Woman In Priestly Garb Sounds ‘a Great Echo’

September 23, 2010

Author: Elisabetta Povoledo

Source: The New York Times/Milan Journal

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/24/world/europe/24milan.html?ref=religion_and_belief

While other little girls in her hometown of Nissoria, Sicily, were dressing up and playing house, Maria Vittoria Longhitano would pretend to say Mass, dispensing cookies and chips to her toys for communion. Sometimes, she would even baptize her dolls.

As a child, she prayed to St. Rita — much venerated in Sicily — asking for her intervention to become a priest.

But the Roman Catholic Church has no place for women among its clerical ranks, as the Vatican stated forcefully over the summer when it decreed that the attempt to ordain female priests is to be considered one of the most serious crimes against church law.