Church in the World

Illicit priests become illicit bishops

Europe

Two of the seven Catholic women who were illicitly ordained on board a boat on the River Danube last June and subsequently excommunicated by the Vatican have announced their ?consecration? as bishops. Gisela

Forster from Germany and Christine Mayr-Lumetzberger from Austria told reporters in Munich on 26 June that they had been consecrated in Scharnstein, Upper Austria, last year. Forster, who is a co-organiser with Mayr-Lumetsberger of a training course for women seminarians, said they had been asked by ?certain bishops? if they were prepared to accept the responsibility of conferring the ordained ministry. They could not reveal the names of the bishops because that would put the bishops at risk of excommunication, but they were, she said, ?Roman Catholic? bishops and the Apostolic Succession was therefore ?guaranteed?.

Footage of the women?s consecration was included in Orientierung, Austrian state television?s weekly religious affairs programme, on 29 June, writes Christa Pongratz-Lippitt from Vienna. The laying on of hands was clearly shown but the faces of the bishops officiating at the ceremony were not filmed.

Forster and Mayr-Lumetsberger said they would not found dioceses but would concentrate on pastoral work and women?s ordination. ?I think it most important that women from all continents, especially women religious who so long to be ordained, can now come to us?, Forster said. She went on to say that she saw herself as the ?connecting link? between ?the male and the female Church?.

Mayr-Lumetsberger told the Austrian Press Agency (APA) that she and her six fellow women priests had had a very busy year and had frequently been asked to hear confessions, perform marriages, baptisms and the last rites, and also to celebrate the Eucharist. They considered themselves Roman Catholic priests and were determined to remain ?within the Church?. Mayr-Lumetsberger went on to dismiss their excommunication last August as a mere coercive measure by men in Rome. ?It does not bother us?, she said.

In a special announcement last January, the Vatican reiterated that the seven women had been officially excommunicated on 5 August 2002 and that any priestly tasks they undertook were ?null and void?. The Vatican has explicitly forbidden them to perform or receive the sacraments and to carry out any kind of church function or service. At the same time the Vatican expressed the hope that the women would repent and return to the Church.