00:00:03.086 --> 00:00:04.671
I was a pretty good rule follower

00:00:04.671 --> 00:00:06.673
for a long, long time.

00:00:11.553 --> 00:00:15.849
I went along with the thinking, the law,

00:00:16.683 --> 00:00:19.978
but it was always just too restrictive.

00:00:20.770 --> 00:00:22.689
I couldn't live with it anymore.

00:00:22.689 --> 00:00:24.149
I couldn't live with it anymore.

00:00:25.233 --> 00:00:27.193
The institutional structure,

00:00:27.193 --> 00:00:29.904
with men being the only ones as ordained,

00:00:29.904 --> 00:00:30.947
doesn’t work.

00:00:31.948 --> 00:00:35.618
Every single human person
has something to offer.

00:00:36.202 --> 00:00:37.829
I knew that I had a call to this,

00:00:38.079 --> 00:00:40.540
to be a Roman Catholic
woman who's a priest,

00:00:40.915 --> 00:00:42.083
Catholic priest.

00:00:47.839 --> 00:00:49.299
So now what do I do?

00:01:02.187 --> 00:01:04.314
I'd been in the parish for 30 years.

00:01:04.606 --> 00:01:07.859
We raised our kids in the parish.

00:01:07.859 --> 00:01:11.571
It was the place where we belonged.

00:01:12.489 --> 00:01:13.948
It was home.

00:01:14.574 --> 00:01:19.079
But I got pretty convinced
pretty early on that

00:01:19.079 --> 00:01:23.249
the Spirit was moving
the institution to be more inclusive.

00:01:23.875 --> 00:01:29.756
I have never been one who could
feel any integrity with the institution

00:01:29.756 --> 00:01:34.969
saying that LGBTQ people
were intrinsically disordered.

00:01:37.305 --> 00:01:40.809
That's the reason that I never took a job,

00:01:40.934 --> 00:01:43.686
a paid job, with the institutional Church.

00:01:43.686 --> 00:01:46.773
Even though I had lots of ministry preparation

00:01:46.773 --> 00:01:48.525
because I could never

00:01:50.068 --> 00:01:55.031
say the things that I couldn't,
that I don’t believe.

00:01:58.535 --> 00:02:01.162
I've just always been a questioner.

00:02:03.373 --> 00:02:07.335
The second largest group of
religious people in the country,

00:02:07.585 --> 00:02:10.338
at least several years ago,
was former Catholics.

00:02:12.173 --> 00:02:15.260
So there's something
that is not quite right here.

00:02:16.177 --> 00:02:19.139
Different people
have been called at different times

00:02:19.139 --> 00:02:23.393
in the Church's history
to try something new.

00:02:24.102 --> 00:02:26.437
That's how I see my vocation.

00:02:26.437 --> 00:02:31.651
I have always been called into a
particular leadership role in a community.

00:02:32.277 --> 00:02:37.740
By the time I was in my twenties,
I was clear that that was a call

00:02:37.740 --> 00:02:41.995
to priesthood, even though
it was just completely impossible.

00:02:42.745 --> 00:02:47.208
Gradually, as my own
call to priesthood got stronger,

00:02:47.625 --> 00:02:51.212
and I realized there were many,
many other people

00:02:51.504 --> 00:02:56.301
who were also longing to have women
ordained as Catholic priests,

00:02:57.594 --> 00:03:02.098
then I just kept moving in that direction
and found the organization,

00:03:02.098 --> 00:03:05.059
the movement,
Roman Catholic Women Priests.

00:03:41.221 --> 00:03:45.516
When I began the process
of formation as a priest,

00:03:46.434 --> 00:03:48.561
I went through tremendous grief.

00:03:49.020 --> 00:03:53.399
It was very difficult emotionally
to separate myself from the parish.

00:03:54.567 --> 00:03:58.780
And it felt like being torn out of a community.

00:03:59.572 --> 00:04:02.033
And yet I was doing the tearing.

