Participants attend a session of the 16th General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops at the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
My Response: While Pope Francis is not comfortable ordaining women as deacons, the Synod voted to keep this controversial topic on the table for ongoing discernment.
What a blessed time for a conversation in the Spirit! Roman Catholic Women Priests have over 22 years of experience serving ecclesial inclusive communities of baptized equals in a new model of priestly ministry. We are leading the Church forward in people-empowered, non-clerical sacramental communities in 14 countries. I believe that nothing will stop the global movement toward gender equity ,including gender equality in ordained ministries, because we are engaged in sacred work - a holy shakeup- that comes from the Spirit. Bridget Mary
…”The synod is a disappointment to those who hoped it would support the priestly ordination of married men, the ordination of women deacons and greater outreach to LGBTQ Catholics around the world.
Although there was support for ordaining married men at the Amazon Synod, the topic was hardly discussed at this synod.
The issue of LGBTQ Catholics, which was referred to a study group by Pope Francis, continues to be controversial. Although the pope uses the terms LGBTQ and gay, the synod could not.
Sexual orientation is only obscurely mentioned in the 52-page final document, which decries the fact that some “continued to experience the pain of feeling excluded or judged because of their marital situation, identity or sexuality.”
On the other hand, some see progress in the simple fact that for the first time the topic was openly discussed at a synod. The rest of the world is just not where the United States and Europe are on LGBTQ acceptance.
The topic of women deacons was also referred to a study group by Pope Francis, who made clear that women deacons were not going to happen during his papacy.
However, the final document of the synod says that “the question of women’s access to diaconal ministry remains open. This discernment needs to continue.” This paragraph got the most negative votes (97 no out of 355 voting) but still passed by a two-thirds vote.
Although Francis said he will not approve women deacons, he leaves the issue open for further discernment by his successors and the church. Scholars can continue to research and write about the topic. No one is going to be silenced for advocating for women deacons.
Even if no progress was made on women deacons, the synod gives full support to greater involvement of women in the church, including in decision-making. “There is no reason or impediment that should prevent women from carrying out leadership roles in the Church,” the final report states, “what comes from the Holy Spirit cannot be stopped.”
“Inequality between men and women is not part of God’s design,” declares the synod. “The widely expressed pain and suffering on the part of many women from every region and continent, both lay and consecrated, during the synodal process, reveal how often we fail to live up to this vision.”
The synod also notes that under certain circumstances canon law allows lay men and women in the absence of a priest to lead Sunday liturgies, to baptize and to witness marriages. The synod calls for extending and stabilizing these opportunities where needed…”
The 52-page document, which was approved by 355 synod members in attendance, outlines the proposals reached by consensus for Church renewal.The proposals include expanded women’s leadership roles excluding ordination, greater lay participation in decision-making, and some structural reforms, the most signifcant being strenthening pastoral and diocesan councils. In comparison with the 2023 Synthesis report, the text does present more concrete recommendations and clearer structural guidelines. Click here to read a summary of the key documents shaping the next steps for the future of our Church.
Click here to read the report in English. Click here to read the report in its original Italian. Click here to read the response of Women's ordniation advocates to the Synod report. Click here to read New Ways Ministry's disappointment of the failure of the 2024 Synod to once again ignore the LBGTQ+ issues. Click here to read NCR's report on the call of the Synod for all baptized Catholics to become involved in shaping the future of our Church. Click here to read the Vatican News on the five parts that make up the structure of the report. Click here to read America Magazine's perspective that controversial issues are here to stay.
We have begun to genuinely join our voices together behaving as a synodal Church. Let us now gather with fellow parishioners. our priests, and community members to determine how we might become personally involved in making our local community more synodal - that is, involving the people in sharing the responsibility of our Church community. It is time for the people to no longer just sit in the pews, as Pope Francis has said so clearly, but time to stand up and become involved in carrying our communities into the future. The real work of becoming a synodal Church begins now. It is crucial that we stay involved in the process. We at CCRI will keep you informed and continue to gather online as a community.
The Synod’s own words affirms our movement . “What comes from the Holy Spirit cannot be stopped. “ Our international Roman Catholic Women Priests Movement fosters gender equality in ordained ministries as a blessing for everyone especially the most wounded and marginalized! This is a movement of the Spirit in our times!
While the deeply theological text points to the fruits of a more collegial church, its overtures to the equality of women and equal gifts bestowed upon all God’s people through baptism ring hollow without clear steps for implementation. On the issue of women deacons, simply, the question remains “open” but in need of further discernment.
Endless “study” on the subject of women is a patriarchal stalling tactic by ordained men to maintain the status quo. Ordained men decide the parameters and pace of synodality, and when the time is “ripe” for women’s ministries. And they do so at an incalculable cost. The church has lost generations of women who endured the pain and humiliation of having to prove the validity of their calling. How long must women wait? Or more consequentially: Will women wait?
