Witness to Her Story

German & Austrian Women ordained priests

Rea Howarth, 2 July 2002

Last night I returned from a secret trip to Germany with Maureen Fiedler, also of the Quixote Center. Together we witnessed seven women receive the sacrament of holy orders in a moving ceremony that I believe moves the issue of women's ordination to a new level. Women are taking matters into their own hands. No longer will they wait for permission to serve the people and the church they love so well.

I will publish more about the event shortly, but wanted you to get the story as quickly as possible.

Seven Roman Catholic women -- two Austrians, four Germans, and a woman with dual US-Austrian citizenship, were ordained to the priesthood on Saturday, June 29, by two bishops, Romulo Braschi of Argentina and Rafael Regelsberger of Austria.

The German and Austrian women hold degrees in theology and had participated in a three-year ministerial training program. Two of the ordinands were Austrian, Christine Mayr-Lumetzberger and Sr. Adelinde Theresia Roitinger. There were four Germans: Dr. Iris Muller, Dr. Ida Raming, Dr. Gisela Forster, and Pia Brunner. The seventh, with a dual citizenship in the US and Austria, was ordained under a pseudonym in order to preserve her anonymity.

The ceremony took place under tight security on a cruise boat on the Donau (Danube) River, which winds through Germany and Austria, with 200 invited guests. This was to prevent disruptions by demonstrators and press, and it made it impossible for the local bishops, witnesses, and the newly-consecrated priests to know precisely where the ordinations took place. 

It was attended by prominent theologians, activists, and ordinary Catholics who are in the communities served by the women.

There has been some controversy over whether the ordinations were valid.  Here is what I learned from one of the spokespersons, Dr. Forster.

Msgr. Braschi was ordained to the Roman Catholic priesthood in Buenos Aires in 1966. He was a member of the Marianists and holds a doctorate in theology. He was active in the basic community movement in Argentina, and opposed the military junta during 1976-1983, much to the unhappiness of the Catholic hierarchy in his country. Braschi worked with the Charismatic Apostolic Church of Jesus Christ and received his episcopal ordination from Bishop Roberto Padin, a bishop who had left the RC church, but whose apostolic roots trace back to the 15th Century. Braschi was re-ordained bishop by retired Roman Catholic bishop Geronimo Podesto in 1999. Podesta was appointed bishop by papal decree under Pope John XXIII.

Podesta was well respected, educated clergy, was president of the bishops conference, and a cardinal-elect. Podesta came to the conclusion that he could no longer agree with the church's teachings regarding celibacy for priests, contraception, and disagreed with how the church was handling pedophile priests. Podesta married, acknowledged his wife, and after leaving his bishopric, ordained Braschi for the express purpose of ordaining women for a renewed priestly ministry. Braschi, in turn, ordained Regenthaler, a Roman Catholic priest from Austria.

It seems clear that Braschi, who is married, is a bona fide bishop, although he is not recognized as such by Rome. He ordained the women as Catholic priests for the good of the whole church, but he did not claim to represent Rome. He did follow the Roman Catholic rite.

"We understand ourselves as priests in the Roman Catholic Church," Rev. Christine Mayr-Lumetzberger, said at a press conference following the ordinations. Forster said that at one point as many as 12 women considered being ordained. She noted that four American women had actively considered ordination at that time, but pulled out of the process.

"An important step," Forster noted, was the ordination of eight women to the diaconate on Palm Sunday. The ordaining bishop's identity was not disclosed. The pressure on the candidates was enormous, Forster said. One of the women had so much pressure put on her by her bishop that she pulled out. The nun, Roitinger, was "threatened with expulsion" from her community of 58 years if she went through with the act.

"We looked for a bishop with apostolic succession for three years," Forster said. They found five bishops who support women's ordination and are in good standing with Rome, but only one said he would do it, and then in secret. "We thought at this time that the institutional church exerts so much coercion and pressure, that no one has the courage to do it," Forster said.

From a canonical standpoint, the ordinations are valid, the women said, even though they are illegal under Roman Catholic canon law 1024. The group justified their actions, saying that for 40 years, women have used theological arguments to refute the justifications for excluding women from ordained ministry, in numerous scholarly and popular articles, books, and other publications. So far, the Vatican has ignored the refutations of existing church teaching, and in 1995, gave the doctrine Ordinatio Sacerdotalis issued in 1994, the status or a "quasi-dogma" and forbidden theologians from further discussion.

"Women who feel called to ministerial priesthood and who want to live their vocation, find themselves in a situation of grave conflict of conscience," said Raming. "On one hand they face the unrevised position of the Church leadership. On the other hand, God is calling them to priestly service to the Church.... Experience has shown that the discussion does not bear the promise of a result, and so the women have chosen ordination contra legem (CIC.1024). A change in the juridical condition of women in the Roman Catholic Church is not to be expected in the near future. Its hierarchical and centralized structure means that only bishops (exclusively men!) have the right to decide in a Council that women may have access to the ordained ministry. These men have shown themselves to be in the main, extremely obedient to the Pope and the Magisterium of the Church."

Canon 1024, which states that "only a baptized man can validly receive sacred ordination," is based upon "a grave lack of respect for the human dignity of women and their Christian existence," Raming said. "That valid ordination is reserved exclusively to men ignores the status of women as baptized and confirmed persons. This implies that Canon 1024 and its underlying teaching denies that women are created in the image and likeness of God (Gen. 1:27) and the teaching of Vatican II (Lumen Gentium, para 32 et al.) and Galations 3:27-28 that says: "All baptized in Christ, you have all clothed yourselves in Christ, and there are no more distinctions between Jew and Greek, slave and free, male and female, but all of you are one in Christ Jesus."

The doctrine of exclusion of women from ordained ministry is based upon a heresy that women in the Roman Catholic Church are no longer willing to accept, Raming said. The women's act is both political and spiritual, a clear sign of protest against "this misogynist teaching and juridical norm that a male church leadership has imposed upon women, causing grave damage to the credibility of the Roman Catholic Church in the world."

Rea Howarth

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