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6 July 2002
The ordination of seven women to the priesthood in the R.C. church on 29 June 2002, on board the MS ‘Passau’ on the Danube in Germany and Austria
Preamble
‘For forty years, since the beginning of the Second Vatican Council (1962 – 1965), women have used theological arguments to refute the reasons for exclusion from ordained priestly ministry. In the postconciliar period numerous scholarly and popular articles, books and publication in favour of the ordination of women have been published worldwide with a view to presenting the case. The leadership of the R.C. church, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith as well as the Pope, have so far ignored these writings, even when they were produced by the papal biblical commission, to wit the report of the Biblical Commission of 1976. Through repeated declarations like Inter Insignores, 1976, Ordinatio Sacerdotalis, 1994 and Responsum ad Dubium, 1995, the leadership have instead confirmed the exclusion of women from priestly ministry.’(1)
The facts
Christine Mayr-Lumetzberger and a number of women from Germany, Austria and the USA organised themselves as the ‘Autonomous Group of Women’ and started an ordination course in 1999. They were between 12 and 15 women who met over the last three years to devise and follow a course, usually held every six weeks for one weekend in Christine’s house. The women were married, single, religious sisters, all with degrees in R.C. theology. And all were fuelled by the desire to be ordained as R.C. priests.
Now, one could stop here and reiterate the litany of prohibitions against women priests, composed and defended by Canon Lawyers. One could tell the women to go away, to serve their church faithfully, which they love so much, loyally somewhere else, to be obedient daughters, as once upon a time wives in abusive marriages were told by their pastors to bear their ‘cross’ and go back to their husbands or indeed, women of today are still being told they are not allowed to have an abortion after rape. All these pieces of advice had been meted out to them. Over the centuries, we women have all been told to go away and to do something else, even if some enlightened clerics pat us on our collective shoulder and tell us that they are behind us – but not in public. Yet again, so-called liberals who profess willingness to reform, but only if it comes from above, unfortunately simply stabilize the institutional church, as they do not move until they are told to do so.
Experience has shown that private support is not enough. No amount of discussion has so far convinced the hierarchy that women do no longer regard themselves as second class, not able to image Christ. The Group therefore has chosen the path which is technically called ‘ordinatio contra legem’, against the law (CIC: Canon 1024).(2) Since they could not detect any shift in the R.C. official position, since the bishops have shown themselves supportive of Canon Law in public, they had no other option but to opt for a step which is contrary to Canon Law Canon 1024 which stipulates that ‘Only a baptised man can validly receive sacred ordination’. In the eyes of the women this canon or paragraph contravenes the basic human right of equality between the sexes and is therefore no longer acceptable in the secular sphere and even less so in the canonical sphere, as it ignores the status of women as baptised and confirmed members of the church.
The Group no longer wanted to accept such a scenario of exclusion. All of them have been engaged in pastoral work, in teaching, nursing, counselling. Years of patient training, research and collaborative ministry have not shifted the Vatican ‘nyet’ regarding the ordination of women. On the contrary, injunctions, prohibitions and threats of excommunication have been banded about. Unfortunately – or fortunately, depending on one’s point of view – even some theological experts and the famous women and men in the street have found these explanations wanting. Members of the Group felt themselves called to the ministerial priesthood for many years; some of them, elderly, want to live their vocation.
They all found themselves in a situation of grave conflict of conscience. They feel the call to the priesthood by God, but the denial of such a call by the institutional church. The women understood that their ordination would be brushed away as being ‘illegal’ in the eyes of the official church. But they understand the ordination as prophetic protest against the official church, in line with a number of thinkers, Saints and founders of religious orders, who sensed that the official church was lagging behind developments in the secular sphere. In consequence, the Group completed its training and started a six month process of discernment: each member of the Group had a soul friend, a pastor, accompanying her in her training. They were theologians who were not involved as the women were with the ordination agenda, but provided valuable reflection and analysis.
In the months of January and February 2002 it became clear that a number of them, but not all, wanted to go forward with the ordination to the diaconate and the priesthood. Some women were interested in the diaconate for the time being, whilst others wanted to wait altogether to put themselves forward for ordination with the next batch of ordinands.