If, as the document states, “There is no reason or impediment that should prevent women from carrying out leadership roles in the church: What comes from the Holy Spirit cannot be stopped,” then we must work as a church to remove all barriers to women’s ministerial leadership with urgency.
The document also encourages women’s participation in existing roles within the church, but doesn’t engage in deeper reflection on the clerical and machismo culture that discourage or prevent such ministries from being realized.
Nevertheless, WOC expresses gratitude for the work of the synod assembly, particularly the lay delegates and experts whose attention to the voices on the margins made space for the calls of the people of God in the synod hall. This new model of being church pushed the Vatican toward greater transparency and accountability, and we pray this spirit of conversion toward openness continues.
###
CONTACT: Kate McElwee, Executive Director, Women's Ordination Conference
Pope Francis has made clear that contentious issues like the ordination of women are not on his agenda, but that hasn’t stopped the demand for greater equality. The 16th General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops at the Vatican on Monday.Credit...Andrew Medichini/Associated Press
By Elisabetta Povoledo Reporting from Vatican City and Rome Oct. 26, 2024, 3:49 a.m. ET
When Pope Francis decided last year to allow women to vote for the first time at the next global meeting of bishops, many believed it was a step toward greater equity in the Roman Catholic Church.
Yet, even before the meeting, known as a synod, began this month, the Vatican punted.
It announced that contentious issues like the ordination of women were off the table. The disappointment hit Catholics who had seen the gathering as a motor of potential change with a familiar thud.
“There’s enough misogyny in the world without the Catholic Church leading the way, when it should actually be standing up for a minority,” said Pat Brown, a member of the national committee of Catholic Women’s Ordination, a group based in Britain.
“Wait,” she added, “we’re not a minority; we’re more than half the church, and it’s appalling that instead of standing up for the oppressed, the church is the oppressor.”
The Vatican meeting, four years in the making, was hailed as a major event, comparable to a mini-version of the Second Vatican Council that modernized the church in the 1960s. Catholics around the globe had been canvassed for opinions, and the promotion of women in the church had emerged as a priority.
In an institution where women play an outsize role in its daily workings and outnumber Catholic men toiling in hospitals and schools worldwide, they have very little say where it counts, critics say.
In regions where there is a shortage of priests, like in the Amazon, most religious instructors are women, and many serve as ministerial leaders with the permission of their bishops. In Australia, women are religious leaders in rural communities. Yet, many of these women, worldwide, say their leadership is not always recognized.
Advocates for women’s ordination protested this month in front of the Vatican.Credit...Andrew Medichini/Associated Press
There are so many examples “of leadership and the ministry of women that we’re already seeing all over the world,” said Ellie Hidalgo, a director of Discerning Deacons, an organization based in Durham, N.C., that advocates for female deacons.
In a push to make the church more inclusive, Pope Francis has appointed more women to top jobs at the Vatican than any of his predecessors. But Francis has made clear that female deacons are not on his agenda. In an interview on “60 Minutes” on CBS in May, he said, “Women are of great service as women, not as ministers.”
Deacons are ordained ministers who can preach and perform weddings, funerals and baptisms. But they cannot celebrate Mass. This year, the question of female deacons was delegated to a study group, which has until next summer to present its findings.
When the Vatican meeting draws to a close this weekend, the pope will receive a final report. The pope can adopt the document or issue his own text. The meeting’s report will most likely call for the increased participation of women in church leadership, a shift deemed “urgent” in the document produced by last year’s synod.
For some, that will not be enough.
“I think it will feel pretty insufficient to women, especially those called to ordained ministry,” Kate McElwee, the executive director of the U.S.-based nonprofit Women’s Ordination Conference, said on Friday. “It feels like they’re trying to open different opportunities and make room where they think it’s appropriate for women, but it will feel pretty insufficient if it doesn’t address the urgent need to recognize women as fully equal.”
Kate McElwee, the executive director of the Women’s Ordination Conference, addressing members during a prayer vigil last fall in Rome.Credit...Gregorio Borgia/Associated Press
The Vatican’s top doctrinal officer, Cardinal Victor Fernandez, explained this past week that Francis had decided the time was “not ripe” to weigh in on the question. On Thursday, the cardinal, who is overseeing the study group, told synod delegates that the question required more study, and that in any case, he believed it was not a priority for most women in the church.
He added, however, that the study group was open to receiving opinions and listening to experiences about the role of women, a step that advocates for ordination saw as an important one.
“Up until now, it’s mostly been a theological conversation or historical conversation,” Ms. Hidalgo, of Discerning Deacons, said on Friday. But “to actually take into account what’s happening on the ground and all the ways in which women’s leadership is being called forth by their communities and by priests and by bishops” could lead to real change, she added.
Throughout this month, various groups have been staging events to raise awareness about women’s role in the church. A liberal group called We Are Church performed a short play at a religious house in Rome, condemning the “absurdity” of deliberating whether women should be given full equality. Ms. McElwee’s group held protest marches.
