Two area women, claiming recent ordination by valid Roman Catholic bishops, have formed their own Catholic congregation at a Catonsville Protestant church.
They celebrate Catholic Mass monthly, including consecration and distribution of the Eucharist at the church, which was not identified because they fear retribution from those who oppose female priests.
“We didn’t just ordain ourselves,” said Andrea Johnson of Annapolis, who was ordained in 2007 by South African Catholic Bishop Patricia Fresen, a former Dominican nun. “There are Roman Catholic bishops in good standing with the Vatican in Europe who wanted this to happen and who ordain women.”
The Catholic Church said it has no authority to ordain women because they say Jesus only selected men as apostles. It considers those who do so to be automatically excommunicated.
Neither Johnson nor Catonsville resident Gloria Carpeneto, a spiritual guidance counselor who said she was ordained earlier this year in Boston by Roman Catholic Womenpriests, USA Bishop Dana Reynolds, would reveal the names of the European bishops who oppose the Vatican’s prohibition.
Johnson said, however, that, during her discernment period, which started as a lay leader in the 1980s and continued through later involvement with the Women’s Ordination Conference and Roman Catholic Womenpriests, USA, she and others were encouraged by several U.S. bishops.
They included deceased Baltimore archdiocese Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Murphy, who resigned in 1984, and Bishop Tom Gumbleton, retired auxiliary bishop of Detroit.
“Women make vital contributions to the church,” said Baltimore archdiocese spokesman Sean Caine, adding that the archdiocese had just hired its first female chancellor — or executive director — in its 219-year history. “They serve as diocesan and parish leaders, Catholic school presidents and principals É and key members of administrative boards.
“But ordination to the ministerial priesthood is reserved to men because the Catholic Church is bound to follow the example of the Lord, who chose only men as his apostles.”
Carpeneto, a former member of St. Anthony of Padua parish in Baltimore, accepts her excommunication, but believes that the church’s prohibition is based on a misreading of church history and that women once served as deacons, priests and even bishops.
“I felt that this is something I was called to do,” she said, noting that her and Johnson’s group of 50 supporters generally accepts Catholic Church teaching and is not in open conflict with the archdiocese.
“We’re trying not to put pressure on the clergy to condemn us,” Johnson said, noting, however, that she emphasizes individual conscience over church teaching in her teaching.
