City Investigates: Catholic Women Speaking From the Margins
Miriam Duignan - Women's Ordination Conference
City Investigates: The Catholic Church continues to refuse women the right to be priests
By Sylvia De Luca and Tara Castiglioni
09:30 BST
Friday 17/05/2019
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Protests, debates, and illegal ordinations. These are just some of the ways women are standing up to the Catholic Church which, even in 2019, does not allow them to be ordained as priests.
Catholic women are still kept on the margins of Church life. They are permitted to be assistants, but they are not allowed to lead the services as priests.
It is against Church teaching for women to become priests in the Catholic religion.
But why? According to the Vatican, Jesus was a man. Therefore, women do not fit the same criteria and cannot follow their holy vocation.
Women across the world are petitioning to change the patriarchal traditions of the church.
Miriam Duignan is an activist for women’s ordination. She has been campaigning worldwide for women’s ministry.
“I believe that women can and should be ordained as priests. Absolutely. There is no doubt in my mind. They should have been ordained all along!”
“As the male ministry developed organically from what Jesus left behind and his legacy, the women’s ministry was cut off dead. It was completely like putting a cork into a bottle one thousand years ago.”
City News spoke exclusively to His Eminence Cardinal Vincent Nichols who explained that the traditions of the church are immovable.
“There is kind of a consistent tradition that the role of a priest, who honours his sacrifice, is a tradition that is given to men.”
He believes that campaigners like Miriam cannot shake the solid foundations of the Church.
“Jesus is set in the context of a tradition that goes back another 2,000 years before.”
Cardinal Nichols believes leadership isn’t just about the Priesthood. There are other important leadership roles available for women.
“I can understand the frustration. It’s like that frustration of wanting to love somebody and being really strongly attracted to them, but they are just not interested. And that’s very difficult. In a sense you have to dig back down and think how did you get to this position because it’s not going to go anywhere.”
However, there are women who live in hope that the church’s position on female ordination will change.
Despite the church’s resilience many organisations are fighting to change their 2,000 year old traditions. Photo credit: Miriam Duignan.
Instead of waiting for this possibility, they are demanding action. They have taken matters into their own hands, ordaining themselves as Catholic priests against the will of the church.
Christine Mayr-Lumetzberger from Austria is part of a group of women called The Danube Seven. They were ordained against the teachings of the Catholic Church on the River Danube in 2002.
The seven ordained women and the three male Bishops who ordained them were all excommunicated from the Catholic Church.
“Please don’t just dismiss us because we’re the wrong gender.”
However, banning female priests isn’t a tradition for all religions. The Church of England have been successfully ordaining women priests for the last 25 years.
An example of this is Reverend Fizz Gibbs. She was born a Catholic, but later converted to The Church of England.
Now she is a practicing Priest and can remember similar tensions when the women’s ministry was first introduced to The Church of England over 25 years ago.
“I can remember the bitterness of the arguments at the time and it really kind of hurt because you think well it’s me they’re talking about me!”
Reverend Fizz has been a Priest since 1993 in The Church of England.
“Interestingly, I think a lot of people who weren’t sure how they felt about it, just because it was different, really came round very quickly once they experienced women’s ministry.”
Reverend Fizz told City News that her message to the Pope would be to open his mind.
“That’s not acceptable. It’s not acceptable to do it to people who have disabilities or other colours. Would it be acceptable to say we don’t have black priests? Of course it wouldn’t. Why is it okay to say we can’t have women? Just look at us as individuals and judge us in that way. That’s all we ask.”
Whilst the Vatican is not currently showing any signs of changing the law on women’s ordination, for women like Miriam, Christine and Fizz, the discussion is not over.
Organisations like, Women’s Ordination Conference, arrange regular worldwide protests. Catholic Women Priests has ordained over 250 women against the will of the church.
Despite this the futures of these women are in the hands of the male ministry based in the Vatican. As it stands, these men are the only individuals who currently have the power to make a change.
