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A pilgrimage is usually an occasion to reinforce one's belief in a religious tradition. However, a pilgrimage can also be a way to express challenges to the orthodox belief. In this article, I examined the FutureChurch's pilgrimages to Rome in 2006 and 2007, to show how pilgrims' rituals create and assert new and subversive interpretations of traditional Roman Catholic holy places. Based in Cleveland, Ohio, FutureChurch is an organization working from within the Roman Catholic Church to advocate for women's ordination and for an end to mandatory priestly celibacy. FutureChurch organized pilgrimages to Rome in 2006 and 2007 to see the archaeological sites of women officeholders in the early church. Although the pilgrims wanted to see the historical evidence of female priesthood in the early church, something that was contrary to the orthodox teaching of Roman Catholic Church, their itineraries were not so different from those of average Roman Catholic pilgrims'; catacombs, churches, Vatican Museum, the Colosseum etc. However, what they remembered and more importantly what they did at those sites was quite different. At each site, the FutureChurch pilgrims remembered one or more female leaders of the church and their stories, and performed rituals to celebrate these leaders. But unlike most pilgrimages, where the people and their stories pilgrims remember at holy places are closely connected to the places, these women leaders and their stories were not historically or archaeologically connected to the places they visited. For example, Priscilla, a co-worker of St. Paul, was loosely related to the catacomb of Priscilla historically and Phoebe whom St. Paul had referred to as a deacon in one of his letters was not directly related to the Church of St. Praxedes. However, the FutureChurch pilgrims transcend this gap of place and narrative by ritualizing their memory of women leaders. When pilgrims performed a small e eucharist at Priscilla's catacomb, they created a new narrative connecting Priscilla of Rome, Priscilla, the co worker of St. Paul, and the Fresco in the Priscilla catacomb which is assumed to depict women's eucharist. In the same way, when the pilgrims performed a ritual calling of Phoebe the deacon and Theodora the bishop at the Church of St. Praxedes, their remembrance and rituals created a new narrative which connects this place to the female priesthood. In this process, ritual created a new pilgrimage narrative at these traditional Catholic holy places. By ritualizing their memory of the women leaders forgotten in the Church history, the FutureChurch pilgrims create a new sacred narrative around the same old holy places. The idea of trying to change sacred narratives through rituals is also found in feminist liturgy movements. In the sense that the FutureChurch pilgrims tried to create new sacred narratives at the established pilgrimage sites through ritualization, the FutureChurch's pilgrimage can be read as a part of feminist liturgy movements, and both of them showed the performative aspects of ritual which makes changes in perceptions and interpretations.
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catholic pilgrimage, women pilgrims, ritual, ritualization, pilgrimage narrative, feminist liturgy movements
