Kentucky Woman Ordained As Priest: Rosemarie Smead Defies Catholic Church

Rosemarie Smead, like 150 other women in past years, decided she had waited enough for the Roman Catholic Church to lift its ban on women serving as priests and was ordained Saturday.

She is overriding Catholic doctrine and starting her own congregation as she is part of a dissenting group, Women Priests group, that operates outside the mandates of the church.

Smead, 70, told the Associated Press that she had no worries about being excommunicated from the church as so many other women who have preceeded her have been.

"It has no sting for me," she told the AP. "It is a Medieval bullying stick the bishops used to keep control over people and to keep the voices of women silent. I am way beyond letting octogenarian men tell us how to live our lives."

The Women Priests group conducted the ceremony in Louisville, the former Carmelite nun and college professor ordained in front of a crowd of about 200 men and women.

Louisville Archbishop Joseph Kurtz was one person who denounced Smead's actions in a statement advising Catholics not to participate in or encourage the Women Priests group's activities.

"Its action in carrying out a simulated ordination of Dr. Rosemarie Smead stands in direct opposition to the Roman Catholic Church's teaching on the priesthood," he said.

In recent years, groups of women Catholics have pushed for inclusivity. The catalyst for this change took place in 2002 in Austria when 7 women were ordained along the Danube River by an independent bishop.

Some women were ordained as bishops and went on to ordain other women as priests and deacons.

During her ceremony, Smead wept while others cheered her on and gave words of encouragement.

The Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests have ordained more than 100 women as priests and bishops, many of whom lead their own churches outside of Vatican order.