Roman Catholic Womenpriests :: Resources & Links

Photo: Joan Morris/Dorothy Irvin

Resources

Our new book, Women Find a Way, can now be ordered at:

http://www.virtualbookworm.com/bookstore/product/women_find_a_way.html

Women Find A Way has also been published in German
click here for information

Roman Catholic Womenpriests also recommend a new novel titled

ORDAINED
I Have Chosen You
By L.C. Anthony

Joan Chittister says this about this new novel:
The author’s Ordained does what no one else has been able to do: It introduces into the center of the Church a conversation about the obstacles, the process and the social nerve endings touched by ordaining a woman to the priesthood. Most of all, it presents us with the theological conundrum that comes when a Eucharistic community stands on the brink of losing the Eucharist, despite the presence of willing ministers. And it does it all in the most non-threatening form possible, a novel. Ordained is a book that raises the questions we need to discuss, not deny, not ignore, not repress if we are really going to be church.
—Joan Chittister, OSB

Click here to download order form for Ordained, I Have Chosen You

More Recommended Reading:

Taking Back God: American Women Rising Up for Religious Equality
by Leora Tenenbaum

In this book, Leora Tanenbaum tells the stories of religious Christian, Jewish and Muslim women who are "declaring that they expext to be treated as equals in their religious spheres." This book refers to Roman Catholic Womenpriests as Catholic reformers in an interesting chapter entitled "Catholic Women vs. the Vatican."

The Hidden History of Women’s Ordination:
Female Clergy in the Medieval West
by Gary Macy (Oxford University Press, Inc. 2008)

This is a must read!--- One of the most comprehensive and scholarly surveys of the history of womens ordinations in the Roman Catholic Church---a very thorough study with over 130 pages of notes and cited bibliography.

A Church of Her Own: What Happens When A Woman Takes the Pulpit
by Sarah Sentilles (Harcourt, Inc. 2008)

What happens when a woman gets ordained? This book deals with stories of several women in different Protestant denominations and the resistances that they have to deal with as they meet the daily challenges of being ordained ministers. There are several interesting chapters dealing with: Clothing, Sex, Inclusive Language, the Body etc. It also features Victoria Rue (RCWP womenpriest) and her journey to ordination. This book while not nearly as scholarly as Macy’s is a quick read and offers some humor regarding some of the challenges that face ordained women.

A History of Women and Ordination: Volume 2:
The Priestly Office of Women: God's Gift to a Renewed Church
by Ida Raming

Women Officeholders in Early Christianity: Epigraphical and Literary Studies
by Ute E. Eisen, Linda M. Maloney, and Gary Macy

Ordained Women in the Early Church: A Documentary History
by Kevin Madigan and Carolyn Osiek

Women In Christianity
by Hans Kung and John S. Bowden

A primary source of information regarding RCWP:

A Brief Overview of Womenpriests in the History of the Roman Catholic Church
by Bridget Mary Meehan, Olivia Doko, and Victoria Rue
Roman Catholic Womenpriests are a new and ancient model of priesthood, within the Roman Catholic Church. (click above title for a pdf file)

Please select the category of resource material:

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Resources

‘Catholic theology and practice provide some breathing room to those who disagree on some noncentral issues, especially moral matters. People can make their own conscientious decisions and continue to participate in the life of the church despite practicing contraception, being divorced and remarried, or living in a committed gay or lesbian union. The church has space for practically all of these decisions.

Unfortunately, where it is a question of church structure, there is no wiggle room. Those who struggle for the ordination of women cannot solve the problem in conscience. The institutional church needs to change. I can appreciate why some women have left the Catholic Church. But I admire and support, as much as I can, those who stay and struggle for change. They are true pilgrims who witness to us the meaning of hope.’

--Charles E. Curran, excerpted from A Place for Dissent: My Argument with Joseph Ratzinger, Charles E. Curran, an article, Commonweal, A Review of Religion, Politics & Culture, May 6, 2005.

Links
Ordinands in prostration
Ordination 2004

The image depicted at the top of each page of this website is Bishop Theodora in Women’s Episcopal Succession. The original is a mosaic that appears in a side chapel of the Church of St. Praxedis in Rome. This image was provided to www.romancatholicwomenpriests.org by Dorothy Irvin, theologian and archaeologist. Dorothy is the creator of a series of annual calendars depicting the archaeology of women’s traditional ministries in the Church. For more information about Dorothy’s work and to purchase her beautiful calendars please contact Dorothy at irvincalendar@hotmail.com

This website was created and is maintained by RCWP-USA, Inc., a California 501©3 non-profit corporation, as an educational and information service to the public. RCWP-USA promotes and supports the ordination of women and men in renewed priestly ministry in the Roman Catholic Church. This website provides information about RCWP worldwide, with special focus on RCWP in North America. Every ministry convened by a Roman Catholic Woman Priest operates separately and independently from the RCWP-USA, Inc. non-profit.
© 2010 Roman Catholic Womenpriests