In violation of the canon law of the Catholic Church, a ceremony of “ordination to the priesthood of seven women four Germans, two Austrians and one American took place at Donau, in Austria, on Saturday, 29 June. The rite was officiated by Romulo Braschi, an Argentine citizen and self-declared “archbishop”. In the view of Bishop Maximilian Achern of Linz, who expressed a negative judgement on the event in the course of a eucharistic celebration on the feast of Saints Peter and Paul, such facts are “deplorable because they hamper, rather than facilitate, the efforts being made with a view to a greater recognition of women in the Church and of their authentic equality with men. But we will not allow ourselves to be discouraged” he declared – in the efforts being made to “render still more visible” the participation of women in ecclesial activity and to “discuss the legitimate aspirations of women in the Church and in the world”. The criticisms of the Austrian Catholic Church, diffused in the weeks preceding the event, were unanimous: Achern pronounced on several occasions on the question of female ordination, appealing to the protagonists and recalling Catholic teaching. The Austrian Episcopal Conference expressed its own official view during its summer plenary session between 17 and 19 June, declaring null and void the ordination to the priesthood imposed “by a small group of women in contempt for the doctrine and tradition of the Catholic Church”.