Those who after a period of discernment were clear in their mind that they wanted to go ahead with ordination to the diaconate and the priesthood wanted to follow the rite of ordination as prescribed by Canon Law. This meant that they needed one or more bishops who would ordain women and not just men, as Canon Law prescribes. I have to say a few words about Christine at this juncture: she entered a Benedictine monastery which had been established in 1949 with the express brief to train the Sisters in parish work. For the Sisters it was clear that that would lead to priesthood. After five years in the order, she left after it had become clear that with the new Pope, John Paul II, things would never develop as the Sisters had hoped. Christine subsequently married and became a teacher in a Special Needs School where she is still teaching.
Christine who had initiated the whole process, started to look for bishops who would ordain the women. Of course, one could have thought of a scenario where the ordinations would be conducted by the community, the apostolic community ordaining its pastor. This way the stress would be on community not on apostolic succession.But such a step was too radical for some and most importantly, not in tune at all with Canon Law and this is what the Group wanted most of all – to follow the official line as much as possible.
If one wants bishops to ordain ordinands, i.e. take Canon Law as one’s blueprint, then those bishops should be named and they themselves should stand by the group of ordinands. If one does not name the bishops publicly, the press gets angry, the rumour mills spew out bizarre stories. The Group decided not to publish the name of the bishops, as a number of candidates requested their names to remain secret. What else could the Group do but to keep everybody guessing? That such a scenario was neither satisfactory nor actually helpful to the Group is something the Group concedes freely. Since the end of February innuendoes filled e-mail communications and statements in the press, which put a double burden on the Group: they had to reply, but could do so only in the most evasive and nondescript ways.
The Problems
It is a huge task to prepare for such a step, never before done in public by a group of candidates from three different countries. It is like climbing a mountain, without maps, paths or compass. You will not always find the right way. Still, the Group celebrated the ordination to the diaconate on 24 March, Palm Sunday, presided over by Bishop ‘Augustin Miller’, whose name is a nom de plume, as his identity cannot be revealed.(3)
The second celebrant was Monsignore Dr. Romulo Braschi. Romulo, an Argentinian, a Marianist priest for 40 years, had courageously taken on the military dictatorships in South America in the 1960s and 1970s when standing up for workers' right. In 1974 he was imprisoned for one year in Argentina and, upon his release, told by a priest to stop working as priest with left-wing organisations. The hierarchy was obviously supportive of the military junta, so that Braschi did not return to his pastoral ministry but joined a charismatic church in Argentina, the 'Catholic Charismatic Church of Christ the King'; he was consecrated bishop by the former R.C. bishop Roberto Garrido Padin in October 1998 and by R.C. bishop Geronimo José Podesta in January 1999. Romulo is a charismatic, a faith healer, a married man, who had ordained men and women. Rumours in the press that he extorted money were found to be utterly baseless, he has no criminal record and the accusers lost their court case.
Both bishops, Romulo and ‘Augustin’ are in full possession of the ‘apostolic succession’, the term used to denote the laying on of hands from apostolic times onwards to the present. The apostolic succession of bishops, i.e. the uninterrupted chain of one bishop ordaining priests who in turn would become bishops and ordain priests, has been broken several times in the course of 2000 years of Christian history. However, as a symbol it is a potent marker to connect Christians across centuries and millennia and continents to apostolic times. Today, the episcopal succession is felt to be less important a criterion for authenticity, as everybody who is baptized stands in the apostolic succession. But the symbolic concept of succession was sufficiently important for the candidates to look for a bishop or bishops with full apostolic succession. Equally important for the ordination of the candidates was the call from their communities.
The Group met with 'Augustin' and Romulo several times and together they worked out the programme for the ordinations the texts to be used, the music, rubrics of the ordination. On 9 May 2002 Romulo ordained a former Benedictine monk, Ferdinand Regelsberger, as bishop, the rationale being that if anything happened and neither 'Augustin' nor Romulo could attend the ordination of women, Ferdinand would be able to act in accordance with Canon Law.
