Marie Bouclin Ordained as a Roman Catholic Priest
By François Brassard, Media Coordinator for RCWP, Canada
On Sunday, May 27, 2007 at West Hill United Church in Toronto, Ontario, five women and one man were ordained as Roman Catholic priests and deacons by bishop Patricia Fresen of Germany.
Patricia Fresen, originally from South Africa where she was a nun for 45 years, is presently the international Program Coordinator of the Roman Catholic Womenpriests movement based in Germany. She was ordained a bishop in 2005 by an active Roman Catholic bishop in good standing.
Since 2002, ordinations like this have taken place on non-jurisdictional waterways and were mainly concerned with challenging an unjust, discriminatory law of the Roman Catholic Church, namely, that women were denied access to ordained ministry.
This ordination ceremony was significant in two ways. It was the first public ordination ceremony of the RCWP movement to take place on land in a church. Also, for the first time in North America, a married man was ordained in a public ceremony within the RCWP movement.
This movement is making history in the Roman Catholic Church. It was born in 2002 and there are now 16 women priests in the U.S. and two in Canada. Also, there are over 150 candidates in training worldwide. At the Toronto ceremony, two women from the U.S. were ordained to the priesthood, Cheryl Bristol from Detroit, MI and Mary Ellen Robertson from Muskegon, MI, alongside Marie Bouclin from Sudbury, ON, Canada. Three others were ordained to the diaconate, Alice Iaquinta of West Bend, WI, Monica Kilburn-Smith of Calgary, AB and Jim Lauder of Victoria, BC
The increased number of people joining the movement, particularly in North America, has led the group to embrace a broader vision of its goals. These women and men want to model another way of being Christian in the Roman Catholic tradition, a way that is more in keeping with what they understand Jesus to have originally taught and lived. Their ministry is dedicated to nurturing the world the Jesus way, that is, responding to the needs of people and planet with caring love and attention. To those who seek them out for service, they offer inspiration, hope and empowerment, just as Jesus did. It is a ministry without borders. It is inclusive.
When asked what kind of priestly ministry she would like to offer, Bouclin said that, among other things, she wanted to help women who have been abused by clergy. In this respect, it was very moving when Irene Deschesne, a well known abuse victim in Ontario, asked for Marie Bouclin`s priestly blessing at Communion time. The whole ceremony was very moving, Spirit filled and joyous.
Several individuals and groups who support the RCWP model of ministry participated in the ordination ceremony. These included representatives of the Canadian Network for Women’s Equality (CNWE), Corpus Canada, Ministry Without Borders (MWB), the Canadian Centre for Progressive Christianity (CCPC), Lyn Fisher, Anglican priest and homilist at the ceremony, and Muslim feminist Irshad Manji, best-selling author of “The Trouble With Islam Today.”