Others held events explicitly not sanctioned by the church.
Ms. Brown, of the Women’s Ordination Conference, attended a ritual this month in Rome at which the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests, a group not recognized by the Vatican, conducted what it called an ordination of six women — three as deacons and three as priests. During the event, on a barge anchored on the Tiber River, the women were invested with a stole and presented with chalices as relatives and friends looked on, cheered and wiped away the occasional tear.
For the Vatican, the event violated a code of canon law that prohibits the ordination of women. The women disagree, claiming apostolic succession from an Argentine bishop — whose credentials the Vatican has challenged — who claimed to have ordained seven women on the Danube in June 2002.
Two years later, another bishop whose identity has not been made public claimed to have ordained the first two female bishops. Since then, more that 270 people in 14 countries have undertaken the same ritual, said the Rev. Mary Bridget Meehan, who was ordained a bishop in the association in 2009 and performed the Tiber ceremony.
The decision to hold the event in the Italian capital was deliberate, she said.
A ceremony ordaining women was held this month on a barge on the Tiber River in Rome.Credit...Filippo Monteforte/Agence France-Presse — Getty
“We’re doing a visible witness to say we support the synod, we are part of it, we’re part of the church,” she said. The pope “talks about having conversations in the spirit,” she added. “We’re ready. We’re here.”
Mary Catherine Daniels, one of the newly ordained, said she had suppressed a feeling that she was called to the priesthood for years because “I’ve always wanted to be an obedient daughter of the church, and I knew this was off limits.” But eventually, she said, she followed her heart because she believed it was God’s will.
Last year, Pope Francis gave Sister Linda Pocher, a theologian, carte blanche to organize a series of seminars about women and the church for the group of cardinals who serve as his advisers.
“I was given the freedom to open the windows to the room where they meet and offer some different perspectives,” Sister Pocher said this past week at the presentation of four books containing those seminars, each with a preface by the pope.
Sister Regina Da Costa, a Brazilian theologian who spoke at the presentation, expressed the frustration of many Catholic women who, she said, were “tired of not being listened to, tired of not being considered by the church” and tired of “being behind” the men in the church.
“We’d like to be side by side and move forward together,” she said.
The voice of the Spirit speaks through the entire Church including Roman Catholic Women Priests. We have served the people of God for 22 years in ordained ministries in loving inclusive sacramental communities and ministries around the world. Our voices were not heard at this Synod even though Pope Francis said that all voices must be heard.
Going forward, our international women priests' movement will joyfully and faithfully continue to lead the Church in a renewed, non-clerical model of ministry in communities of baptized equals!
We came to Rome to ordain three deacons and three priests from Spain, France and the United States on October 17, 2024 as a prophetic witness to gender equality in ordained ministries in the Roman Catholic Church.
We are living the change envisioned by Future Church now.
The last several weeks of reporting on the Synod Assembly currently in session in Rome reveals a disturbing trend: that despite the 2023 Synthesis naming the topic of women in the Church as “urgent,” Pope Francis and other members of the Vatican Curia engage in clerical tactics – delay, deception, and obfuscation – rather than adhering to the demands of synodality – transparency, discussion, and discernment – particularly on the issue of women’s ordination.
“By all accounts delegates seem eager to have this discussion and faithfully represent the voices of the People of God, who have consistently raised women’s ordination every step of the way,” said Russ Petrus, Executive Director of FutureChurch. “But by taking women’s ordination off the Synodal table and relegating discussion to secretive working groups or commissions and promising more information ‘when the time is right,’ Pope Francis has thwarted the promise and potential of Synodality,” he continued. “We always knew that there would be speedbumps and roadblocks on the path of Synodality. And it is profoundly heartbreaking that women who simply want to serve God’s people continue to be the ones bearing the pain caused by these obstructions.”
“Vatican officials keep insisting that they don’t want to ‘clericalize’ women by ordaining them. And that there are other pathways for women to exercise leadership and authority in the Church,” noted Olivia Hastie, Program Associate for FutureChurch. “But what they continue to ignore is that women really experience a call from God to ordained ministry in the Church,” she pressed. “And by ignoring their vocations, the Church is disregarding their lived experience of faith and effectively undermining the work of the Holy Spirit, who is supposed to be the protagonist of the Synod.”
Cardinal Victor Fernández, Prefect for the Dicastery of the Doctrine of Faith, which seems to make up most of Study Group 5 and has been charged with exploring non-ordained possibilities for women’s ministry, is set to meet with Synod delegates on Thursday, October 24th. Cardinal Fernández had previously failed to appear at an October 18th gathering with delegates, citing an unspecified scheduling conflict. It is reported that he will share the names of the members of Study Group 5 and its procedures with the delegates at that meeting. It is unclear what else can be accomplished at this meeting at this late stage in the Assembly.
