Female activists demonstrate for ordination in Vatican

Eight Roman Catholic activists staged a one-minute demonstration for women's ordination in St Peter's Square yesterday, urging Pope Benedict XVI to "leave his ivory tower" over the issue.

The protesters wearing lavender stoles, the movement's symbol, unfurled banners reading "Born to be priests" and "Vocation is important, not gender" in the illegal protest.

Three police officers, two in a golf cart and one on foot, stopped the demonstration, the fourth such action according to Erin Hanna, head of the US-based Women's Ordination Conference, admitting that they had no permit.

The women timed the protest to coincide with the final days of the Vatican's Year for Priests.

After what German activist Angelika Fromm called "a disappointing Year for Priests and a disastrous year for the Roman Catholic Church," she called on the 83-year-old theologian Pope to "leave his ivory tower and to face the urgent demands of today's life."

It was among several references to a new wave of paedophile priest scandals that have engulfed the Catholic Church since last November, following the large-scale scandals that hit the Church in the United States in 2002.

"The absolute hypocrisy of the Year for Priests celebration cuts to the core of what is wrong with the (Church) hierarchy today," Ms Hanna told the news conference.

"While the hierarchy spends their time covering up scandals and throwing major celebrations for themselves, Catholic women are... making a positive difference in the world," she added.

Ms Fromm questioned what she called "a supervalued male priesthood with forced celibacy," and called for "substantial structural changes... that effectively diminish the danger of sexual abuse and its concealment."

Marie Leslie of Catholic Women's Ordination, UK, said that as Catholics "wake up to the knowledge that for half of the Church's history there were married priests, and to the history of women priests in the early Church, there will surely be a change."

Noting a chronic shortage of priests, the US-based Women's Ordination Conference cites Vatican statistics that nearly half of the world's parishes and missions do not have a resident priest.

Mary Ann Schoettly of the eastern US state of New Jersey is among more than 100 women who have been ordained by woman bishops who were in turn consecrated by one or more male bishops whose identities will remain secret until their deaths.

"Reclaiming our ancient spiritual heritage, women priests are shaping a more inclusive, Christ-centred Church of equals in the 21st century," said Ms Schoettly, wearing a traditional Catholic priest's collar.

"We are here to stay. We are not going away," she warned.