'Catholics are ready for this,' Ramerman says of defiant act
Mary Ramerman Age: 46. What: Pastoral administrator, Spiritus Christi Church. Family: Husband, Jim; three children. Home: Irondequoit. Education: Master's degree in theology, St. Mary's College, Moraga, Calif. Experience: 1983-1998, pastoral associate, Corpus Christi Church. Quote: ''Women are not the problem in the church, and to pretend that they are, it's discrimination. There's nothing spiritual about that.''
(Sunday, November 18, 2001) -- When the sacred moment came, the crowd was absolutely silent. Mary Ramerman knelt on the stage of the Eastman Theatre as an independent Catholic bishop placed his hands on her head to symbolize apostolic succession.
Moments later she was adorned with an embroidered stole to wear over her gown, and the near-capacity crowd of 3,000 leapt to its feet and applauded, rejoicing in the historic ordination of a female priest.
For the members of Spiritus Christi Church in Rochester, Ramerman's ordination yesterday was the most public demonstration of their rebellion from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Rochester -- a movement begun three years ago over issues such as same-sex marriage and the role of lay people at the altar.
Although an act of defiance, it was also a joyous occasion to celebrate members' belief that Ramerman's ordination is part of the future, that someday the Vatican will be forced to accept women into the priesthood.
"The message we are sending is that Catholics are ready for this, and there is no need to be afraid of it," said Ramerman, 46, after a three-hour ceremony that drew reformist Catholics from as many as six countries. A public-television camera crew also documented the event for the show, Religion & Ethics.
The ordination was performed by Bishop Peter Hickman of Orange, Calif., who heads the Diocese of Ecumenical and Old Catholic Faith Communities, part of the Old Catholic movement, a loose collection of churches that rejects the pope's authority.
It is unclear how many American women have been ordained priests in the Old Catholic tradition. Hickman has ordained only one other -- the Rev. Kathy McCarthy of Palm Desert, Calif., who also attended yesterday's ceremony.
To the Rochester diocese and Vatican, Ramerman's ordination represented nothing more than the ordination of a minister in a breakaway Protestant church.
Still, Rochester Bishop Matthew Clark took the step of publicly warning diocesan priests not to attend the event. To do so risked punishment in the form of restraints on certain administrative powers and privileges.
Lay Catholics also were discouraged from attending.
But the diocese would not seek to punish them, said the Rev. Daniel J. Condon, diocesan chancellor. Diocesan officials added that it was not in the best interests of Catholics to bear witness to a "schismatic act."
The Rochester diocese spans 12 counties in western New York and has about 338,000 members.
Prior to the ceremony, Mary Burke, a parishioner of St. Jude the Apostle church in Gates, stood on a sidewalk near the Eastman Theatre, a camera draped around her neck. Burke, a Roman Catholic who opposes the ordination of women, was there to take pictures of people -- Roman Catholic lay people or priests -- "who shouldn't be here," she said.
"If Jesus wanted a woman to be a priest, it would have been there in the Bible and it's not," Burke said.
"The Holy Father is the supreme head of the church. He's spoken infallibly and the answer is no, it can't happen."
One of those Burke photographed was the Rev. Fred Daley, a Roman Catholic priest from St. Francis de Sales Church in Utica, which is not part of the Rochester diocese.
Daley said he wanted to attend the ceremony because of Spiritus Christi's innovative outreach programs for drug addicts and the poor.
When asked about Bishop Clark's declaration that priests in the Rochester diocese avoid the event, Daley said: "The people of Spiritus Christi are great people who are filled with the holy spirit. It's too bad these things can't be worked out in the spirit of Christian love."
In 1998, Ramerman and two priests, the Rev. James Callan and the Rev. Enrique Cadena, as well as many parishioners, split from Corpus Christi in Rochester.
It resulted in the formation of Spiritus Christi, a 1,500-person congregation independent of the diocese that celebrates Sunday Mass at Hochstein Music School downtown.
Ramerman's first Mass as a priest is 8 a.m. today. While she is considered an Old Catholic priest, Spiritus Christi remains an independent church.
The auburn-haired mother of three now goes by the title of the Rev. Mary Ramerman. Parishioners need not call her "father," the traditional name associated with Roman Catholic priests. Rather, just call her "Mary," she said.
The priesthood doesn't mean her life is changing dramatically. Ramerman already had served Spiritus Christi as a pastoral assistant, offering opening prayers, delivering homilies and saying the final blessing.
But under the Old Catholic tradition, she is now able to consecrate the Eucharist, anoint the sick and absolve people of sins after their confessions.
Ramerman is realistic about her ordination. It will not eliminate what she perceives to be gender discrimination in the Roman Catholic Church.
She added, however, that it was an important step in opening the Roman Catholic priesthood to women.
"I'm one more step in their future," she said. "There's no way I can celebrate this day without carrying them with me in my heart."
Meanwhile, another woman at Spiritus Christi is getting ready to make more history.
Bishop Hickman will return to Rochester in April to ordain Spiritus Christi's family minister, Denise Donato, as a deacon, and then later as a priest.