Women’s Ordination Worldwide Response to Vatican Rejection of Ordination of Women Deacons

The good news is women and people of all genders can follow their God-given vocations to serve inclusive communities and ministries now in a renewed priestly ministry. Visit websites of ARCWP.org and Roman Catholic Women Priests USA for more information.

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Friday, 4th December, 2025   Early Christmas Present for Misogynists - WOW responds In what must surely be an early Christmas present for those who fear women’s equality, the Vatican announced on 4th December that they will not ordain women as deacons.   It has taken nearly ten years to confirm what we suspected all along: that the endless study of women was designed as a stalling tactic. And that overwhelming evidence of historical women deacons as well as appeals from Catholics to address this injustice have been ignored to maintain a male supremacist status quo.   Pope Leo has spoken out against extremism and hate speech. But this announcement seems devised to placate, and even appeal to sections of the Catholic world who see the Church as a bastion of bigotry whose primary mission is to keep women in a subservient and silent role:https://x.com/CampaignWOW/status/1996571996159676453?s=20   The leadership of our Church has based their decision on the abhorrent claim that it is Jesus’s masculinity that ‘’preserves the divine order of salvation’ - thus declaring that their bodies are the most significant qualifiers for spiritual leadership. This is not only an insult to women who will forever be rejected for failing to be male but also for the majority of clerics who are offended by this obsession with ‘male matter’.   We condemn the secrecy surrounding the groups convened to study the question of women’s ministry as well as the inconsistencies in the Vatican’s statement about the evidence they examined to come to this conclusion.   WOW rejects the attempt by the Vatican to suggest that this decision is not ‘definitive’. The dangling of a carrot to placate the masses with the false hope that one day soon, sense will prevail is an insult to our intelligence.  We Catholics know our own history and teaching and will not silently accept this despicable declaration.   The era of Synodality introduced by Pope Francis and reinforced by Pope Leo led to Catholics everywhere demanding that women must be restored to official ministry (Synod demands deacons). The Vatican is ignoring the will of the people - priests and nuns included - and has made a mockery of the synodal process that millions of Catholics eagerly engaged with.   We recognise that the message of unity is a core tenet of Pope Leo’s pontificate. As such, we urge you to consider that without the full equality, dignity and inclusion of women, there can be no unity. The Catholic Church suffers from and reinforces the misogyny that resonates throughout and afflicts the whole world. Women's Ordination Worldwide ### For more information, please contact: Kate McElwee Women’s Ordination Conference Phone: +39 393 692 2100  Email: kmcelwee@womensordination.org  Rhiannon Parry Thompson Catholic Women's Ordination  Phone: +44 (0)7395 517791 Email: rciaparrythompson@gmail.com    Miriam Duignan Wijngaards Institute for Catholic Research Phone: +44 7970 926910 Email: miriam.duignan@wijngaardsinstitute.com