Spanish woman attempts to be a Bishop. Details of the consecration.
The Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests (ARCWP) and the Comunidade do Home Novo of A Coruña sent out an invitation to an unusual event: the Episcopal consecration of Christina Moreira Vázquez.
The chapel of a country house in the region of Santiago de Compostela, owned by one of the members of the Comunidade do Home Novo, welcomed us on the afternoon of Saint John's Day. There we gathered people from Germany, Austria, France, Switzerland, the United States, and also from different parts of the peninsula such as Portugal, Extremadura, Madrid, Catalonia, Castilla-León, Andalusia, and, of course, Galicia.
Consecration of Christina Moreira
"Our liturgical style is inclusive, and our Eucharistic table is open to all. Come and join according to your desires and in the way that makes you most comfortable. "You are all welcome at the table," noted Mary Theresa, the priest and master of ceremonies who led the various moments of the ceremony.
Irish-American Bishop Bridget Mary Meehan presided over the ordination with presence, with a personal light filled with the vitality and spontaneity bestowed upon her by her 77 years of profound life. She was accompanied by German bishop Gisela Forster and Austrian bishop Christine Mayr-Lumetzberger, to, as the invitation indicated, "transmit the apostolic succession within the circular and inclusive Church to which she belongs, to accompany and ordain women called to serve open communities where all people are welcome."
"We gather today with joy for this ordination and begin in the name of God, the source of all being, the eternal world, and the Holy Spirit," Bishop Bridget Mary began at the opening of the celebration. And so it was: an ordination that combined the solemn and ceremonial tone of what is being organized with careful affection, and at the same time a shared, endearing, joyful, and spontaneous way of doing things.
The celebration began with the Liturgy of the Word, during which María Teresa Ribeiro, a Portuguese deaconess living in Andalusia, read a reading from the Book of the Acts of the Apostles and a poem by Pere Casaldáliga. As a second reading, Deaconess Loan Rocher, a French-Vietnamese, read an excerpt from the homily Bishop Jacques Gaillot gave in the Cathedral of Évreux (France) on the day of his departure from the diocese in January 1995. The Gospel, read by Priest Belén Repiso of Valladolid, was Mark 5:21-43, in which Jesus heals the woman with hemorrhages and restores the life of Jairus's daughter.
Bishop Bridget Mary's homily was fresh, full of meaning and life: "This is not just a ceremony. It is a moment of resurrection," she began. "We are picking up a thread that has been woven in the Church since its beginnings. Long before women were excluded from Church leadership… there was Phoebe… the ancient Didactic and Apostolic Constitutions that describe deaconesses baptizing, teaching… Episcopal Theodora in 4th-century Rome… Brigid of Kildare, one of Ireland's most beloved saints, consecrated… bishop."
And from this revealing historical introduction that speaks of her predecessors, Bishop Briget Mary takes up the Gospel: "Jesus tenderly says to her: 'Talitha kum. Little girl, arise.' It is the same invitation we extend today to Christina, to every woman whose gifts have been silenced, and to every community to which she has been told she does not 'belong.'"
And further: "This ordination today is not just a personal moment for Christina… It is also a sign of something larger that is happening in the Church. In the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests, we are building something new, or perhaps something old made new again. A Church that resembles Jesus: inclusive, welcoming, non-hierarchical, guided by the Spirit. We live Pope Francis's dream of a Synodal Church... In the words of Pope Leo XIV... let us build a Church founded on the love of God, a sign of unity, a missionary Church that opens its arms to the world..."
The homily was shared, and Christina concluded by referring to her inspirational predecessors: Priscillian, Jacques Gaillot, Óscar Romero, Pere Casaldáliga, and Exeria, whom she called the mother of the Galician Church. "We cannot forget where we come from," she added with her characteristic strength. "Sisters, rise up!" And you too, brothers!" she concluded.
And so began the rite of episcopal ordination with the presentation of the bishop-elect by Victorino Pérez Prieto—her husband and also a priest—and their daughter Myriam, representing the entire Church to bear witness to Christina's call to serve as bishop.
Then we moved on to the examination of the bishop-elect, an ancient custom of the Church that decrees that she be questioned about her determination before the people.
The episcopal consecration continued with Christina's prostration on a symbolic violet carpet, an act of loving surrender to God accompanied by the Litany of the Saints.
And so we came to the laying on of hands, one of the most sacred moments of the rite of consecration: first, the bishops laid their hands on Christina's head, and then the rest of us participating in the celebration were invited to do so. A reverent silence filled the chapel, accompanied only by the soft music of a flute.
Representing the people of God, two women from the assembly held an open ceremonial Book of the Gospels over Christina's head while Bishop Bridget Mary recited the Prayer of Consecration aloud, inviting those present to extend their hands toward Christina as a gesture of invoking the Holy Spirit.
