Well, there they go again.

A New Jersey woman this weekend took part in a ceremony in which she says she was ordained a Catholic priest.

From the Newark Star-Ledger:

Last July, Mary Ann Schoettly was automatically excommunicated from the Catholic Church after a ceremony that she says made her a deacon — a ceremony conducted in willful defiance of her religion’s ban on ordaining women.

Today, in the eyes of a small group of renegade Catholics who believe women should be allowed into the Catholic priesthood, the 66-year-old Sussex County resident was ordained a priest, in a controversial ceremony held at a synagogue.

“It’s a very fulfilling experience,” said Schoettly, a retired high school biology teacher and the 47th female priest associated with the international group Roman Catholic Womenpriests. “It is something that I have recognized in myself for years and haven’t been able to follow.”

Schoettly (pronounced Shot-lee), who lives in Fredon, is not connected with any Catholic diocese as a priest and will not preach at any diocesan church. She said she plans to celebrate Mass at her home, a three-bedroom ranch, at least once a month for small groups.

Today’s ceremony was conducted by two women who Roman Catholic Womenpriests believes are bishops but who Vatican officials have said also have been excommunicated.

Cardinal Justin Regali, archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia, denounced today’s ceremony as a “pseudo-Ordination” that was not genuine and worried that it may confuse Catholics about church teachings.

You can read more at the link, and see a photo gallery of the ceremony.

UPDATE: Cardinal Rigali has announced that the participants in the ceremony — both the two women claiming to be ordained, and those who claim to have ordained them — are now excommunicated. Read more here.

PHOTO: During the ceremony Mary Ann Schoettly, right, experiences the Laying On of Hands by Bishop Andrea Johnson. Photo by Aristide Economopoulos/The Star-Ledger.

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