Delegates have begun reviewing drafts of the Final Document and are expected to vote on it and present it to Pope Francis on October 26th. Meanwhile Synod officials are already beginning to set low expectations. Cardinal-designate Fr. Timothy Radcliffe, OP, who has accompanied Synod delegates as a retreat leader and preacher, offered a meditation on the process of drafting and discerning the document acknowledging that when it is released some people will be “disappointed by the result of the Synod.”
“We don’t yet know what will be in the final document or how the process will continue, but given what we have seen this last month, we know that the work and witness of FutureChurch and our partners in Church reform will remain as important as ever,” said Martha Ligas, Program Associate for FutureChurch. “It will be up to us – all of us – to keep the hope of synodality alive, to reimagine how to be Church,” she added. “We all have a part to play – from those of us who continue to press the Church on the important issues, to the women who take the prophetic step of living into God’s call by seeking ordination, to members of the LGBTQ+ community who continue to advocate for their full dignity, to those who are creating new ways of living Church where they are.”
After the release of the Final Document, FutureChurch will plan opportunities for shared reflection and conversation on the outcomes of the Synod and ways to continue forward on the Synodal path. In the meantime, FutureChurch invites everyone to attend its 34th Annual Fall Event – “Courage in the Spirit: Translating Synodal Talk into Action” by Zoom on November 7th and 12th.
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 unauthorized by the Vatican, where a month-long summit on the future of the Church concludes next week.
It doesn't 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, organized 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 other participants.
Such excommunication would be an unjustified sanction according to US "bishop" Bridget Mary Meehan.
She belongs to the group organizing the event, which says it has performed 270 ordinations of women in 14 countries since its creation in 2002.
Thursday's ceremony in three languages, organized 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 other participants.
Such excommunication would be an unjustified sanction according to US "bishop" Bridget Mary Meehan.
She belongs to the group organizing the event, which says it has performed 270 ordinations of women in 14 countries since its creation in 2002.
"For 22 years, we have worked hard to create a more inclusive, loving church where LGBTQ, divorced and remarried (people) -- everyone -- is welcome at the table. No-one is excluded," said Meehan, 76.
On the upper deck of the barge, the six candidates committed to "serving the people of God" before an altar decorated with candles and two crowns of flowers.
Then one by one, the members of the congregation laid their hands on the heads of the newly ordained to bless them.
'Cold shower'
In recent weeks, feminist associations have multiplied initiatives to put pressure on the ongoing Synod, which began in 2021 and is due to end this month.
The groups -- occasionally supported by theologians -- condemn the way women are marginalized by the patriarchal system, despite their central role in parishes around the world.
Unlike other Christian denominations like Protestantism, the Catholic Church remains firmly opposed to the ordination of women.
They are relegated instead to support roles, whether in catechism or education, as nuns or lay people.
The agenda of the Synod summit in October 2023 included a proposal to admit women as deacons -- ministers who can celebrate baptisms, marriages and funerals but not mass.
But that idea has now been ruled out.
The pope, 87, himself excluded it during a CBS television interview in May, to the astonishment of activists.
"It was a cold shower," said Adeline Fermanian from the Comite de la Jupe, a French Catholic feminist group that has been campaigning on the issue since 2008.
Fermanian told AFP the Church's "authoritarian" response and the decision to remove women's ordination from the Synod agenda was "totally out of step" with the philosophy of the summit, which is based on consulting the faithful, including women, around the world.
'The hierarchy is afraid'
Some participants at the Synod say the appeals for more inclusion of women is too Western a concept and certain regions of the world, such as Africa, are not yet ready for women deacons for cultural reasons.
Since becoming pontiff in 2013, Pope Francis has repeatedly stressed the merits of women, including in September, when he declared: "The Church is a woman!"
The Argentine pontiff has also appointed women to important roles within the government of the Holy See.
But he does not see women's central role within the Church as including ministry -- a vision the feminist groups view as misogynistic and retrograde.
"They overpraise our qualities. They make women practically into goddesses... and they tell them 'You're serving. It's the most beautiful vocation,'" said Fermanian.
"In fact, it's a strategy to sideline and discriminate."
Sixty years after the Second Vatican Council, which sought to equip the Church for the modern world, the institution is fighting for its survival, according to these activists.
But the women ordained in Rome are not losing hope.
"I prefer to be someone who moves forward, rather than one who complains," said Loan.
Meehan summed up the mood: "The hierarchy is afraid but the people are not afraid.
