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Nine women hold unofficial ordination ceremony
Michele Birch-Conery, a former nun and feminist scholar, believes she is now Canada's first female Roman Catholic priest after a special ritual Monday evening on the St. Lawrence River.
She was among nine Roman Catholic women who now face possible excommunication from the church for their actions. They took their priestly vows on a boat floating on the Canada-U.S. border, where no Catholic diocese had jurisdiction to halt the process.
The Vatican has denounced similar ceremonies that have taken place in Europe.
In 2002, then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict, excommunicated seven women who were ordained by an Argentine bishop on the Danube River, between Austria and Germany.
Birch-Conery, a 65-year-old from British Columbia, said she wants to do this because gender inequality within the Roman Catholic Church must be addressed.
"And in doing that, we address many other inequalities that we have been living with for a long time," Birch-Conery told CTV's Canada AM Monday morning.
She believes that over time, the newly-ordained women priests will be accepted into the Church.
"But for a while we will likely be standing on the margins in what we call 'in prophetic obedience'."
Birch-Conery admitted one family member, an uncle, has called her actions "brazen disobedience." However, her 80-year-old mother and aunt are with her in full support.
When asked why she would want to be part of a church that doesn't embrace her, Birch-Conery said it was the church she was born into.
"And it isn't the church of only one idea, or one opinion, or one knowledge. And it has always been a church that has often had to reform.
"Reformation never stops. It's an ongoing process." |