VATICAN CITY - The Vatican has excommunicated seven women who claim to be priests and refuse to repent, saying Monday that the group had "wounded" the Church.
The women — from Austria, Germany and the United States — participated in an ordination ceremony June 29 carried out by Romulo Braschi, an Argentine who calls himself an archbishop but whom the Vatican rejects. The Church's guardian of orthodoxy, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, set a July 22 deadline for the women to reverse their claims.
However, the women did not "give any indication of amendment or repentance for the most serious offense they had committed," the Vatican said in a statement signed by Ratzinger of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. "This Dicastery, in keeping with this warning, declares that they have incurred excommunication."
The statement expressed hope, however, that the women would eventually return to the fold.
"The Congregation trusts that, by the grace of the Holy Spirit, the above-mentioned persons may rediscover the path of conversion in order to return to the unity of the faith and to communion with the Church, which they have wounded by their actions."
Pope John Paul II has made clear he sees no room for debate about the possibility of opening up the priesthood to women. The Church says Jesus chose men to be his apostles and that the practice of ordaining only men must stand.
Last month, the women said in a statement that they "have not committed any act warranting" excommunication. They said the document had been sent to Ratzinger, and, asserted that they didn't want to be "at war" with the Church.
The women said they were seeking "instruction" from the Vatican on several points as well as three months to study the situation. Among other questions, they were seeking clarification from the Vatican on just what constitutes schismatic conduct and on Biblical passages regarding equality of women.