ROME-ADISTA. A “holy jolt”, an act of disobedience “to an unjust and man-made canon law that discriminates against women” but in prophetic obedience to the Spirit: a few hundred meters as the crowd flies from the Vatican – where the Synod of Bishops is taking place, from which it seems reasonable not to expect any progress on the role of women in the Church – more than sixty people, including journalists from various countries, attended and participated in the ordination to the diaconate and priesthood of some Catholic women belonging to the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests. On October 17, on a boat anchored on the Tiber, Bishop Bridget Mary Meehan ordained as priests Belen Repiso Carrillo from Spain, the Americans Anne Malloy La Tour and Mary Katherine Daniels and three deacons, Loan Rocher from France and the Spanish Maria Teresa Ribeiro Rosa and Txus Garcia Pascual , two of whom are transsexuals, in a joyful liturgy that lasted over two hours, in which the assembly played a very active role and in which the candidates were introduced one by one in an affectionate and personal way.
The event is certainly not the first of its kind and took place in privacy, in the presence of only accredited persons, to avoid possible disturbances. Its meaning is the promotion of gender equality in the ordained ministry, in a Catholic Church that does not grant the ordained ministry to women and instead punishes with latae sententiae excommunication, that is, automatic, "both the one who has attempted to confer the sacred order on a woman, and the woman who has attempted to receive the sacred order" (art. 1024 of the Canon of Canon Law; see also no. 1379,3).
In his homily, the bishop emphasized how women have always played the role of deacon in the Church. Placing particular emphasis on the role of Mary Magdalene, the first female apostle sent to proclaim the good news of Jesus' resurrection, the bishop appealed for women to be admitted to the priesthood and diaconate: "We are ready!", she said at the end of the homily amid applause.
A story that goes back more than twenty years
Let's take a step back, because this movement has a long history, which began on June 29, 2002 on another river, the Danube, in the German city of Passau, when the first seven women were ordained by the Argentine bishop Romulo Antonio Braschi , founder of the "Charismatic Apostolic Catholic Church of Jesus the King". According to the National Catholic Reporter at the time, Bishop Braschi claimed to have been consecrated bishop twice: the first time, in 1998, by the Argentine bishop Roberto Padin , of the Catholic Apostolic Church of Brazil, and the second time, in 1999, by Jeronimo Podesta , a canonically legitimate figure in the affair, bishop of the diocese of Avellaneda in Argentina from 1962 to 1967, then removed from office for having married, and dying in 2000. This second consecration, of which there is a certificate, placing Braschi within the apostolic succession, would make the ordinations he celebrated legally valid – although illicit, according to Canon Law, since women cannot be ordained. However, Braschi was not the only "bishop" in that 2002 ordination: alongside there was the former Benedictine monk Ferdinand Regelsberger , who had been consecrated bishop by Braschi himself the month before. It seems that there was also a third bishop, probably a Czech bishop, perhaps consecrated in the context of the Czechoslovak underground Church at the time of the persecution of the Catholic Church by the communist regime, who remained anonymous to protect his identity. He too was a protagonist of clandestine female ordinations, and the seven women – who never revealed their identity – would have asked him for a second ordination, if the first was not considered valid. The bishop recounts in his homily: «There is an unconfirmed story according to which Bishop X, a Roman Catholic bishop in apostolic succession, who was traveling for this ordination was locked up in a monastery. They took his car keys and he did not arrive in time. However, on May 19, 2003, Bishop banks of the Saône; the same year, on the St. Lawrence River in Canada.
At the time of the first ordination, condemnations and criticisms did not come only from the institutional Church. A distancing had also been expressed by movements such as “We are Church”, and by www . womenpriests . org , which fights precisely for female priesthood. The fight to have women priests, they had said, must originate in the Catholic mainstream.
There is no equality in the Church
Today, these differences seem distant, and this fight for equal rights for women in the Church, even in the ordained ministry, has become common. We are Church International, present with a delegation during these days of the synodal assembly, displayed a banner with the words “Equality. For women, lay people, LGBT+, married people, everyone” during the Angelus on October 13 in St. Peter's Square. Within minutes, the group was surrounded by the police, who ordered the banner to be removed and held seven members of the group in handcuffs for hours, demanding that they delete all the photographs taken.
“We have come to Rome to ordain deacons and priests and promote gender equality in the ordained ministry in a Church for all,” the bishop began in his homily. “We have come to Rome to share the good news that Catholic women are now serving as deacons and priests in inclusive peer communities that are expanding the tent of the Church throughout the world. We have come to Rome to engage in a 'conversation in the Spirit' with Pope Francis and the synod delegates. We ask that Pope Francis remove all barriers that excommunicate those who respond to the Spirit's call to ordination.” “On April 24, Pope Francis rejected the possibility of ordaining women deacons in an interview with CBS on “60 Minutes.” When asked if a girl could ever have the opportunity to be a deacon, he said “no,” explaining that “If it's a deacon with Holy Orders, no.” (…) My answer, if a little girl asked me if – in the future – she could become a deacon, would be: Yes, come and see!
