God's Daughters

God's Daughters [Knocking on Vatican's Door] presents an intimate portrait of two Catholic women priests, ordained and living their priesthood in defiance of the Vatican. They are part of a growing movement asking the Vatican to recognize women priests and embrace the 21st Century. The answer has been swift: AUTOMATIC EXCOMMUNICATIONS for the woman being ordained as well as the persons conferring or trying to confer an ordination. Since the recent election of Pope Francis, this movement and its demands have been the object of an increased interest - not only from the Christian communities around the world, but also by various organizations fighting for gender equality, inclusiveness and recognition of the roles of women in our societies. Screenings of God's Daughters followed by Q&A by women priests have attracted followers of various religions interested in finding answers to their own interrogations. Despite repression and hostility from the institutional Roman Catholic Church, their movement is attracting new candidates and increased support. Diane and Kathleen, the subjects of this documentary, are members of RCWP, whose founding members were "the Danube Seven": a group of seven women from Germany, Austria and the United States who were ordained on a ship cruising the Danube river, to be on international waters therefore a neutral location, on 29 June 2002 by Rómulo Antonio Braschi, an Independent Catholic bishop whose own episcopal ordination is considered valid by the Roman Catholic Church. Since then some women priests were ordained bishops, and are able to ordained women priests. Bishop Braschi and other supporters or sympathizers such as Father Roy Bourgeois, American activist and founder, in 1990, of the human rights group School of the Americas Watch (SOA Watch), have been excommunicated and ostrasized because of their support and actions.