KALAMAZOO, MI (AP)-- A group that promotes opening the Catholic priesthood to women plans to ordain a woman as priest Saturday in western Michigan, drawing a warning of excommunication from Kalamazoo's Roman Catholic bishop.
The organization Roman Catholic Womenpriests says it's ordaining 75-year-old Lillian Lewis on Saturday.
Group spokeswoman the Rev. Suzanne Thiel tells The Associated Press that Bishop Joan Hauk will officiate at First Congregational Church in Three Rivers.
Thiel says Womenpriests began ordaining women in Germany in 2002 and now has 182 priests and priesthood candidates worldwide, 146 of them in the U.S.
Bishop Paul Bradley says the ordination is invalid and will bring the woman attempting it "automatic excommunication." He says any Catholics "attending or participating" in the ceremony place themselves "outside of full communion with the Catholic Church."