What Options?

This is really an ideal scenario, unfortunately out of reach for most. But we have an interesting precedent in our time. Under the communist regime of Czechoslovakia, Bishop Felix Davidek ordained several women deacons and priests (1970-1975).
There is no doubt that a local bishop has the power to validly ordain women even if it were still to be in conflict with general Church Law.
For urgent pastoral reasons some local bishop(s) might well follow his example in spite of Roman opposition.

Background reading: Bishop Felix Davidek

The danger of splitting up the Church community will deter most bishops from acting on their own.

Other Christian Churches have begun ordaining women to the priesthood.
By joining a respectable Church, a woman’s personal vocation to the priestly ministry is safeguarded.

Background reading: Sister Christian Churches.

The best known example is that of the ‘Passau group’: seven women who had themselves ordained by Bishop Anthony Brasschi at Passau on 29 June 2002. Two of the women were subsequently ordained bishops.

The women see their action as a prophetic gesture. In spite of their protestations that they want to remain Catholic, they were excommunicated by Rome.

Background info pack: The Ordination of Catholic Women in Austria

Christian communities have the right to celebrate the Eucharist. Many theologians agree that, in extraordinary circumstances, when no ordained minister is present, the community can appoint one among them, a lay woman or lay man, to preside. This is now happening in many places in the Church.

The need is well illustrated by Sr. Eileen McCormack, missionary in Peru. She presided over Eucharists which she celebrated for her abandoned communities. She was killed by the ‘Shining Path’ terrorists in 21 May, 1991.

Background reading: ‘Do This in Memory of Me!’ by Eileen McCormack

A (very small) number of Catholic women believe they have been directly ordained by Christ himself. They feel his call so strongly that they believe he himself has imposed hands on them.

Background reading: Saint Catherine of Siena.

Women who feel called to the priesthood but remain within the Catholic Church do this for a variety of reasons. They value their Catholic roots. They feel a special obligation to the Christian family to which they belong. They support reform.

Rather than focusing on fulfilling their own personal vocation, they make it their aim to open the priestly ministry for all Catholic women. They want all women in the Catholic Church to enjoy the right to full participation in all ministries, including the episcopate and the papacy.

Background reading: pioneer Gertrud Heinzelmann.

The ORDINATION OF WOMEN in the Catholic Church

We hope that you have found this document helpful. It costs our small charity on average £10 / $20 / Euro15 to make such a document freely available to you. This is because we have to identify the best scholarship available, retrieve texts, obtain permissions, scan, edit, link and convert documents to html format and run a small office base to make this all possible. We can do this only because we are run almost entirely by volunteers. Please help us build our online library of resources so that more people can access the debate and make up their own minds about women priests. Having benefited from the online library, any donation, small or large, that you can make to support our work would be gratefully appreciated. Click here to learn how to make a donation now.