"It really was, 'Gosh, I would do that if I could,' and then when I found that I could, well, I did," she said.
It made so much more sense to her than leaving the Catholic Church to become a minister.
"The culture and the tradition means a great deal to me, and it doesn't feel like it's fair that to follow a call from God I'd have to give that up and profess a belief in another denomination that doesn't represent where my heart is," she said.
For Johnson, the decision came after witnessing one of the women's ordinations. "I thought, 'This could happen in this country. People will understand this.' "
She also had a coterie of family members at her ordination, a ceremony she said left her feeling "absolutely peaceful and very joyful."
Yet sometimes Johnson's situation puts her in an uncomfortable position. She goes to a Catholic church in Annapolis, but avoids talking about this other piece of her life there. She was reluctant to have her photograph taken because she fears some kind of reprisal.
But make no mistake: She's quite assured that getting ordained, presiding at Masses and being a woman priest is the right thing for her to do.
"It isn't about me, it's about moving the Catholic Church forward," she said. "I'm called to bloom where I'm planted and help open the way for the Catholic Church."
women priests
The group Roman Catholic Womenpriests formed in 2002.
In the United States, 33 women have been ordained as priests, six as deacons and one as a bishop, according to a group spokeswoman.
In Canada, 10 people have been ordained as bishops, priests or deacons. Others have been ordained in Europe.
Locally, two women have been ordained in ceremonies organized by the group. Andrea Johnson of Annapolis was ordained in July 2007, and Gloria Carpeneto was ordained in July 2008.
In May 2008, the Vatican decreed that women priests and the bishops who ordain them immediately excommunicate themselves.
