Ordination for Rathdowney nun

8/3/2006 - By Denis J Croke

A RATHDOWNEY-BORN nun is reported to have been one of eight women ordained to the priesthood on board a chartered boat in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on Monday.

Dr Bridget Mary Meehan, who was born near Rathdowney in 1948, made her First Confession and Holy Communion in the Church of the Holy Trinity, Rathdowney.

She emigrated to America in 1956, and when she was 18 entered the convent of the Christian Community nuns, which were founded after the Second Vatican Council as a new form of consecrated life, independent of the hierarchy and the Vatican.

Dr Meehan is a regular visitor to Ireland, especially to Kildare where she has a special devotion to St Brigid.

Dr Meehan holds a doctorate in ministry from Virginia Theological Seminary, and is Dean of the doctoral ministry course of Global Ministries University. She has written 15 books.

The three presiding bishops at the ordination ceremony were women who were ordained secretly by male bishops. Her father, Jack Meehan, from near Rathdowney, was a noted musician who played in Ballyroan Brass Band before emigrating to America.