In the meantime, preparations for the ordination event as such had to start. To be absolutely certain of an undisturbed event, the organisers hit on a wonderful idea: to charter a large river cruiser on the River Danube. Thus access could be rigorously controlled and guests intent on disruption excluded from the start. They chartered a river boat leaving Passau in Germany, steaming downriver into Austria to Neuhaus/Untermühl and returning to Passau.
The ordinations
‘Today the boat is our church’ – thus the first words of the opening address on board the motor ship ‘Passau’ on 29 June 2002. It was a very shrewd move. By celebrating the ordination on board of ship the boundaries of dioceses were blurred, but it also gave rise to a number of unanswerable questions: will the boat gather momentum and speed or will it land on the rocks? Will it start something new or will it be a one-off event? To judge by the result of the day itself the boat is on course, a number of women have already signed up for the next ordination course starting in the autumn of 2002. But I anticipate events.
The press was after news, the more sensationalist the better. Journalists had kept ringing Christine in Austria and Gisela in Germany from 6 am in intervals of a few minutes for weeks. Some opponents to the whole event had rung every convention venue in Upper Austria to find out whether there was a block booking for 29 June 2002. The date was known, the venue not. Eventually, the boat company confirmed a block booking, but stood by the contract with the women, even after threats had been made, that it would be financially ruined if it went ahead with the booking.
In May 2002, Christine was asked to participate in a television discussion with the Cardinal Archbishop of Vienna, Dr. Christoph Schönborn, who advised Christine to become a Protestant if she wanted to become a priest. She called this statement totally out of tune with the spirit of ecumenism and a total misjudgement of the situation – the issue of women priests in the R.C. church would not go away, even if the Cardinal wanted her to go away.
Two weeks before the ordination, two Canon Lawyers among the Group sent a Declaration to the press, again setting out the injustice done to women and the reasons for taking matters into their own hands. ‘All Catholic women who feel themselves called to the priesthood, now find themselves in great distress due to the current legal status of women in the church, which Pope John Paul II has exacerbated even more with several decrees. … Because of their vow of obedience to the Pope, all Roman Catholic bishops are obliged to reject the ordination of women. They meet this obligation without exception. This is the reason why women’s numerous attempts in the past to find Roman Catholic bishops as celebrants for an ordination of women ‘contra legem’ have all failed so far. It is therefore certainly understandable that the group of women prepared for ordination has accepted an offer from validly consecrated bishops willing to ordain women, even if this includes or could include bishops that are technically no longer members of the legal institution of the R.C. church. The women called to priesthood find themselves faced with a choice of either accepting an ordination that is sacramentally valid, but jurisdictionally controversial, or else continuing to accept exclusion from the office of priesthood for an unforeseeable period of time.’(4)
One week before the ordinations – and all the women had more than enough to do with getting chasubles made, hand printing their silk stoles, issuing invitations, organising the music, the programme booklets, etc. etc – the Bishop of Linz Maximilian Aichern, the local bishop of Christine, issued a pastoral letter to be read out at the Sunday masses threatening that anybody taking part in the ordinations would be excommunicated. On 27 June 2002 the same bishop wrote a letter to Christine threatening interdict according to CIC 1378 para 2 no.1 and excommunication according to CIC 1378 para 3, as ordinations are only legal for male ordinands.
Some 250 people stepped on board the ‘Passau’ early in the morning of 29 June 2002, the feast day of the Apostles Peter and Paul, traditionally the day of ordination – only this year some dioceses could not celebrate a single ordination because of the dire lack of male candidates. Outside, the green banks of the river Danube flew past, the waves and currents made for rapid progress - the Danube is a fast flowing river, a truly European waterway, breaking through gorges and accelerating over rapids, forging its very own course. The ceremony followed the R.C. rite, but Romulo in a short address stressed that he could not ordain with R.C. authority. Thus the sacrament conferred was technically illegal, as conferred without authority and counter to the ‘man only’ rule, but valid, because they were conferred by a man who has apostolic succession through the bishops Padin and Podesta and keeping to the letter of Canon Law.
