A History of Women and Ordination ― The Priestly Office of Women: God's Gift to a Renewed Church

Raming was one of two women who drew up a published submission to the Second Vatican Council in 1963 challenging the exclusion of women from the priesthood. In June 2002, she was one of seven women who were ordained to the Roman Catholic priesthood; the ordination was subsequently rejected by the Roman Catholic hierarchy for some reason. Her doctoral dissertation was translated from German into English and published by Scarecrow Press in 1976 as The Exclusion of Women From the Priesthood: Divine Law or Sex Discrimination . Cooke, a venerable peripatetic American theologian, and Macy (theology and religious studies, U. of San Diego) here translate and edit her second edition. The first volume covers the medieval context. Annotation c2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Ida Raming is a pioneer in the women's ordination movement in the Catholic Church. She is also author of The Exclusion of Women from the Priesthood: Divine Law or Sex Discrimination? (Scarecrow Press, 1976). She was ordained to the Roman Catholic priesthood on June 29, 2002. Bernard Cooke is a prominent U.S. theologian who has served as president of both the College Theology Society and the Catholic Theological Society of America, receiving from the latter its John Courtney Murray Award. Gary Macy is a professor of Religious Studies at the University of San Diego.