Women priests excommunicated

last updated 8 January 2015

Rome

The Vatican has expelled seven women from the church for claiming to be Catholic priests. The women, from Germany, Austria, and the U.S., were ordained in June by renegade Archbishop Romulo Antonio Braschi. The Vatican does not recognize Braschi as a Catholic, and it gave the women a month to renounce their ordination, but they refused. In a press release announcing the excommunication, the Vatican said that the seven failed to “give any indication of amendment or repentance for the very serious offense they had committed.” The Roman Catholic Church has not ordained women since around the third century.