Then the anointing with chrism, a symbol of the mystical anointing and spiritual blessings God grants Christina, took place, and Bishop Bridget Mary presented her with the ceremonial Book of the Gospels. This was followed by the presentation of the ring, a seal of fidelity, and the presentation of the Servant Cross, a reminder of the call to follow Jesus.
And finally, the investiture with the Shepherd's Crook, a symbol of commitment to the role of bishop in the community, which Christina requested be brought to her from the back of the chapel and passed from hand to hand throughout the assembly.
Christina with the three ordaining bishops. Second from the left, Bridget Mary Meeham, who presided over the celebration. First from the right, Christine Mayr Lumezberger, Swiss bishop.
Christina with the three ordaining bishops. Second from the left, Bridget Mary Meeham, who presided over the celebration. First from the right, Christine Mayr Lumezberger, Swiss bishop.
Consecrated Bishop Christina Moreira Vázquez and the three ordaining bishops shook hands: "It is with great joy that we present to you our newly ordained bishop!" Bishop Bridget Mary proclaimed enthusiastically, and the entire assembly applauded fervently, rejoicing in what had happened.
The celebration continued with the Liturgy of the Word. The Eucharistic Prayer was shared by Bishops Bridget Mary, Gisela, Christine and Christina, and Victorino. The Lord's Prayer followed, followed by a moment of effusive peace with warm embraces among everyone in the assembly. Communion and the final blessing concluded the celebration.
The beautiful sounds of the flute and tambourine, as well as the guitar, enlivened the various moments of the celebration with songs led by Victorino. Simultaneous interpretation via headphones made it easy to participate in an event characterized by a mix of different languages: Spanish, English, French, and Galician.
More than 100 people witnessed this consecration, some close to Christina through friendship or neighborliness, others through membership in organizations in which she participates or with which she has affinities or contacts: the Irimia Association, the Women of Galician Christians Association, the Vangarda Obreira Community of A Coruña, members of the Cristo da Victoria Parish of Vigo, the Roxín Roxal Association, the Optional Celibacy Movement (MOCEOP), the Women's Revolt in the Church of Extremadura, Andalusia, and Madrid, the Communion of Béthanie and Carrefour des Chrétiens Inclusifs (both French), and the Ichthys Christian LGBT Community of Seville. Various television and print media were also present.
Christina thanked everyone for their presence and company. To conclude the ordination, she invited us to share refreshments with what everyone had brought.
The beauty of the setting, the sobriety of the chapel, and the charm of the pazo made for this magnificent celebration, which, of course, ended with a grand family photo.
But who is Christina Moreira Vázquez, and why did she decide to take the step toward episcopal consecration?
Born in Paris in 1964 to a Galician mother and father, and raised in France, Christina has lived in Galicia for over 40 years and claims both nationalities. Married to Victorino—known as Tori to her friends—and mother to Myriam, until last year she was the only female priest on the peninsula. She is now joined by Belén Repiso, from Valladolid, who will be ordained a priest in Rome in October 2024.
Christina's vocation arose at the age of 17, during a beautiful spiritual experience in which she heard Jesus of the Last Supper inviting her to do as He did, breaking the Bread and offering the Wine: "Do this in memory of me." This initial call challenged Christina; she knew well that it was a forbidden place for her as a woman. Even so, she embarked on a path filled with personal doubts and criticism and questioning from those close to the Church about the authenticity of her vocation. These were years of a solitary process, during which several priests advised her to remain silent, to keep quiet about her vocation because it was prohibited by Canon Law.
But Christina didn't give up, and in 2010 she contacted the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests (ARCWP), an organization that advocates for the ordination of cisgender, transgender, and homosexual women in the Church and works for inclusive Catholic communities. The association currently has more than 300 members from various continents, several of whom are European priests and one, Christina, was Galician. It began in June 2002 with the ordination of seven women on a boat on the Danube River: Iris Muller, Ida Raming, Pia Bruner, Dagmar Celeste, Adelinde Roitlinger, Gisela Forster, and Christine Mayr-Lumetzberger. Ordained by three Catholic bishops, they were excommunicated by the Vatican a few months later. On October 20 of that same year, Christine Mayr-Lumetzberger and Gisela Forster were ordained bishops by a Catholic bishop who remained anonymous for security reasons.
In 2015, after a long process of formation and vocational discernment, Christina took the step and received ordination as a deaconess within the Comunidade do Home Novo in A Coruña, a Christian community founded in the 1970s and in which she has been actively involved for years. Faithful to the call she had received, she was ordained a priest in Florida (USA), at which time she was living and leading indigenous communities in Bogotá (Colombia). It was Bishop Bridget Mary Meehan who ordained her, following the apostolic lineage and continuing the path of the seven foundresses, called by the media "the Danube Seven." And it was in the Comunidade do Home Nuevo that Christina served and celebrated the Eucharist weekly all these years. Receiving the Episcopal Order was another step on this path of inclusive community service.
