(AFP) MONTREAL — Despite a Vatican ban and threats to excommunicate her, a sixth Canadian woman was ordained as a Roman Catholic priest Saturday, an official with a group supporting women in the priesthood said.
The group Roman Catholic Womenpriests ordained Linda Spear, a retired teacher from Quebec, in an Anglican church in Sutton, Quebec, eastern Canada.According to Bridget Mary Meehan, who was ordained as a bishop in 2006 in the United States, Roman Catholic Womenpriests was founded shortly after 2000 and has grown swiftly.
The first seven women priests were ordained on a boat in the Danube in 2002 and since then another 80 women have become priests in the United States as well as about 20 others around the world, Meehan told AFP by phone.
Spear is the first Quebecer but the sixth Canadian woman to become a Catholic priest this way. She was symbolically ordained by US bishop Andrea Johnson. Spear can celebrate the sacraments such as marriage but they will not be recognized by the Vatican, which limits the priesthood to men.
"We are not leaving the church, we are leading it into living Jesus's example of Gospel equality. Jesus called men and women to be disciples," Meehan said.
"We are disobeying an unjust church law that prohibits women's ordination and is rooted in discrimination," she explained. Spear could be excommunicated; Meehan already has been.
Marie Bouclin is the group's ordainment coordinator for Eastern Canada and was Ontario's first female Roman Catholic priest.
"The people are not reacting that way. They're saying, you know, it's about time," Bouclin said in an interview on her way to Quebec for the ceremony.
"We find that people are very open."
Bouclin says it's a question of equality and justice, adding that issues such as violence against women and the problems of pedophilia plaguing the Church will continue so long as women are not admitted into the clergy on an equal footing with men.
Bouclin was ordained in 2007 and says she hasn't yet received her notice of excommunication from her bishop or the Vatican. But she says her bishop has let the priests in her community know that she is not to take communion or play any official role at mass and that she has excommunicated herself.
Sources include
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jLyfYXD0oC7uVYZo0D90iJqgAGrA?docId=CNG.9069423c15ce0426af7f79fa1a9b81e0.a01
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/montreal/story/2005/07/25/qc-ordain20050725.html
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/montreal/story/2010/10/10/quebec-woman-ordained-priest.htmlv
http://www.romancatholicwomenpriests.org/index.php
http://godtalktv.org/
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