There were seven candidates, Iris Müller, Ida Raming, Pia Brunner and Gisela Forster from Germany, Christine Mayr-Lumetzberger and Sr. Adelinde Roitinger from Austria and Angeline White from the USA.(5) Adelinde was told that by being ordained she would excommunicate herself, the so-called ‘eo ipso’ rule. She has been a member of her order, the Halleiner Schulschwestern, for 48 years. None of the soul friends, working with the women, were on board, no priest or bishop in post was on board. A woman priest from the Old Catholic church in Austria and a woman minister from the Lutheran church in Germany attended. And what of Bishop ‘Augustin’? The boat cast off late because the train lines to Passau were interrupted because of building work. We therefore had to wait for the arrival of a shuttle bus. When the last passengers had arrived and ‘Augustin’ was not among them, consternation on the faces of the organisers became visible, likewise raised eyebrows on the faces of a number of passengers; there were no explanations and no phone calls, why ‘Augustin’ was not on board. It was then clear that Romulo would be the ordaining bishop, something which a number of passengers clearly found inadequate. He was not helped by the fact that ceremonies were conducted in German, but he spoke only Spanish; this meant that everything had to be translated, not always theologically correctly or even acceptably, as the translator was not quite up to the task.
A number of participants, co-travellers on this epic voyage, would have liked a different bishop to officiate. A Peruvian music group played, shipped in by Romulo in the last minute on a blackmail tactic – ‘either you accept them or I do not ordain you!’ - 24 hours before an event of such mould-breaking importance and symbolism an absolute disaster. And more: on the last day before the ordinations he changed texts and music so that the published booklet could not be used. The Group was caught up in an impossible dilemma: either accept Romulo’s demand and be ordained or send everybody off the boat and call off the ordinations. The trust which was built up over the months between Romulo and the Group had disappeared, aggravated by the non-appearance of the other bishop. The Group decided to go ahead, some of them with great reservations.
Five days later I was handed an e-mail by bishop ‘Augustin’. He had prior to the ordinations travelled from his country to Austria, to spend a few days in a monastery with priest friends. On the day of the ordinations he planned to leave early, to take a train to rendez-vous with the all the passengers at the appointed place. However, in his e-mail he reported that his clerical friends had locked him into his room so as to stop him attending the ordinations in Passau. He had no phone to ring, no way of communicating with the organisers. True, he could sue his ‘friends’ for involuntary incarceration, but it is unlikely, I was told, that he will do so. His privacy needs to be kept at any price and he is not going to risk it with a court case.
A small number of participants had cancelled the trip because they did not want to be associated with an event which in their view gave undue weight to the fact that the presiding bishop acted without authority from Rome. To them, the ‘illegal’ facet of the ordinations was more important than its ‘valid’ facet. Some people on board stressed very strongly that the message of the catholic church was bigger than Roman catholic interpretations and the even more restrictive, the minutiae of Canon Law. The gifted always break the rules and do not take exclusion well – this is what was felt by another group, probably the largest on board.
The ordination service, with the promises of the candidates, litany of Saints, laying on of hands, prayer of ordination, investiture with stole and chasuble, anointing of hands and presentation of chalice and paten re-enacted the age-old ritual of conferring the sacrament of orders. Outside, the landscape with its green, green pastures and colourful meadows of wild flowers, its dark forests and small villages on the river bank and inside the ceremony connecting the people to all those who have pastored to Christians many centuries ago, easily and beautifully created an atmosphere of calm. When the candidates lay prostrate in front of the bishop, when they were standing and felt the hands of many on their heads, when they received their chalices, some had tears in their eyes. For too many long years they had waited for this moment - an end and a beginning. They have chosen a very hard and stony way. They all need all our support, however far or near we are, however our attitude to the ordaining bishops Romulo and Ferdinand. The women decided on an ordination ‘contra legem’, because they want the church to acknowledge the spiritual vocations of women for priestly ministry. To criticize the women for having decided to act ‘contra legem’ misses the point; what is the point is to criticize the male hierarchy of the R.C. church for making such an act necessary.