Listen in to City Breakfast for more on this story.
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StandfirstCity Investigates: The Catholic Church continues to refuse women the right to be priests
Protests, debates, and illegal ordinations. These are just some of the ways women are standing up to the Catholic Church which, even in 2019, does not allow them to be ordained as priests.
Catholic women are still kept on the margins of Church life. They are permitted to be assistants, but they are not allowed to lead the services as priests.
It is against Church teaching for women to become priests in the Catholic religion.
But why? According to the Vatican, Jesus was a man. Therefore, women do not fit the same criteria and cannot follow their holy vocation.
Women across the world are petitioning to change the patriarchal traditions of the church.
Miriam Duignan is an activist for women’s ordination. She has been campaigning worldwide for women’s ministry.
“I believe that women can and should be ordained as priests. Absolutely. There is no doubt in my mind. They should have been ordained all along!”
“As the male ministry developed organically from what Jesus left behind and his legacy, the women’s ministry was cut off dead. It was completely like putting a cork into a bottle one thousand years ago.”
City News spoke exclusively to His Eminence Cardinal Vincent Nichols who explained that the traditions of the church are immovable.
“There is kind of a consistent tradition that the role of a priest, who honours his sacrifice, is a tradition that is given to men.”
He believes that campaigners like Miriam cannot shake the solid foundations of the Church.
“Jesus is set in the context of a tradition that goes back another 2,000 years before.”
Cardinal Nichols believes leadership isn’t just about the Priesthood. There are other important leadership roles available for women.
“I can understand the frustration. It’s like that frustration of wanting to love somebody and being really strongly attracted to them, but they are just not interested. And that’s very difficult. In a sense you have to dig back down and think how did you get to this position because it’s not going to go anywhere.”
However, there are women who live in hope that the church’s position on female ordination will change.
Despite the church’s resilience many organisations are fighting to change their 2,000 year old traditions. Photo credit: Miriam Duignan.
Instead of waiting for this possibility, they are demanding action. They have taken matters into their own hands, ordaining themselves as Catholic priests against the will of the church.
Christine Mayr-Lumetzberger from Austria is part of a group of women called The Danube Seven. They were ordained against the teachings of the Catholic Church on the River Danube in 2002.
The seven ordained women and the three male Bishops who ordained them were all excommunicated from the Catholic Church.
“Please don’t just dismiss us because we’re the wrong gender.”
However, banning female priests isn’t a tradition for all religions. The Church of England have been successfully ordaining women priests for the last 25 years.
An example of this is Reverend Fizz Gibbs. She was born a Catholic, but later converted to The Church of England.
Now she is a practicing Priest and can remember similar tensions when the women’s ministry was first introduced to The Church of England over 25 years ago.
“I can remember the bitterness of the arguments at the time and it really kind of hurt because you think well it’s me they’re talking about me!”
Reverend Fizz has been a Priest since 1993 in The Church of England.
“Interestingly, I think a lot of people who weren’t sure how they felt about it, just because it was different, really came round very quickly once they experienced women’s ministry.”
Reverend Fizz told City News that her message to the Pope would be to open his mind.
“That’s not acceptable. It’s not acceptable to do it to people who have disabilities or other colours. Would it be acceptable to say we don’t have black priests? Of course it wouldn’t. Why is it okay to say we can’t have women? Just look at us as individuals and judge us in that way. That’s all we ask.”
Whilst the Vatican is not currently showing any signs of changing the law on women’s ordination, for women like Miriam, Christine and Fizz, the discussion is not over.
Organisations like, Women’s Ordination Conference, arrange regular worldwide protests. Catholic Women Priests has ordained over 250 women against the will of the church.
Despite this the futures of these women are in the hands of the male ministry based in the Vatican. As it stands, these men are the only individuals who currently have the power to make a change.
Listen in to City Breakfast for more on this story.
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