In April 1976, Meehan continued, the Pontifical Biblical Commission “unanimously concluded that no valid argument can be made against the ordination of women based on Scripture. In other words, stop blaming Jesus. He did not ordain anyone, male or female, at the Last Supper! Scripture scholars remind us that the Gospel writers said that women, many women, followed Jesus.” The Church's discriminatory view “contradicts our fundamental baptismal equality. In Christ, 'there is neither male nor female...all are one in Christ Jesus' (Gal. 3:27-28). It is time to fulfill 1 Cor. 12:13: 'Through their baptism into Christ, women and men equally receive the gifts of the Spirit.' The time for change is now!”
The homily was marked by a constant reference to the Scriptures and to female diaconal figures of the New Testament, in Christian communities where women's gifts were affirmed in a variety of leadership roles. “We claim our equal spiritual authority in ordaining women to public ministry in apostolic succession”; an apostolic succession which, “as a matter of justice and fidelity to the Gospel, I believe includes the apostles Mary Magdalene and Junia and all the holy women who have served the Church throughout history.”
The history of women ordained priests continues
Since that day in 2002 on the Danube, 18 women have been consecrated bishops, who in turn have ordained nearly 300 women priests from 14 countries. “Like Jesus who called his first disciples out of the fishing boat to follow him in proclaiming God's love for all, Catholic women and people of marginalized genders today are following Jesus' call to serve renewed communities of faith, anchored in inclusivity and equality,” said Bridget Mary Meehan. She, an American of Irish descent, has been a bishop since 2009.
Of course, candidates for ministry follow a preparation offered through preparatory courses. But as a "new paradigm of priestly ministry", "we cannot put new wine in old wineskins", and therefore the preparation, in the wake of theologian Matthew Fox , operates a shift "from factories of knowledge to schools of wisdom. We believe that the Spirit of God speaks through the people of God. As co-creative traveling companions, we share the wisdom of God in our sacred texts, theologies, sacred practices, sacramental celebrations and lived experiences", we also read on the Association's website. The courses "integrate the evolutionary consciousness of the new cosmology with the community of empowerment presented in feminist, liberation, mujerista, womanista, evolutionary, mystical, and sacramental theologies (theologies of blessing) and aim to prepare candidates to minister in a community of equals that is egalitarian, empowered, inclusive, mystical, and prophetic," "we work for justice and equality for all, especially those on the margins of our Church."
“Since 2002, the international movement of Catholic women priests has lived their vocation in prophetic obedience to the Spirit,” reads the press release issued for the occasion, “ordaining women deacons, priests, and bishops ( contra legem ) to promote full equality for all those called to ordained ministries. “Women priests serve inclusive communities of equals where all, including divorced and remarried people and LGBTQ+ people are invited to receive the sacraments.” They preside over celebrations of the Eucharist, weddings, baptisms, and anointings of the sick in their areas, including “online communities without walls.” They also care for “those who have experienced physical, emotional, and spiritual abuse and exclusion within the Church,” it is explained. “We offer a renewed model of priestly ministry to accompany God's people on their journey toward the fullness of God's love for all.”
But for the movement it is not just about ordaining women priests: there is also a "challenge to oppressive patriarchal culture and the promotion of economic and social justice for women, children and marginalized genders throughout the world. We believe that all questions of justice are interconnected and therefore we support all human rights initiatives". In compliance with the prescriptions of the Second Vatican Council: "Every form of social or cultural discrimination in the fundamental rights of the person, based on sex, race, color, social conditions, language, religion, must be repressed or eradicated, because it is incompatible with the plan of God" ( Gaudium et Spes 29).
Organizers describe ceremony on the sidelines of the Synod on Synodality as "historic" Women stage ordination of priests and deacons on Tiber ship in Rome ROME- In the Vatican, the Synod on Synodality is discussing reforms to the Church – the ordination of women to clerical positions is not officially on the agenda. At the same time, others wanted to create facts on a ship on the Tiber.
Six women from France, Spain and the USA underwent a ceremony in Rome on Thursday that resembled the ordination of Catholic priests and deacons. The ceremony took place on a ship on the River Tiber, partly to prevent possible disruption, according to the "International Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests". According to the initiative, the ceremony, which they described as "historic", was intended to promote gender equality in the ordained ministry in a church for all.
Catholic canon law does not provide for the ordination of women and penalizes anyone who actively or passively participates in such a symbolic act with excommunication, ie exclusion from the church community. At the Synod on Synodality on Reforms of the Catholic Church currently meeting in the Vatican, the topic of ordination for women was addressed in several speeches.
Bridget Mary Meehan, an unrecognized bishop from Florida since 2009, presided over the two-hour ceremony on a large houseboat about three kilometers from the Vatican. Belen Repiso Carrillo from Spain and Anne La Tour and Mary Katherine Daniels from the USA were to be ordained as priests, Loan Rocher from France and Maria Teresa Ribeiro Rosa and Txus Garcia Pascual from Spain as deacons, two of whom are trans people. Similar to the Catholic sacrament of ordination to the priesthood, there were hand-raising ceremonies and prayers. The candidates lay stretched out in front of the improvised altar, a white table decorated with a crucifix, Bible, candles and flowers.
