Patricia Fresen
Patricia Fresen (born 7 December 1940) is a South African writer and Roman Catholic theologian.
Life
Her parents were from Germany and Ireland. After school Fresen became a member of Dominican order. Fresen studied theology, pedagogic and languages and became after university studies a teacher. Fresen studied later in Rome Catholic theology and worked then in Pretoria in a Catholic seminary as teacher in Homiletics, Systematic theology and Spirituality. Later she taught at the private university St Augustine's College in Johannesburg.
Bishop Romulo Antonio Braschi conducted a simulated ordination ceremony for Fresen in Barcelona in 2003. The Vatican has called the ordination invalid and simulated and excommunicated her from the Roman Catholic Church. Together with German writers and theologians Gisela Forster and Ida Raming Fresen is head of the international organization "Roman Catholic Womenpriests International", which promotes the ordination of women as Catholic priests, which currently is not allowed within the Catholic Church.[1]