By Jess McCabe | 2 September 2006, 11:06

Women in the Roman Catholic church are working to subvert the Vatican’s opposition to female priests by getting ordained under psuedonyms. Nerve.com interviews the recently enpriestened Jean Marie Marchant, and suggests that this movement could spur the creation of a new, seperate church.

The interview is carried out by Reverend Astrid Joy Storm, herself an Episcopalian priest in New York.

So at what point do you just become like another Protestant Church, unrecognized by Rome? After all, the Protestant Reformers thought for a long time that they were still connected to Rome. That’s a good question, and I don’t know. I think we’re going to have to think a lot about those issues as the movement grows, but I can’t imagine that many of us are willing to be part of the authoritarian, hierarchical system that Rome currently represents. So maybe it’s a good thing that the Vatican won’t recognize us any time soon.

The interview reveals some interesting “quirks” about the Vatican. For example, in 1994 it tried to ban the faithful for even talking about female priests.

Oh yes, and some interesting theories about the medieval papacy:

At least that’s one theory behind the “Pope’s chair” in the Vatican. As legend has it, after a female pope, Pope Joan, secretly penetrated the ranks of the papacy about one millennium ago, the enthronement ceremony came to include a thorough inspection of the candidate’s genitalia through a hole in the seat of his chair. If the examiner was satisfied, he would yell out to the crowd, “Testiculos habet et bene pendentes!” \x97 “He has testicles, well hung!” To which the satisfied crowd would respond, “Habe ova noster pater!” \x97 “Our father is virile!”