"We are ready!"
In her sermon, Meehan said that women had always de facto fulfilled the tasks of deacons in the church without being able to be officially ordained. The Bible tells of numerous women whom Jesus called and who followed him. Mary Magdalene was the first female apostle to be sent out to proclaim the good news of Jesus' resurrection. She appealed to the Church to officially admit women to the priesthood and diaconate. "We are ready!" she concluded her sermon to applause. Among the 70 or so people present were numerous previously ordained women from the initiative. Numerous media representatives followed the event, to which only accredited persons were granted access.
The "We are Church" initiative advertised with the slogan "Equality for all Baptised. Equality at Synod." Since the first spectacular action of the "Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests" on the Danube in 2002 , there have been 18 women worldwide who are Catholic women bishops according to their own understanding and who in turn have ordained around 300 women as priests through the laying on of hands. (KNA)
German media TV:
See reference to women priests at approximately 6 minutes in the video.
Yesterday, six women were ordained as deacons and priests on the Tiber in Rome. A solemn and joyful ordination ceremony took place parallel to the World Synod of Bishops, which represented an open affront to the official Church. The ordination of women, announced in advance by the Association of Roman Catholic Woman Priests (ARCWP) (see press release ), was recorded by TV stations in several countries. The approximately two-hour service on the Tiber boat took place in the same form as for male ordination candidates, ie including prostration (laying down of the candidates); only the promise of obedience to the bishop was omitted. The ceremony took place with simultaneous translation into the languages of the ordained: English, French and Spanish.
According to the law of the Roman Catholic Church, the ordination of women is considered a "simulation" and leads to excommunication for those ordained and those ordaining them. It is not recognized by the Church. The women and some theologians consider it valid in the tradition of the Danube Seven , but not permitted (valide, sed illicite). After the ordination, the radiant faces of the newly ordained women could be seen. They can now do what they see God calling them to do: work as deacons and priests in the Catholic Church. "I saw the church of the future," said one visitor - a church without discrimination against women in universal plurality.
Article in Spanish:
El Papa deja abierto el debate sobre el rol de la mujer en la iglesia
The Pope Leaves Open the Debate on the Role of Women in the Church: Associations of Catholic Women and Voices of Important Cardinals Insist that the Possibility of Female Diaconate Is Not Excluded
Pope Francis at the end of a meeting with priests at Casa delle Suore Pie Discepole del Divin Maestro, Rome
Disappointment The Pope leaves open the debate on the role of women in the Church
Associations of Catholic women and voices of important cardinals insist that the possibility of female diaconate is not excluded Marina Garcia Dieguez
"The Synod of Bishops, the meeting of ecclesiastical hierarchies that has the challenge of deciding the future of the Church , has met again in October 2024, but the debate process will not be closed until spring of next year.
This call, which began in the autumn of 2023, was innovative from the very beginning. In an unusual way, the female vote was introduced and the debate on the role of women in Catholicism began to be addressed . But the complexity of this issue, which pits the feminist struggles of many ecclesiastical sectors of women against centuries of immobility, seems to be at a standstill . The final document has established that “there are no reasons that prevent women from assuming leadership roles in the Church ”, but the key will be to know what that phrase, still open, means.
Equality in the Church
In fact, during this month of October, the Argentine Pontiff explicitly asked the participants of the synodal journey, such as bishops, nuns, lay people and experts, not to focus on the issue of the female diaconate . The female diaconate is the greatest demand for equality within the Church and would mean that women could also access the step prior to a priest being ordained a priest and would allow, among many other tasks, to celebrate the word. Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez , prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, and one of Bergoglio 's most trusted people , spoke about this issue in a recent press conference. "We know that the Holy Father has expressed that, at this moment, the question of the female diaconate is not ripe and he has asked that we not dwell on this possibility now," he added.
Previous steps are missing
According to Cardinal Fernandez, the Pope 's interest is to work, however, "on the role of women in the Church " by asking his dicastery to explore the possibility of development without sacred ordination. "To rush to ask for the ordination of deaconesses is not today the most important response to promote women ," added this cardinal, because "it does not resolve the question of women in the Church" since he believes that previous steps are missing. Fernandez concluded his statements by asking for the help of women who are heads of a Catholic religious community and who hold positions of authority to work together .
