VATICAN CITY -- The Vatican has warned seven women who claim to be priests that they will be excommunicated if they do not renounce their posts by July 22, according to The Associated Press.
The women -- from Austria, Germany and the United States -- are violating the Catholic Church's ban on female clergy, the Vatican said. The women were ordained as priests June 29 by Romulo Braschi, an Argentine who calls himself an archbishop. The Vatican described Braschi as the founder of a schismatic community, according to the AP.
One of the women, Christine Mayr-Lumetzberger, told the Austrian Press Agency she welcomed the Vatican's reaction. She took it as a sign that the Church was dealing with the issue, she said.
The Vatican's statement said the Church wanted to dispel any doubt that might have arisen about its ban on female priests. The statement said ordaining women constituted a "serious attack on the unity of the church" and was "an affront to the dignity of women, whose specific role in the Church is distinctive and irreplaceable."
