Organisers describe ceremony on the sidelines of the Synod on Synodality as "historic"

Women stage ordination of priests and deacons on Tiber ship in Rome

Rome - In the Vatican, the Synod on Synodality is discussing reforms to the Church – the ordination of women to clerical positions is not officially on the agenda. At the same time, others wanted to create facts on a ship on the Tiber.

Published  on 17.10.2024 at 16:44  – 

Six women from France, Spain and the USA underwent a ceremony in Rome on Thursday that resembled the ordination of Catholic priests and deacons. The ceremony took place on a ship on the River Tiber, partly to prevent possible disruption, according to the "International Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests". According to the initiative, the ceremony, which they described as "historic", was intended to promote gender equality in the ordained ministry in a church for all.

Catholic canon law does not provide for the ordination of women and penalises anyone who actively or passively participates in such a symbolic act with excommunication, i.e. exclusion from the church community. At the Synod on Synodality on Reforms of the Catholic Church currently meeting in the Vatican, the topic of ordination for women was addressed in several speeches.

Bridget Mary Meehan, an unrecognised bishop from Florida since 2009, presided over the two-hour ceremony on a large houseboat around three kilometres from the Vatican. Belen Repiso Carrillo from Spain and Anne La Tour and Mary Katherine Daniels from the USA were to be ordained as priests, Loan Rocher from France and Maria Teresa Ribeiro Rosa and Txus Garcia Pascual from Spain as deacons, two of whom are trans people. Similar to the Catholic sacrament of ordination to the priesthood, there were hand-raising ceremonies and prayers. The candidates lay stretched out in front of the improvised altar, a white table decorated with a crucifix, Bible, candles and flowers.

"We are ready!"

In her sermon, Meehan said that women had always de facto fulfilled the tasks of deacons in the church without being able to be officially ordained. The Bible tells of numerous women whom Jesus called and who followed him. Mary Magdalene was the first female apostle to be sent out to proclaim the good news of Jesus' resurrection. She appealed to the Church to officially admit women to the priesthood and diaconate. "We are ready!" she concluded her sermon to applause. Among the 70 or so people present were numerous previously ordained women from the initiative. Numerous media representatives followed the event, to which only accredited persons were granted access.

The "We are Church" initiative advertised with the slogan "Equality for all Baptised. Equality at Synod" ("Equality for all Baptised. Equality at Synod"). Since the first spectacular action of the "Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests" on the Danube in 2002, there have been 18 women worldwide who are Catholic women bishops according to their own understanding and who in turn have ordained around 300 women as priests through the laying on of hands. (KNA)