Lavinia Byrne (born 1947 in Birmingham) is a former nun who in 2000 left the

Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary The Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary, whose members are commonly known as the Loreto Sisters, is a Roman Catholic religious congregation of women dedicated to education founded in Saint-Omer by an Englishwoman, Mary Ward, in 1609. The cong ...

, a Roman Catholic

religious institute A religious institute is a type of institute of consecrated life in the Catholic Church whose members take religious vows and lead a life in community with fellow members. Religious institutes are one of the two types of institutes of consecrate ...

, after 35 years, saying that the Vatican had been bullying her to abandon support for women priests. Her 1993 book ''Woman at the Altar'' () outlined her arguments for women priests, and she also wrote about

contraception Birth control, also known as contraception, anticonception, and fertility control, is the use of methods or devices to prevent unwanted pregnancy. Birth control has been used since ancient times, but effective and safe methods of birth contr ...

. Despite her criticism of the Vatican's treatment, she spoke out positively about

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...

after his death. Lavinia currently (2012) leads tours to Anatolia and the Samarkand on behalf of Jon Baines Tours. Her great-uncle,

J. F. Byrne James Frederick Byrne (19 June 1871 – 10 May 1954) was a sportsman who captained Warwickshire at first-class cricket and was capped in rugby for both England and the British and Irish Lions. Cricket career Byrne made a century on debut, in h ...

, captained

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avon an ...

in first-class cricket and was full back of the

England rugby union team The England national rugby union team represents England in men's international rugby union. They compete in the annual Six Nations Championship with France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales. England have won the championship on 29 occasion ...

References

English Roman Catholics English people of Irish descent 1947 births Living people {{RC-bio-stub