• Women being ordained into Catholic priesthood.
• Excommunication from Catholic Church.
• Women feel called from God to become priests.

On Nov. 1, four women planted their feet confidently before the congregation and before the altar at St. Paul's United Church of Christ in Chicago. They stood poised in preparation for their ordination into the Catholic womenpriesthood and deaconship, which is not recognized by the Roman Catholic Church.

The journey of establishing a Roman Catholic womenpriesthood has been anything but a trip of trepidation. It has led women to blaze pathways of vocation in once impassable terrain. Within the Vatican, the movement has crossed paths with controversy and disapproval, leading to a universal edict of excommunication.

Alta Jako, Mary Styne and Linda Wilcox declared their call to the diaconate, to the congregation and the womanbishop.

"With the help of God, I am ready," they said one by one.

Barbara Zeman, a candidate for the womenpriesthood, followed suit.

The Roman Catholic womenpriest movement advocates for the ordination of women into the Catholic priesthood and the equality of men and women in church leadership roles. It began with the ordination of seven women in 2002, according to Andrea Johnson, former executive director of the Women's Ordination Conference, an activist group for women as priests. The German, Austrian and American women took vows on a boat on the Danube River, skirting around the boundaries of bishops' territories and jurisdiction.

In order to execute this first ordination, the movement for women as priests found European bishops who felt fed up with the inequalities of Canon Law and were willing to walk around its borders, Johnson said. The names of the bishops involved will remain secret, she said. Upon their deaths their involvement in the movement for womenpriests will be disclosed to the public.

In addition to naming women as priests, these bishops named women as bishops, allowing womenbishops to continue the process of ordaining more women (without approval of the Roman Catholic Church), Johnson said.

Dana Reynolds, the first woman ordained a womanbishop in North America in 2008, presided over the Chicago ordination.

Reynolds approached the podium to give the homily while a crowd sat before her in silent attentiveness.

"Through grace we find our voices to speak truth and love," Reynolds said. "Filled with doubts and concerns, we say 'yes' to God and open a space for grace to come and create transformation."

The participants involved in the movement seek to transform not only women's roles within the church, but also the community's role.

The movement advocates for married priests and priests in committed relationships, said Judy Lee, ordained womanpriest and pastoral director of Good Shepherd Ministries.

"This is a priesthood to which you bring your whole self, your relational self, and have the full capacity to love and be loved," she said.

Lee said the womenpriest movement is more inclusive and invites everyone to participate in Eucharist with a communitarian concentration. It works towards a discipleship of equals with a commitment to social justice and equality.

Lee initially pursued a career in social work and later used her knowledge to serve the poor and underprivileged. She holds Church in the Park in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., a ministry that feeds the homeless' physical hunger and provides them with spiritual nourishment.

Her ministry initially supplied the homeless with tents, counseled individuals and their families and helped them find employment. However, Lee said she sought to take her ministry to a more spiritual level. She began praying with the homeless but yearned to offer the sacraments.

"It concerned me that I could not offer Eucharist if I were not ordained," Lee said. "I believe the Eucharist is the body broken and blood poured out. It's not just the elements, but the way you offer yourself to the poor."

According to Lee, she felt called to the priesthood and being ordained has enhanced her spiritual ministry among the homeless. At Church in the Park, Lee holds prayer services, distributes Eucharist and lays her hands upon those individuals most in need.

The congregation, deacons, priests and bishop arrived at the most sacred part of the womenpriest ordination ceremony: the laying on of hands. Reynolds placed her hands upon the shoulders of each candidate, asking the Holy Spirit to fill them with grace and wisdom. Members of the community followed suit, placing their hands upon each candidate in profound prayer.

Prayer and the sacraments drive the womenpriest movement, said Gloria Ray-Carpeneto, an ordained womandeacon and spiritual director. The symbols in Catholics' lives culminate power and strength, she said.

"We are a sacramental people," Ray-Carpeneto said. "Becoming ordained and being a sacramental minister allowed me to administer in a whole, full way to people who believe sacraments are very important."

Ray-Carpeneto said womenpriests have been characterized as angry women trying to pull apart the church. But this stereotype contrasts with the way Ray-Carpeneto and other womenpriests see themselves.

"We have a strong commitment to Jesus' notion of justice and compassion," Ray-Carpeneto said. "Ministry is a call to Jesus that cannot be denied. When you feel a call you don't refuse to answer it because the pope said you can't."

In May, the Vatican issued an explicit decree declaring that any women or bishops who participate in the ordinations are punished with immediate excommunication, denying those individuals membership in the church or participation in the sacraments.

According to the Catholic News Service, Pope John Paul II said the priesthood does not discriminate against women, but upholds Christ's example for the Church.

The pope said that the priestly tradition has always been reserved for men alone and this doctrine has been faithfully upheld.

In a 1994 apostolic letter titled "On Reserving Priestly Ordination to Men Alone," Pope John Paul II wrote women cannot be priest for the following reasons: "the example recorded in the Sacred Scriptures of Christ choosing his Apostles only from among men; the constant practice of the Church, which has imitated Christ in choosing only men; and the living teaching authority which has consistently held that the exclusion of women from the priesthood is in accordance with God's plan for his Church."

Pope John Paul II declared that by calling only men apostles, "Christ acted in a completely free and sovereign manner. In doing so, he exercised the same freedom with which, in all his behavior, he emphasized the dignity and the vocation of women, without conforming to the prevailing customs and to the traditions sanctioned by the legislation of the time."

According to Opus Bono Sacerdotii, a religious organization that responds to sensitive situations regarding the priesthood, Pope Benedict XVI said it is appropriate to consider giving women greater responsibility within the church, but these responsibilities cannot include priesthood.

Pope Benedict XVI stated his gratitude to women who have helped the church on its faith journey, but God reserves priestly ministry for men.

Lee said due to her excommunication she cannot call upon her former parish for support. The Chicago ordination was held at St. Paul's United Church of Christ because Catholic parishes do not condone the ceremony.

Ray-Carpeneto said excommunication has never scared her.

"You must make a choice about how you allow a system to own you," Ray-Carpeneto said. "If you're going to make it in any kind of humanly structured system, you must maintain your integrity. A system only has as much power as you give it. I just don't accept that I'm not a member of the church anymore."

Despite Vatican disapproval, Jako, Styne, Wilcox and Zeman, among other women, continue to respond to their call to the priesthood.

Rev. James O'Leary, associate director of the Faber Center at Marquette, questioned why women cannot be called by God to the priesthood.

"There is no diversity within the priesthood," O'Leary said. "And wherever there's no diversity, it's not healthy."

O'Leary said he approves of the womenpriest movement but many members of the Jesuit order would not.

"So much change comes from the bottom up," O'Leary said. "Change has to start somewhere."