Five Steps the Roman Catholic Church Can Take to Promote Broader Representation of Women in Church Now by Bridget Mary Meehan ARCWP #TimesUp

https://www.ncronline.org/news/people/broader-representation-women-church-process-cardinal-says

Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests  Kathryn Shea, Bridget Mary Meehan and Mary Theresa Streck co-preside at liturgy with
Mary Mother of Jesus Inclusive Catholic Community in Sarasota Florida on March 3, 2018. 

1. Ordain women deacons as a first step toward full equality.
2. Lift excommunication and all penalties against Roman Catholic Women Priests and Supporters and affirm movement as prophetic and members as beloved sisters and brothers in the church. 
3. Expand Council of Cardinals to include women in decision making process.
4. In each diocese and parish, incorporate women as equals in decision making.
5 Affirm women in every ministry on the parish level including preaching, teaching and administering sacraments. Anointing of the Sick, for example, was not always reserved to the priest. Either is baptism or Marriage. The priests in the parishes would probably welcome such changes. 
My response to the statement of Cardinal Kevin Farrell, who banned Mary McAleese from speaking at a conference at the Vatican,  is we cannot wait another 2000 years for justice and equality for women in the church! #TimesUp!
 Bridget Mary Meehan ARCWP, www.arcwp.org

ROME — The fuller participation of women in decision-making in the Catholic Church is a continuing process that still needs time, Cardinal Kevin Farrell said.

Speaking during a question-and-answer session in Rome March 1 after the presentation of the book, "A Pope Francis Lexicon," Farrell said that a greater role for women in the church "is going to take more than just issuing a decree."

"It's a question of changing a culture, and I believe that will take time, but I think that Pope Francis — more than anybody — has tried and continues to try and continues to bring about that change each and every day," he said.

The book features a collection of essays edited by Cindy Wooden, Catholic News Service Rome bureau chief, and Joshua McElwee, Vatican correspondent for National Catholic Reporter.

Responding to a question regarding an essay written by Tina Beattie, a theologian, in which she noted the exclusion of women "from many offices of Catholic teaching," Farrell said the pope would not totally agree that "he has not tried and is not bringing women into positions of authority in the church."

Some dicasteries once led by cardinals are now led by bishops and priests and, thus, pave the way for more participation by laypeople, especially women, in church decisions, said Honduran Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga of Tegucigalpa, who also spoke at the conference.

"Every day, more and more, the presence of the laity is taking place," the cardinal said. "It's a process of changing the culture, but I can assure (you) it's taking place."

Rodriguez Maradiaga, a member of Pope Francis' international Council of Cardinals, also was a contributor to the book, writing an essay on reform.

Farrell also was asked about reports that he prevented a conference on women in the church, Voices of Faith, from meeting in the Vatican March 8, although the conference had been held for the past four years in the Casina Pio IV, a villa located in the Vatican gardens.