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  • Empty Shoes In The Vatican: Jane Via's Journey to the Priesthood by Lisa K. Shapiro book cover
  • Empty Shoes In The Vatican: Jane Via's Journey to the Priesthood by Lisa K. Shapiro book cover
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Empty Shoes In The Vatican: Jane Via's Journey to the Priesthood

by Lisa K. Shapiro

A path to ministry in conflict with church authority

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AlbakiReads Editorial

A path to ministry in conflict with church authority

Lisa K. Shapiro’s account traces Jane Via’s movement from a Protestant upbringing into Catholic life, followed by work in theology and law. The narrative’s defining tension is between Via’s commitment to Catholic practice and her pursuit of priestly ministry as a woman. After her ordination as a deacon and then a priest, she founded a U.S. parish where a woman presided at the altar, prompting threats of excommunication from church officials. The book brings questions of gender, religious belonging, and institutional authority together through one person’s spiritual and professional journey.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • Readers interested in women’s roles and leadership in Catholicism.
  • Readers seeking a biographical account involving religious conversion, theology, and legal work.
  • Readers exploring tensions between personal conviction and church authority.

Themes

Women and religious leadershipCatholic identity and belongingInstitutional authorityJustice and conviction

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

How did a polite Protestant girl grow up to challenge the Catholic Church?

Jane Via knew by the age of ten that she was meant to be Catholic. By sixteen, she was attending two services every Sunday. First, she went to her family's Protestant church, and then she drove two towns away where no one knew her parents so she could attend the Catholic Mass. Finally, in college, she celebrated the Sacraments of Initiation into the Catholic Church. She went on to earn a PhD in theology, and taught religion at a prestigious Catholic university. She became an assistant district attorney and prosecuted high profile cases. But something was missing from her spiritual life.

Via was ordained as a Catholic deacon, and then as a priest. In 2005, she founded the first parish in the United States with a woman presiding at the altar. Church officials threatened her with excommunication, but she refused to back down. She believed in justice, and in a better way to be Roman Catholic.

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