In these nearly 30 years of friendship, there have been many shared moments and also hours of conversation with Christina, expressing experiences, searches, wounds and pains of a lifetime, deep desires, and plans to make her initial vocational call a reality. I have no doubt that the Holy Spirit is speaking through Christina's vocation, a vocation carefully discerned and strongly purified by criticism from various levels of the Church.
Our beloved Ruah sometimes needs courageous women who take bold steps, and Christina is courageous, bold, and determined. She combines an analytical mind, a well-crafted intelligence with clear and forceful words, with an open and sensitive intuition and a passionate heart, carefully caring for the beauty of her inner world as well as that of her physical body all these years. A graduate in theology from the French University of Catholic Theology in Strasbourg and now a postgraduate researcher at the same faculty, Christina is part of the coordinating team of the Galician association Irimia, participates in the association Mulleres Cristiás Galegas Exeria, and actively works in Som Cristians (a domestic church and virtual community project) and in the French association “Toutes apôtres!” for women's equality in religious communities and institutions, as well as in the “Comité de la jupe,” now “Magdala,” to “defend the cause of women and campaign for an open and inclusive Church.”
A friend and collaborator of the late French bishop Jacques Gaillot, known as the Bishop of Partenia, the "diocese without borders," she also volunteers as a professional interpreter for the international organization ATD Fourth World, which aims to eradicate extreme poverty. She has also been sharing information for years on her website, lashomiliasdeluz.wordpress.com.
A friend and collaborator of the late French bishop Jacques Gaillot, known as the Bishop of Partenia, the "diocese without borders," she also volunteers as a professional interpreter for the international organization ATD Fourth World, which aims to eradicate extreme poverty. She has also been sharing information on her website, lashomiliasdeluz.wordpress.com, for years.
Christina is a lucid and committed woman who is making a reality of one of the defining mottos of The Women's Revolt in the Church (a network of Christian feminist women that began in 2020 within the framework of the feminist events of March 8): "Until equality becomes a custom in the Church." Let us remember that one of the lines of demand in her Manifesto relates precisely to all of this: "Enough of being denied the priesthood because of our bodies, a body that is always under suspicion."
We know full well that administering or receiving the Sacrament of Holy Orders to women is currently not permitted in the Catholic Church and is even severely punished with excommunication. But Christina and the rest of the members of the Association of Catholic Priests, with a clear conscience stemming from their obedience to the Spirit, are questioning a heteropatriarchal hierarchical ecclesial structure that denies women access to Holy Orders. They are shedding light on the inconsistency and profound crisis of a clerical structure that has little to do with the modern conscience of the 21st century and even less with the proposal of a Jesus who welcomed and loved women even against the dictates of the Jewish society of his time.
And this is the courage of these women: to demonstrate, through their daily practice, a model of a circular and inclusive church in which to exercise ministries in a communal manner. A model that seeks to transform the current power relationship in which the genital definition (penis or vulva) incomprehensibly determines access to the Ministerial Orders, rather than the heart and spirit of communally discerned service.
Clearly, a path with such a transgressive charge disorients us, causes confusion, and generates various fears by challenging established institutional beliefs and obedience. This is to be expected, and it is up to each of us to determine what it challenges us to, what it opens us up to, and how to position ourselves before these paths.
Perhaps it might help us to remember that Protestant Christian churches have been ordaining women for decades. Thus, the Church of Denmark became the first Lutheran organization to ordain women in 1948 (77 years ago!), and the Lutheran Churches of the United States and Canada have ordained women since 1970.
Perhaps it might help us to learn about Ludmila Javorová, born in 1938 and still alive. This Benedictine woman was the first woman ordained to the priesthood by a Catholic bishop and exercised her ministry in Czechoslovakia in a communist context of severe persecution. Although Pope John Paul II did not endorse her ordination and her priesthood when the internal situation in the country had normalized, the Catholic communities she served did widely recognize her.
Perhaps it might help us to know that Pope Francis received Episcopalian, Anglican, and Lutheran women bishops in recent years, although he never did so with the ordained women of the Association of Roman Catholic Priests, who requested an audience with him on numerous occasions.
Women don't need to be perfect in service, love, or in their lives to be priests. We simply have the right to be perfect by virtue of being sisters of Christ and Beloved Daughters of the Merciful God. It's up to the institutional Church to take the steps, and it's up to us to take what is ours by birthright.
And that is what Christina did with authenticity and simplicity, on this Saint John's Day before all of us. With the words of Bishop Bridget Mary, we pray to our loving God to grant Bishop Christina Moreira Vázquez abundant grace and blessing so that she may be effective in her work and persevere in prayer, carrying out her ministry with compassion and concern for all. May she be faithful in serving the community, living justly, loving tenderly, and walking with integrity. Amen. So be it.
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