NPR: All Things Considered
Reporter & Producer
What I Learned
I spent two days with these remarkable women in reporting this story – before, during and after their ordination, and it is an experience that I will never forget, personally and professionally.
Personally, it changed the way that I viewed the definition of “faithful” as I encountered women who were so devoted to their Roman Catholic faith that they risked expulsion from it.
Professionally, I learned in real time the importance of making sure you have multiple flash cards on hand for two days of recording (!!!). I had to run to a Best Buy last minute in downtown Baltimore right before the ordination and it was some of the fastest and most stressful driving I’ve ever done.
Female Priests Defy Catholic Church at the Altar
Heard on All Things Considered — June 12, 2011
By Lily Percy
In 2002, seven women were secretly ordained as priests by two Roman Catholic bishops in Germany. After their ordination, a kind of domino effect ensued.
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Roman Catholic "Womenpriests" on their ordination day, June 4, at St. John's United Church of Christ in Catonsville, Md.
Courtesy of Gene Renner
Those seven women went on to ordain other women, and a movement to ordain female priests all around the world was born. The movement, named Roman Catholic Womenpriests, says more than a hundred women have been ordained since 2002, and two-thirds of them are in the U.S.
On a recent June day in Maryland, four more women were ordained as priests. The gallery at St. John's United Church of Christ was filled with Catholic priests and nuns, there to support the women and the ordination movement — though visitors were asked not to photograph them. Witnessing the ceremony was enough to risk excommunication.
The audience turned to watch as the women made their way down the aisle, beaming like brides. The two-and-a-half-hour ceremony ended with Holy Communion — the moment they'd been waiting for. Each woman performed the rites for the first time as a priest, breaking bread and serving wine as tears of joy flowed down their faces.