Paula Hoeffer

When Paula Hoeffer prayed, “Speak, God, your servant is listening,” she never expected to hear a call to the priesthood. Her story is a powerful testament to faithful discernment, unwavering trust, and the courage to follow God’s voice through every challenge.

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On January 15, 2012, at Sunday mass, I had read to the assembly the passage of the call of Samuel. When I sat down, I closed my eyes and prayed silently, “Speak, God, your servant is listening.” Then as clear as I had never heard before, I heard in my heart, “I want you to be a priest!”

When I opened my eyes and saw the male priest I said to myself, “I don’t think so, I don’t want to be part of that all male patriarchal system!” And then I heard, “It can be different.” It was at this point that I realized that God was speaking to me. My body began shaking. I began crying.

My husband sitting next to me put his arm around me and asked,
“Paula, what’s wrong?”

I said “Ed, I just heard God speak to me.”  He whispered, “What did God say?”

I told him God said, “I want you to be a priest.”

He replied, “Keep listening, if it’s from God, God will keep at you.” And God did. Every time I prayed those following days I couldn’t stop from crying.

I continued to pray and listen. I had known that there were women who had been ordained on the Danube River in 2002, and I supported the idea of women called to be Catholic priests, but I never personally felt a call for myself, before this moment.

I never before heard the voice of God this clearly and directly. I began looking into the Roman Catholic Women Priest movement, and made contact to get further information. Then in May, after I had retired as a Catholic school teacher for many years, I started the process of discerning with a mentor and began to pursue the process of becoming a candidate for the deaconate and priesthood.

While I continued the discerning process I had a medical complication, which was diagnosed as a rare, malignant and inoperable cancer.

After five months of blood treatment, a clot was dissolved, and during this time I was continuing my pursuit toward priesthood. The surgeon then informed me that the cancer was still inoperable because the tumor now had grown too dangerously close to an artery.  When the surgeon explained this to me I asked him, “Are you Catholic?”

“No, but my wife is,” he replied. I answered, “It doesn’t matter if you are Catholic or not, most people know that the Catholic Church only has men as priests and God has called me to be a Catholic woman priest. And so I need to have this cancerous tumor removed so that I can pursue becoming a Catholic priest. He replied, “That sounds like a hard road to travel.”

I said “I know it is, but God has called me.” The he said it sounds like you really want the surgery. I said,”Yes!”  He mentioned that this would be a very dangerous, delicate surgery and he couldn’t guarantee the results.  “A slip of the scalpel, and you would bleed to death.”

I said, “You’re going to get it, Doctor, and I’m going on to become a priest because I felt strongly that God wouldn’t call me and then take me home right now because our church needs women. God needs women.” The doctor did another test and then we went ahead with the surgery; I was elated, everyone else was worried, especially my husband. The skilled hands of the surgeon and divine guidance prevailed.

Eventually I went on to be ordained as a Roman Catholic Woman Priest in  the Great Waters Region. I serve as pastor of the Resurrection Community in Cincinnati, Ohio and minister to various people in need, through weddings, anointings, baptisms, funerals, and sometimes by simply listening, encouraging, and affirming those marginalized by the Catholic Church.

After serving eleven years as a priest, I was called to a new role in my ministry, as a bishop. This call at first, as pastor to the priest in my region, did not seem as clear as my original call to priesthood. Once I was nominated for this role, and had taken it to prayer, I realized that it was not only a call from God, but also from the priests in my region. Through their prayer, vote, and affirmation I felt affirmed and ready to serve as their bishop.

I was ordained bishop on May 24, 2025. It was the first time eight Roman Catholic Women bishops were present together coming from Austria, Canada, and various places in the United States. It was a glorious, grace-filled, loving, and hopeful ceremony for the whole community!

On reflection now, I realize that God speaks to me in various ways, some of which I recognize immediately and others only much later. About forty years ago I was attending a weekend dream workshop led by Sister Pat Brockman, OSU.

I had a dream that night that is still very vivid to me today. In that dream, we in our parish are gathered for mass when someone came to the altar with a tape recorder saying, “Since we do not have enough priests we have recorded the mass and I will play this cassette for you.” With that I stood up from my pew and uncharacteristically said, “That’s not true, we do have enough priests.  My husband is a priest and is not allowed to practice because he married me. With that some women surrounded me and tried to put a white alb over my head. I said, “No, not me, I’m talking about my husband.” End of dream.

As I relayed this to the dream group, participants suggested various interpretations. Sister Pat said, “Maybe you’re called to be a priest.”

I said, “No, not me!” At that time it wasn’t even in my realm of possibilities. Now I realize that God was perhaps trying to speak to me, but I was on a whole different wave length. Even after all these years, God keeps nudging me to pay attention and listen!