Roman Catholic Womenpriests (RCWP) is an independent international organization that claims a connection to the
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
. It is descended from the
Danube Seven, a group of women who assert that they were
ordained
Ordination is the process by which individuals are consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the denominational hierarchy composed of other clergy) to perform ...
as
priests in 2002 by
Rómulo Antonio Braschi, before being excommunicated by the Vatican, and their request for a revocation of the excommunication denied, in
Decree on the Attempted Ordination of Some Catholic Women
Decree on the Attempted Ordination of Some Catholic Women is a canonical decree issued by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, under Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, and approved by Pope John Paul II on December 21, 2002. It can be found in A ...
. According to a book published by the organization, ''Women Find a Way: The Movement and Stories of Roman Catholic Womenpriests'', at least two other unnamed bishops were involved in the ordination. In addition, the RCWP considers these
bishops to be in good standing, and the RCWP says the bishops acted in full
apostolic succession.
In 2007 the Vatican's
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) is the oldest among the departments of the Roman Curia. Its seat is the Palace of the Holy Office in Rome. It was founded to defend the Catholic Church from heresy and is the body responsible ...
, with the authorization of
Pope Benedict XVI
Pope Benedict XVI ( la, Benedictus XVI; it, Benedetto XVI; german: link=no, Benedikt XVI.; born Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger, , on 16 April 1927) is a retired prelate of the Catholic church who served as the head of the Church and the soverei ...
, decreed the penalty of
automatic excommunication against anyone "who attempts to confer a
sacred order on a woman, and the woman who attempts to receive a sacred order".
Organizational mission
The proclaimed mission of Roman Catholic Womenpriests North America is to:
The organization has sponsored numerous “ordination” ceremonies for women; in response, the Roman Catholic Church has excommunicated or threatened excommunication of all involved, since the Catholic Church teaches that it is impossible to ordain a woman as a deacon, priest, or bishop.
RCWP dissents from what it calls myths or misconceptions about women's role in the Catholic Church and about the exclusion of women from holy orders.
["Roman Catholic Womenpriests"](_blank)
Retrieved on 2008-10-05. It mentions the case of
Ludmila Javorová, a
Czech
Czech may refer to:
* Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe
** Czech language
** Czechs, the people of the area
** Czech culture
** Czech cuisine
* One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus'
Places
* Czech, ...
woman who worked in the underground church during the
Cold War and said she was secretly ordained as a priest, as an instance of female ordination in the modern era.
In response to questions of legitimacy and whether the ordinations are valid or recognized by the
Vatican
Vatican may refer to:
Vatican City, the city-state ruled by the pope in Rome, including St. Peter's Basilica, Sistine Chapel, Vatican Museum
The Holy See
* The Holy See, the governing body of the Catholic Church and sovereign entity recognized ...
, RCWP states:
Their website claims that "Our ordained women may be married or single, hetero- or homosexual, some are grandmothers, a few are divorced and have had their marriages annulled: we are in fact a cross-section of the Christian community in our lifestyles."
Vatican response
The Roman Catholic Church's
canon law
Canon law (from grc, κανών, , a 'straight measuring rod, ruler') is a set of ordinances and regulations made by ecclesiastical authority (church leadership) for the government of a Christian organization or church and its members. It is th ...
bars
ordination of women, asserting that "A baptized male (''vir'') alone receives sacred ordination validly." The Church teaches this as not a matter of changeable discipline, but of divine constitution that it cannot alter.
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 ...
wrote in his
Apostolic Letter
Ecclesiastical letters are publications or announcements of the organs of Roman Catholic ecclesiastical authority, e.g. the synods, but more particularly of pope and bishops, addressed to the faithful in the form of letters.
Letters of the pop ...
''
Ordinatio sacerdotalis
''Ordinatio sacerdotalis'' ( en, Priestly Ordination, italic=yes) is an apostolic constitution issued by Pope John Paul II on 22 May 1994 in which he discussed the Catholic Church's position requiring "the reservation of priestly ordination to men ...
'' of 22 May 1994: "We declare that the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that this judgment is to be held by all the Church's faithful."
Ordinatio sacerdotalis
''Ordinatio sacerdotalis'' ( en, Priestly Ordination, italic=yes) is an apostolic constitution issued by Pope John Paul II on 22 May 1994 in which he discussed the Catholic Church's position requiring "the reservation of priestly ordination to men ...
Therefore, the ordination of a woman to the priesthood, even if conducted by a Catholic bishop in good standing, is, according to the Vatican, without
sacramental effect.
In popular culture
The movie ''
Pink Smoke over the Vatican
''Pink Smoke over the Vatican'' is a 2011 documentary film by Jules Hart about ordination of women, women who have been ordained as priests in the Roman Catholic Church, despite the Church regarding this as invalid. The film has won several awards ...
'' documents female priests, including Roman Catholic Womenpriests.
See also
*
Ordination of women
*
Ordination of women and the Catholic Church
In the liturgical traditions of the Catholic Church, the term ordination refers to the means by which a person is included in one of the orders of bishops, priests or deacons. The teaching of the Catholic Church on ordination, as expressed in t ...
*
Call to Disobedience, organization of male priests who favor women's ordination
*
Leadership Conference of Women Religious
The Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) is one of two associations of the leaders of congregations of Catholic women religious in the United States (the other being the Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious). LCWR includes ov ...
, a group which proposes women's ordination among other issues
*
Women's Ordination Conference
The Women's Ordination Conference is an organization in the United States that works to ordain women as deacons, priests, and bishops in the Catholic Church.
Founded in 1975, the conference was seeded from an idea the year before, when Mary B. L ...
References
External links
*
Roman Catholic Womenpriests Canada websiteBBC Article - Canada Catholics ordain womenCincinnati CityBeat
{{Authority control
People excommunicated by the Catholic Church
Ordination of women and the Catholic Church
LGBT and Catholicism
Christian women's organizations
Criticism of the Catholic Church
Christian feminism
Women's ordination activists
Independent Catholic denominations