Living the dream of an egalitarian priesthood


The dream of egalitarian priesthood is being lived within a Catholic, if  not Roman, context at a
parish in Rochester, N.Y., where the Revs. Mary Ramerman and Denise Donato along with Jim Callan,
a former diocesan priest, serve a "full service" Catholic community. Spiritus Christi was  formed by
parishioners who left Corpus Christi Parish in 1998 after a highly  publicized, protracted tug of war
with the hierarchy over women's  liturgical roles and ministry to gay and lesbian parishioners. Today
Spiritus  Christi holds three weekend Masses plus daily Mass, enrolls 250 children in  faith formation
classes, sponsors a variety of community ministries, and hosts  two dozen weddings a year, both gay
and straight. Each a married mother of  three, Ramerman and Donato bring their family experience
to their pastoral  work.


Women's experience of being called to priesthood is often layered  with spiritual and emotional
tension. Donato, for example, struggled for a  decade with her call, which came clearly, she said,
during an Ignatian retreat  in 1987.


"For many years I kept thinking there was something wrong with  me," Donato said. "I thought I had
some inflated sense of self. I wondered why God would call me. I felt like if the church said women 
aren't called to be priests then I must be mistaken. I really needed to  grapple with that before I
could have courage to take my own next steps."  Those included pursuing a master's of divinity
degree. Finally in 1997,  Donato, then on staff at Corpus Christi, wrote to Bishop Matthew Clark to
ask  him for ordination. Though he was "warm and inviting, he said, no, he  could not do that," she
said.


Ramerman could be the poster priest for women's ordination;  approachable and confident, she says
she loves celebrating Mass, preparing  homilies, counseling parishioners and making hospital visits.


After Callan was removed from Corpus Christi as pastor, explained  Ramerman, "even though I
wasn't the assigned leader from the diocese,  people saw me as the leader. I think I realized probably
for the first time  [that] the possibility of ministry in the church is a privilege doled out by  men to
women. If you are working for a benevolent pastor who is comfortable  with women, you can do a lot
of things: preach, visit the hospital, et cetera,  but if that pastor changes, all of a sudden you can be
told your only job is to  carry the little water vessel up to the sanctuary."


She was eventually ordained before thousands of parishioners and invited  guests in 2001 at the
Eastman Theatre in Rochester by Bishop Peter Hickman of  the Ecumenical Catholic diocese; Donato
was ordained in 2003.


"The sad part for me," said Ramerman, "is that as women  we love the spirituality of the church but
we love it so much that we allow the  abuse of women to go on. . I might have a good place here
but this is not  what is going on around the church."


Kris Berggren