On my “Your Radical Truth Podcast Show,” my guest again was Father Anne, a Roman Catholic Priest who is a Woman.

Replying to my question about why she calls herself Father rather than Reverend, she had a very unique response. “The Catholic imagination has been contracted down to the male symbol only. So what I am doing as a very important part of my ministry is stretching out the symbol to include the body of a woman, to expand the Catholic imagination.”

In doing so, Father Anne is asking us to visualize not only a male priest but also a female priest. Many readers might pause and think, “What is Father Anne, let alone myself, ever referring to?” Biblical research informs us of an actual time in the early centuries of our Church where there were women priests.

I find it fascinating to reflect on the fact that Mary, Mother of God, was the most famous woman priest called Mary Priest, in our Church. Her title was “The Model For All Priesthood in the Catholic Church.”

I find it all so telling indeed! When you think of Father Anne carrying out her own ministry today, she is, in a sense, following in the past footsteps of Mother Mary or any of the other women priests back in our Church’s past history.

Our institutional Church, as Father Anne expressed in so many words, “has never included women’s experiences or really heard their voices.” Our so-called inequality trumps everything. Today, whether a baby boy or girl at their Baptism, they both receive the same prayers and blessings, yet women are still not equal in their Church’s eyes. Just as they ignore that blatant fact, they as well ignore the Biblical research showing the proof of women having been priests in our Church’s history. How can we as women ever expect the hierarchy of our Church to truly recognize us when, in fact, we have never been on their radar? Our very inequality does not even merit being discussed. These Church fathers continue to not publicly acknowledge that period of past history involving women’s priestly positions. How, in any way, do these actions represent the inclusive and loving ministry of Jesus?

Listen to the full interview at https://yourradicaltruth.com/004-father-anne/