PCS Forum: Women’s priestly ordination in the Catholic Tradition with the focus on the subversive praxis of the Roman Catholic Women Priests

Presented by Rev. Dianne Willman and Dr. Jakub Urbaniak

April 20, 2023

1:00pm-2:30pm Eastern Time

            Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84965259983?pwd=VFl1cWhjV2UvMGl1cWFyR05mU2xKQT09 

Meeting ID: 849 6525 9983

Passcode: 868236

This forum aims at engaging with a recently published article on the Roman Catholic Women Priests (RCWP) movement. The article focuses on the “alternative ecclesiological model” that is embodied by RCWP in response to the ban on women’s ordination in the Roman Catholic Church.  It reveals the “unique form of dissent” that is pursued by the movement, namely that it is one that offers a different model without seeking rupture from the Church. The forum is intended to unpack the praxis of the movement that offers a way through the “doctrinal impasse” on the issue of women’s ordination, even if it only holds a “transitionary space within the larger land- scape of the new forms of priesthood emerging across Christian churches.”

Presenters

Dianne Willman, RCWP

Dianne Willman, RCWP, is a Roman Catholic woman priest ministering to an international community largely based in Johannesburg, South Africa. She was ordained in 2019. She is also a trained spiritual director and retreat facilitator in the Ignatian tradition. By profession, Dianne is a lawyer who has served in the South African prosecution organisation for 20 years. Dianne holds two Master's degrees - one in theology and the other in law. Dianne is passionate about justice and transformation, and is motivated by liberation theology: to see, judge, act.

Jakub Urbaniak (PhD – UBO Brest; DTh/MTh – UAM Poznan) 

As a teacher, researcher and community activist, Jakub believes that the pursuit of a more just and sustainable world requires diverse collaborations and a true spirit of togetherness (ubuntu). Between 2010-2022, he lived in Johannesburg, South Africa, where he was originally sent as a Fidesco volunteer. For over a decade, he worked as an academic in the fields of Theology, Philosophy, and Ethics, and published extensively on topics spanning decolonisation, Black Theology, African spiritualities, and the role of religion in the public sphere. He has also been involved in youth training and community development projects as a volunteer and in campaigns against racism and the discrimination of women and LGBTIQ+ people. Currently, he is teaching at the Innovation Academy, University College Dublin, focusing on social sustainability, climate justice, and refugee rights.