On a barge on Rome's River Tiber, a stone's throw from the Vatican, Loan Rocher was "ordained" in a secret ceremony in defiance of the Catholic Church's ban on women deacons and priests.

Dressed in a white robe with a rainbow stole, the 68-year-old Frenchwoman acknowledged her ordination was unauthorised by the Vatican, where a month-long summit on the future of the Church concludes next week.

No matter, said Rocher, who is transgender.

"They've been repeating the same message for 2,000 years -- women are inferior, subordinate, invisible. It's okay. We've waited long enough, so I'm doing it now," Rocher told AFP.

Thursday's ceremony in three languages, organised with the utmost discretion in the presence of around 50 faithful from several countries, followed the same liturgy as an official mass, with readings from the Bible, singing and Communion.

Yet it was illegal in the eyes of the Church.

Even more, canonical law says the six ordinands -- three priests and three deacons, including Rocher and another transgender person -- should all be excluded from the Catholic community, along with the ceremony's........

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