00:04:04.244 --> 00:04:06.704
When I did talk with the parish,

00:04:06.704 --> 00:04:10.792
a few people said,
you're doing a terrible thing.

00:04:12.168 --> 00:04:13.419
This is sinful.

00:04:13.419 --> 00:04:15.088
This is wrong.

00:04:15.421 --> 00:04:17.924
I'm pretty sure
there are a couple of people

00:04:17.924 --> 00:04:20.301
who thought I would go to hell,

00:04:20.301 --> 00:04:23.096
and then they would
turn their backs and just go away.

00:04:23.888 --> 00:04:26.182
And that was hard to hear

00:04:26.182 --> 00:04:29.936
because I loved everyone in that community.

00:04:30.645 --> 00:04:36.526
And a part of that is a couple of
friends who were very close.

00:04:37.694 --> 00:04:40.697
I didn't know
if we would still be friends.

00:04:41.364 --> 00:04:43.700
They were very...

00:04:43.950 --> 00:04:45.576
traditional

00:04:46.244 --> 00:04:47.704
Catholics.

00:04:50.248 --> 00:04:55.086
Bill and I actually went to their house
and had dinner with them,

00:04:55.920 --> 00:05:00.758
and at dessert time I said to them,
I have something I need to tell you.

00:05:01.467 --> 00:05:03.636
And after they got through,

00:05:03.636 --> 00:05:04.846
Are you both healthy?

00:05:04.846 --> 00:05:05.888
Are you okay?

00:05:05.888 --> 00:05:07.807
How is your marriage, is your marriage okay?

00:05:07.807 --> 00:05:09.642
And we said, oh, yeah, yeah,
that's fine.

00:05:10.727 --> 00:05:12.854
Then the man said,

00:05:14.188 --> 00:05:16.399
Are you going to be a priest?

00:05:16.399 --> 00:05:18.609
I mean it was out of the blue.

00:05:18.609 --> 00:05:20.570
It was out of the blue.

00:05:20.570 --> 00:05:25.825
I had no... I couldn't even have imagined
that he would say that.

00:05:27.160 --> 00:05:28.328
And I said yes.

00:05:29.829 --> 00:05:31.748
They recognized the call.

00:05:45.887 --> 00:05:50.641
I am not leaving
the Roman Catholic Church,

00:05:50.850 --> 00:05:55.313
even if the institution says I have
by my actions.

00:05:55.313 --> 00:05:57.106
I'm saying, no, I haven't.

00:05:59.025 --> 00:06:03.154
I am choosing to stay
but at the outer edges.

00:06:05.114 --> 00:06:10.161
the reason that I choose
to call myself a Roman Catholic Woman Priest

00:06:10.161 --> 00:06:12.372
is because if I just said

00:06:12.705 --> 00:06:16.959
I am a priest or not calling myself
a Roman Catholic Woman Priest,

00:06:17.377 --> 00:06:19.837
the institutional Church would just say,

00:06:20.296 --> 00:06:22.048
Oh, good.

00:06:23.591 --> 00:06:25.426
Be a good priest elsewhere

00:06:25.927 --> 00:06:28.179
because you're saying
that you're not part of us.

00:06:28.805 --> 00:06:30.640
I think it's really important

00:06:30.807 --> 00:06:32.934
to get the word out
that there are women priests

00:06:33.142 --> 00:06:36.187
and that we’re doing work.
We’re doing the work.

00:06:37.897 --> 00:06:42.235
The institution of the Church
is not serving all of God’s people.

00:06:42.985 --> 00:06:46.364
And so, we have the call,
we have the charism,

00:06:46.364 --> 00:06:49.033
we have the energy, we have some people.

00:06:49.033 --> 00:06:51.452
And we're going to go out here

00:06:51.869 --> 00:06:54.414
and do something that reflects

00:06:54.414 --> 00:06:58.709
the real Christ call of the Church.