Patricia Fresen

Patricia Fresen (born December 7, 1940 in South Africa ) is a South African theologian. She is an advocate of the ordination of women in the Roman Catholic Church and a Roman Catholic priestess who is not recognized by the official church.

Life

Fresen's parents came from Ireland and Germany . At the age of 17 she entered the order of the Dominican Sisters . She studied theology, education and languages ​​and became a school director at the age of 24. During the apartheid era , she advocated equal treatment for black and white children. When she refused to exclude black children from classes, she was punished. After the abolition of apartheid in South Africa, she was rehabilitated. She received her doctorate in theology in Rome and Pretoria as Dr. theol. and taught homiletics , systematic theology and spirituality in the Pretoria seminary for seven years . She later taught theology at the Catholic University of Johannesburg (St. Augustine's College). She was also involved in the fight against AIDS .

When Catholic women were ordained priestesses in a secret ceremony in 2002 , she joined this movement and was ordained in 2003 at the second “European Women's Conference” in Barcelona . According to the current official church view, the priesthood within the Roman Catholic Church can only be donated to men, which is why their ordination is not recognized by the Roman Catholic official Church.

She had to leave the Dominican Sisters and has since helped train women to become priestesses. She is committed to equal rights for women in all denominations, especially in the Roman Catholic Church.

In 2005 she was ordained a bishop. The bishops of their movement commissioned them to ordain other women in various countries as deaconesses and priestesses. With Gisela Forster and Ida Raming, Fresen heads the “Roman Catholic Womenpriests International” (RCWP-International), which campaigns for equal rights for women in the Catholic Church.

Fresen was asked several times by the Catholic Church to distance himself from the consecration (consecration simulation) that was invalid from the point of view of the Church. However, Fresen refused and was excommunicated .

Web links

• Biography (English)