"The fact that a woman was doing this after so many years of only seeing men made me feel so much more part of the celebration," she said. "Also, women have a different perspective on things. It's so important to hear our Scripture and faith discussed from those perspectives."
Jerry May, a retired lawyer, regularly attends Mass at an Annapolis parish, but after a friend told him about Johnson and Carpeneto, he enthusiastically began going to their Sunday services with his wife. "I'm very supportive of that movement," he said. "I have believed for some period of time that the church's attitude toward women becoming priests and married men becoming priests has been counter-productive."
The ordination of Carpeneto and two other women over the summer attracted some media attention and was promptly denounced by the Roman Catholic Church. In a statement, the Archdiocese of Baltimore said that women have long held leadership positions in the church and "their dedicated and able service remains and will continue to be an integral component of our ministry."
A spokesman added in an e-mail that "While this may create attention, it does nothing positive to advance understanding of ordination, consideration of which must be according to theological principles rather than current social norms."
In the United States, 33 women have been ordained as priests, six as deacons and one as a bishop, according to Roman Catholic Womenpriests. Thomas Reese, a senior fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University, doubts the women's ordinations are significantly influencing the discussion about women in the Catholic Church.
"In terms of ultimately getting the church to change, I don't think this is going to have any effect one way or another," he said. "In the long term, what will have an impact on the laity is if they have any priests. Priests are getting older and older and they're getting fewer and fewer." But Carpeneto, 60, believes people are beginning to notice. "We're seeing little cracks in the stained-glass ceiling," she said.
Carpeneto, who is married with two adult daughters, has doctorates in ministry and human development. For years, she was the pastoral associate at a Baltimore Catholic church, and she currently works as a spiritual director, which she describes as akin to being a spiritual life coach.
She had long felt a call to become a priest when she read an article about the women's ordinations.
