An 80-year-old Florida woman defied the Catholic Church by declaring herself a Catholic priest on Saturday, joining with a breakaway group of about 200 Catholic women worldwide who have ceremonially ordained themselves priests despite the Church's traditional ban and threat of excommunication, NBC News reported. In a ceremony that draws on the Catholic rite, Rita Lucey prostrated herself in the aisle of a (borrowed Protestant) church, and afterward gave out Communion. "It's the Rosa Parks movement of the Catholic Church," said Bridget Mary Meehan of the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests. "The Vatican cannot continue to discriminate against women and blame God for it."
