<p>&nbsp;<span class=Apple-style-span style=font-family: Verdana; line-height: 15px; ><strong>April 4 2003 &mdash;</strong>&nbsp;Catholics Speak Out/Quixote Center the Women's Ordination Conference (WOC) and DignityUSA are delighted to announce this week's kick-off of a public speaking tour for Rev. Ida Raming.</span></p><p><span class=Apple-style-span style=font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; ><p style=font-family: Verdana Arial Helvetica sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; margin-right: 30px; >Rev. Raming is a pioneering feminist theologian whose work helped spark the contemporary international campaign for the ordination of women. Raming was ordained to the priesthood on June 29 2002 with six other women on the Danube River.</p><p style=font-family: Verdana Arial Helvetica sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; margin-right: 30px; >The public speaking tour begins Friday April 4 at Drew University in Madison NJ and winds up on Saturday May 3 in Philadelphia PA. Dr. Raming will be accompanied by Dr. Iris Mueller also one of the ordained women on part of the tour.&nbsp; Drs. Raming and Mueller petitioned the Second Vatican Council in 1963 to open ordination to women on theological grounds.</p><p style=font-family: Verdana Arial Helvetica sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; margin-right: 30px; >Ida's research published as The Exclusion of Women from Priesthood&quot; (1973) will be republished by Scarecrow Press later this year as the second volume of a series on the history of women's ordination.</p><p style=font-family: Verdana Arial Helvetica sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; margin-right: 30px; >DignityUSA is one of the co-sponsors of this historic tour.&nbsp;</p><p style=font-family: Verdana Arial Helvetica sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; margin-right: 30px; >For more information about the tour and the ordinations that took place on June 29 2002 visit&nbsp;<a href=http://www.quixote.org/cso target=_blank style=font-family: Verdana Arial Helvetica sans-serif; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0 0 102); text-decoration: none; >http://www.quixote.org/cso</a>&nbsp;or&nbsp;<a href=http://www.womensordination.org/ target=_blank style=font-family: Verdana Arial Helvetica sans-serif; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51 0 102); text-decoration: underline; >http://www.womensordination.org</a></p></span></p>