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A little over a year ago, 26-year-old Jessica Rowley shattered the stained-glass ceiling, so to speak, by being ordained a Catholic priest. Now the St. Louisan is on the verge of giving birth to her first child, and a Washington, D.C.-based group that advocates for women’s ordination says that makes Rowley the world’s first pregnant Catholic priest.
"I'm due November 19, but the doctor believes it could be any day," says Rowley. "I'm feeling very ripe."
Rowley is one of roughly a dozen pastors with two X chromosomes presiding over churches in the Ecumencial Catholic Communion, a splinter group of the Roman Catholic Church.
Members of the ECC, which formed in 2003, don’t claim any papal lineage, in contrast to Roman Catholic Womenpriests, another splinter group that ordains women and which does claim direct ties to the Vatican.
Whole story here.