Altar Ego

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Most of us would prefer not to think about whether the Pope is well hung, but in the Middle Ages, everyone needed to know.
    At least that’s one theory behind the "Pope’s chair" in the Vatican. As legend has it, after a female pope, Pope Joan, secretly penetrated the ranks of the papacy about one millennium ago, the enthronement ceremony came to include a thorough inspection of the candidate’s genitalia through a hole in the seat of his chair. If the examiner was satisfied, he would yell out to the crowd, "Testiculos habet et bene pendentes!" — "He has testicles, well hung!" To which the satisfied crowd would respond, "Habe ova noster pater!" — "Our father is virile!"
    A thousand years later, an all-male priesthood — and, of course, papacy — still matters as much now as it did then. Things have changed somewhat, it’s true. The Episcopal Church has been ordaining women like myself since the 1970s, just like most other Protestant denominations — Lutherans, Methodists, Presbyterians — all of whom consider women just as qualified as men to represent Christ. And even though the Vatican stands firm in its opposition to female priests, upwards of sixty percent of American Roman Catholics support having women serve at their altars, as well.

    Supported by these figures and impatient with the impenetrable male hierarchy, a small but growing group of women calling themselves Roman Catholic "Womenpriests" have been getting ordained without the Pope’s approval. One of them is Jean Marie Marchant, until recently a department head at the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston. Last year, Marchant traveled to Canada where she was secretly ordained as a priest under a pseudonym. Last month, when she went public about her ordination, she offered her resignation to her Cardinal, who quickly accepted it, calling her actions "irreconcilable with the position she held with the Archdiocese of Boston." Marchant spoke with Hooksexup about losing her job with the Church, and why she’s still a Catholic regardless. — Rev. Astrid Storm

So you’re a female Roman Catholic priest — wow! How do people respond when you tell them that?
To be honest, I haven’t had a lot of opportunities to tell people. Most of the people I’ve talked to have read about it somewhere and already know. But by and large, those people have been very enthusiastic.

This movement has been around for over thirty years. Why do you think it’s picking up so much steam lately?
I guess we’ve discovered that change isn’t going to come about in the ways we thought it would. At first, we were all very hopeful that we could change the system from within. After Vatican II, we thought for sure that the next step was ordaining women, along with married priests. But then everything changed, with the Church growing increasingly closed to the discussion of women’s ordination since then. So lately, we’ve decided to take action and move ahead on our own, our hope being that people’s positive experiences of women priests will finally move things forward.

Jean Marie Marchant

The Church’s 1994 document, Ordinatio Sacerdotalis, forbids any discussion of women priests.
I find that ridiculous, not being able to even discuss it! A lot of us were both horrified and amused when that came out — amused at the thought of actually trying to prohibit people from discussing the issue, and horrified that the church would dare attempt such a thing. But I guess that only shows how much fear and concern there is out there about our actions, which I take as a good sign.

A follow-up document stated that women priests would be excommunicated. Were you excommunicated for being ordained?
No. Some of the first women to get ordained were excommunicated by the Pope, and severely so. But Bishop O’Malley [of the Boston Archdiocese] said he didn’t need to take any action with me. The official line is that I "separated myself from the church" by what I did. I don’t agree with that, though, because I was baptized into the Catholic Church. I’m still a Catholic. Technically, no one can undo my membership in the Catholic Church unless I choose to join another tradition, which is definitely not what I’ve done.

When people discover I’m an Episcopal rather than a Roman priest — the title "priest" tends to mislead people into thinking I mean Roman — they’re often disappointed. It’s a shame Rome is so unbending on this issue, because it seems like people are really ready for Roman Catholic female priests.
Definitely. I get a lot of thank you’s from people who are so grateful for what we’re doing.

There’s also a lot of vitriol about you out there in the Catholic blogosphere.
I haven’t read it. What have they been saying?

That you’re willful, self-centered and a heretic.
It’s amazing how much fear and anger is out there, but again, that’s just evidence of how powerful our movement must be.

Speaking of detractors, I was surprised that a number of the outspoken opponents to women’s ordination in the Catholic Church are women. What do you think that’s about?
There’s a long history of women’s resistance to this movement. Personally, I’ve received three negative letters from women, one of which was from a Roman Catholic nun who argued that, since women are superior to men, we have to allow men to have this one area in which they can have some authority and clout. But I must say that this is not at all representative of the notes I’ve received from most religious women, who are exceptionally supportive and grateful.

The overview on the Womenpriests’ website says that "women priests and deacons must be a rainbow — we reflect the people we serve: married, celibate, domestic partners, heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual and transgendered." That’s quite a statement, especially for the Roman Catholic Church. Do you support transgendered and bisexual priests?
Well, as far as I know, we don’t have any as of yet.

But would you support a transgendered or bisexual priest?
Yes, I would.

How about domestic partnerships?
Yes, those too.

Purely hypothetical, of course, but how about a young female priest living with her long-term boyfriend?
Hmm. Well, I never thought of that. I guess I would want to know why they’ve chosen not to get married, but I do recognize that some people, as with gay people who oppose marriage rights, prefer not to go the traditional route of getting married. To me, the bottom line is about commitment, fidelity and authenticity.

Let’s say the Vatican chose to recognize female priests tomorrow. Would you be happy about suddenly being under their authority? It would mean you’d have to give up a lot of freedom with respect to your views on authority, church structure and sexuality.
I know, and I don’t think a lot of us are ready to see that happen.

So at what point do you just become like another Protestant Church, unrecognized by Rome? After all, the Protestant Reformers thought for a long time that they were still connected to Rome.
That’s a good question, and I don’t know. I think we’re going to have to think a lot about those issues as the movement grows, but I can’t imagine that many of us are willing to be part of the authoritarian, hierarchical system that Rome currently represents. So maybe it’s a good thing that the Vatican won’t recognize us any time soon.

So I have to ask, why not just become an Episcopal priest? It’s so much better for women over here.
People ask me that a lot, but I’m very committed to trying to reform my church from within. I really believe that the best way to do that is to stay in it as long as I possibly can, and show people what the priesthood could be. I expect ordination will be a choice for my granddaughters, but my hope would be that it will be ordination into a renewed priesthood and a renewed church.
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