The Vision
For the seven women everything and nothing has changed. Everything – because they achieved something which no women for many, many centuries have achieved, being publicly ordained to priestly ministry. Nothing – because they have lived their priestly ministry for many years, being a pastor to their families, friends, groups, the people at their place of work. The accusation that ‘all they wanted was being ordained’ is laughable. Yes, they wanted the visibility of ordained ministry, but that is not ‘all’; they wanted to be acknowledged so that their groups who authorized them to go forward for ordination could receive the sacraments.
The ordinations were not ego-trips, as some press have written them off, only to add hastily: ‘the time is not ripe, these women should have waited, been patient and obedient’. However, the seven women and many more around the world have waited patiently and experienced that when it came to women's ordination, the time was never ‘ripe’ in the eyes of the law givers. The ‘maòana’ attitude and mentality has no value when Catholics are deprived of sacraments because there are no pastors. Not that the women want to be accepted simply because male candidates do not come forward. The women want to be accepted, now, because they have fulfilled the training programmes, have gone through a process of discernment and decided to go forward with ordination. Since the mean age of the seven candidates was 59, one can hardly in all sincerity counsel the women to be patient for a few more decades. It is disingenuous to try to tell the women that they ought to wait, without stating practical steps and initiating a calendar of meetings and decisions which would lead to the full acceptance by the male hierarchy of women in priestly ministry.
The women who have been ordained are a blessing to the church. They open a new perspective for the future of the R.C. church. Although they were not unreservedly happy with the choice of bishop, what, in the prevailing climate, was the option? They are heartened in their decision by the very fact that many women have applied for the next ordination course. This most important work will be complemented by the priestly tasks they are engaged in already: pastoral care of individuals and groups, particularly women which have distanced themselves from the Church, ministry to those persons who request the sacraments whenever a need arises.
With women in priestly ministry a different dynamic flows into serving their community. They understand themselves as R.C. priests, commissioned by their communities, obedient to the ordaining bishop. They understand their ordinations as a small, but immensely important step towards living out the gospel message of equality in Christ. It is not a step to complement the male hierarchy, not even to become ‘hierarchical’ themselves, but the demand for equality. They do not want to create structures of exclusion in parallel to the male structures. They will develop the scope and task of being pastors and will celebrate the sacraments if and when asked to do so. Theirs is a true ‘vocatio interna’, an internal call or conviction that compelled them to go down this road. We can only hope that their harvest will be rich.
Afterthought
On July 10th, 2002 Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger has issued a statement, 'Monitum', in which he called the ordination of women a 'simulated act', the sacrament has therefore been conferred illegally.The ordinations broke Canon Law, the bishop who ordained the women belonged to a schismatic community and the event damaged the right promotion of women who have their 'own specific place in the church and in the society.' These are the reasons why he threatened the seven women priests with excommunication if they do not recant their ordinations by July 22nd, 2002 and ask for forgiveness and show contrition.(6)
Dorothea McEwan
End notes
(1) From the opening paragraph of the ‘Statement regarding the Ordination of Women in Austria', written by Iris Müller and Ida Raming, handed out at the press conference following the ordinations on 29 June 2002, with slight adaptations by the author.
(2) In military hierarchies, courage in the face of seemingly unsurmountable difficulties is rewarded with the highest military order; in the R.C. church it is simply forbidden.
(3) Although the real name of 'Augustin Müller' was stated in the press, he never confirmed the reports in the press and specifically asked that his identity be kept secret.
(4) Declaration dated 13 June 2002, issued by Iris Müller and Ida Raming, with slight adaptations by the author.
(5) Cf. Werner Ertel and Gisela Forster (eds), Wir sind Priesterinnen. Aus aktuellem Anlaß: Die Weihe von Frauen 2002. Düsseldorf: Patmos Verlag, 2002, 207 pp.
(6) 'Monitum' dated 10th July 2002, Rome, signed by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger and Tarcisio Bertone, S.D.B., Archbishop of Vercelli, Secretary.
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