In this photo: priestly ordination
The ordination of a woman priest in the All Saints Anglican Church near the Vatican at the end of this month is likely to fuel further furious debate on the issue of women priests, reports the BBC.
Maria Longhitano, a 35-year-old married teacher, will be ordained by the Old Catholic Church, a group which broke away from the Roman Catholic Church in the 1870s because its members could not accept the doctrine of papal infallibility promulgated by the First Vatican Council of 1871.
The group’s members, who were mostly German speakers, were promptly excommunicated by the Vatican. As they did not have a bishop they joined the See of Utrecht, whose members also did not accept papal infallibility.
The Old Catholic Church accepts most other Roman Catholic doctrine and the Roman Catholic liturgy. However, it is open-minded on issues such as married priests, same sex relationships and contraception. The Old Catholic Church has been ordaining women since 1976 in the USA and 1994 in Britain.
Do you think the Roman Catholic Church should accept women priests?
