Quebec will soon have its first female Roman Catholic priest.Linda Spear, a former Montreal teacher originally hailing from Winnipeg, will become the sixth Canadian woman ordained as a catholic priest.
The ceremony is presided by the group Roman Catholic Women Priests.
It's been around since 2001 and includes about a hundred women priests in Europe and 75 in the U.S. Spear said she'd prefer to wait until after she's ordained before doing an interview.
The ceremony takes place Saturday in her current hometown of Sutton in the Eastern Townships.
And this despite threats of excommunication from the Vatican, which has called it a sin comparable to pedophilia and pornography.
Marie Bouclin is the group's ordainment coordinator for Eastern Canada and was Ontario's first female Roman Catholic priest.
"The people are not reacting that way. They're saying, you know, it's about time," Bouclin said in an interview on her way to Quebec for the ceremony.
"We find that people are very open."
Bouclin says it's a question of equality and justice, adding that issues such as violence against women and the problems of pedophilia plaguing the Church will continue so long as women are not admitted into the clergy on an equal footing with men.
Bouclin was ordained in 2007 and says she hasn't yet received her notice of excommunication from her bishop or the Vatican.
But she says her bishop has let the priests in her community know that she is not to take communion or play any official role at mass and that she has excommunicated herself.
Bouclin says she takes it all in stride.
"We don't worry too much about rules and regulations and being lumped in with pedophiles
and being declared some of the worst sinners and all that. We prefer to take the high road."
SIC: EXC/CANADA