “Meet the Ordained,” documenting communities and ordained ministers serving in Europe, North America, South America, and South Africa.
4. Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, In Memory of Her (Crossroad, 1983).
and
Karen L. King, The Gospel of Mary of Magdala (Polebridge, 2003).
5.National Catholic Reporter, “10 Years of Ordaining Women,” June 29, 2012, tracing the growth of the Roman Catholic Womenpriests movement from the Danube Seven to an international ministry.
and
Rosemary Radford Ruether, “Women Priests Offer Differing Approaches to Valid Ordination,” National Catholic Reporter, August 10, 2010.
6. Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Decree of Excommunication (2002); summarized in John Wijngaards’ historical documentation.
See references in the following sections to my writings:
The Danube Moment: A Holy Shakeup in the Church”
Bridget Mary Meehan, Living Gospel Equality Now: Loving in the Heart of God (Virtualbookworm, 2015), especially the chapters on the origins of the Roman Catholic Women Priests movement and the theology of Gospel equality.
Inclusive Eucharistic Communities
Bridget Mary Meehan, Creating an Inclusive Catholic Community: Liturgies, Blessings and Resources (2026), especially the Introduction and sections on the theology of the open table, shared leadership, and inclusive liturgy.
A Relational Model of Priesthood
Bridget Mary Meehan, Living Gospel Equality Now (2015), chapters describing collaborative priesthood, circular leadership, and baptismal equality.
A Renewed Ministry of Healing
Bridget Mary Meehan, Healing Prayers and Blessings for Everyday Life (2026), Introduction and healing blessings illustrating accompaniment, compassion, and pastoral ministry rooted in blessing rather than exclusion.
Recovering Women’s Leadership in the Early Church
Bridget Mary Meehan, Praying with Women of the Bible (Twenty-Third Publications, 1998), especially reflections on Miriam, Mary Magdalene, Phoebe, Junia, Prisca, Lydia, and other biblical women.
Bridget Mary Meehan, Praying with Visionary Women (Twenty-Third Publications, 1999), highlighting women mystics, reformers, and prophets whose witness continues to renew the Church.
Bridget Mary Meehan, Praying with Celtic Holy Women (Twenty-Third Publications, 2003), recovering the spiritual wisdom and leadership of women saints within the Celtic Christian tradition.
Global Expansion of Vocation
Bridget Mary Meehan, numerous articles published on Bridget Mary’s Blog documenting the international growth of the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests, including ordinations in Europe, North America, South America, Africa, and Latin America.
A Movement, Not an Event
Bridget Mary Meehan, “When Will the Church Apologize to Women?” (2026), reflecting on the continuing movement for women’s equality in the Catholic Church.
A River That Refuses to Be Contained
Bridget Mary Meehan, articles on the Danube Seven, the Tiber Ordinations, and the Roman Catholic Women Priests movement published on Bridget Mary’s Blog (2006–2026), emphasizing the work of the Holy Spirit through communities of Gospel equality.
Leaving the River
Bridget Mary Meehan, My Story: Called to Be a Woman Priest in a Holy, Joyful Shakeup of the Roman Catholic Church (2026), concluding reflections on hope, conscience, and trusting the Spirit’s continuing work of renewal.
Reference to “ holy skakeup”in earlier writing
https://arcwp.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/ARCWP_Winter19-12-31-18_HiREZ-1.pdf
ChatGPT was used to assist with organization, editing, and identifying possible research sources including finding articles written by author on topic. The analysis, interpretation, theological reflections and conclusions are those of the author.
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