Kansan returns to the Catholic Church as the state's first woman priest • Kansas Reflector

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LAWRENCE — Tina Thompson found a different way to be Catholic.
She was ordained in November as a Roman Catholic Woman Priest, an international group that has tethered itself to the Catholic Church but isn’t officially recognized.
“This is about something so much bigger than me,” Thompson said in an interview on the Kansas Reflector podcast. “This is about women who want to show the world that we are the Roman Catholic Church.”
Thompson said she is the first Roman Catholic Woman Priest in Kansas, but she is one of hundreds of women Catholic priests around the world.
“We are still the church, but we are different in that we open the tent,” Thompson said. “We want everyone to feel like they are welcome.”
The organization’s mission focuses on ordaining mostly women who feel called to priesthood. It is often oriented toward social justice, Thompson said. The organization says its ordinations are valid because they have abided by apostolic succession, which refers to …