These statements, which came out in October, fit perfectly with the imprecision of the final document of the Synod published in recent days , which calls for further discussion of the issue and postpones a broader decision until next spring. But this impasse increases the disappointment of some sectors of the Church , which had placed all their hopes in this synodal path. The atmosphere is one of controversy and discontent because, as has often happened in his papacy, Francis has reflected with this issue an acceleration and the subsequent sudden stop. For example, in 2016 he announced the creation of a Study Commission on the diaconate for women , renewed in 2020, and now he closes doors through the words of one of the most trusted cardinals. Many interpret that he himself has lit a fire that he now intends to put out. Clarify the position
One of the most influential cardinals at the moment, the Archbishop of Kinshasa, Fridolin Ambongo Besungu , has placed his trust in this commission. He said that all the questions are being studied in depth “in order to clarify them”, according to the magazine ‘ Vida Nouvelle’ . But, at the same time, in a briefing held a few days ago in the context of the Synod, he said that “the Church in Africa and I, personally, are not opposed to the possibility of studying the female diaconate , of considering this opening to having women deacons”. Ambongo is part of the famous C9, the Council of the nine cardinals with the most power in the Church who advise the Pope.
Pope Francis during a visit to the women's prison in Venice
Her statement provides clarity on a key point in understanding where this debate is heading in the Church: numbers . At present, the number of believers in the Catholic Church is growing only in the so-called global south. The data show that, especially since 2022, the number of baptized people has been growing in Africa . There, many women nuns already do much more than their role requires, equalling or even surpassing the importance of a priest. These women are crucial to the religious and social development of some communities, and part of their demands focus on making it clear to Rome that they already take care of many aspects because there are not enough priests or because they simply attend to the needs of the parishes in which they are located. “Daughter, wife and mother”
Over the years, the Pope has reiterated an idea of women as representing the maternal side of the Church . He said in : “The Church needs this, because the Church is a woman: daughter, wife and mother, and who else but a woman can reveal her face?” But the great demand of women fighting from within is focused on a recognition that is not based on their role of care and accompaniment, but that also includes them in decision-making and administrative power, just like a priest has.
Pope Francis leads the weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square, Vatican City
In fact, just a few days ago a group of women belonging to the International Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests (ARCWP) decided, in a symbolic way, to be ordained as priests a few kilometres from the Vatican. The place is quite unusual, on a floating building on the Tiber converted into a kind of Church, where a “bishop” has ordained three Catholic “priestesses” and three “deaconesses”, according to the Vaticanist of the Italian daily ' Repubblica' Iacopo Scaramuzzi . A ceremony without canonical value, but which serves to provoke a debate that seems blocked at the moment by Pope Francis himself despite the steps taken in recent months. What are your demands?
Kate McElwee is the executive director of the Women's Ordination Conference , which tries to unite the voices of women fighting for female ordination and equality within the Church. “Women, including the Church, have been silenced for generations. Our role is to make them feel welcomed so that they can raise their voices ,” she explains to Article 14. This is a debate that is still completely open, but the disappointment for this group of women is that the appointments of some to high ranks of the ecclesiastical hierarchy during this decade of Bergoglio's papacy are exceptions and that the Vatican itself has wanted to remove this issue from the discussions of the Synod , a fundamental place to decide the future of the Church. “I think that Francis is blocked on this issue and this saddens us,” she adds.
Pope Francis and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni
“They want to be human beings with full rights in the Church, just like men . We want baptism to become, truly, the proof of equality between men and women . Many, even if they do not wish to be ordained priests, understand that this is a debate that the Church has to face in order to regain its credibility,” adds McElwee. And, according to the numbers, to ensure its survival."
The Holy Shakeup Comes to Rome: Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests Ordination on October 17, 2024
by Bridget Mary Meehan
Over sixty people - including journalists from France, Spain, Germany, Austria, Italy and the United States witnessed a holy shakeup minutes from the Vatican!
Bishop Bridget Mary Meehan ARCWP ordained three priests: Belen Repiso Carrillo from Spain, and Anne Malloy La Tour and Mary Katherine Daniels from the United States and three deacons Loan Rocher from France, and Maria Teresa Ribeiro Rosa and Txus Garcia Pascual from Spain on the Dram , a boat, anchored on the Tiber River.
Like Jesus who called his first disciples to get out of their fishing boat to follow him in proclaiming the all-embracing love of God for everyone, Catholic women and persons from marginalized genders are following the call of Jesus today to serve renewed communities of faith anchored in inclusivity, and equality.
We came to Rome to offer hope to Catholics around the globe that women priests and deacons are here now. We minister inclusive communities where all are welcome to receive and celebrate sacraments.
We ask Pope Francis to engage in a “conversation in the Spirit” and to remove all barriers that excommunicate those who answer the Spirit's call to ordination.
Then his words “todus, todus” will become a reality because they will apply to all who follow their consciences and disobey Church teachings, including women priests !
Ordinations of female priests in Rome: Neither clandestine nor prohibited by Christina Moreira, ARCWP
"Anyone who witnessed our ordination ceremony would realize that what was experienced there was a peaceful and gentle act, that the grace and affection that come from above and are poured out and overflowed was palpable."
"Nobody expressly prohibited our ceremony, nor was it clandestine. Our focus was precisely on showing, to the greatest number possible, that we are willing to put ourselves at the service of our Church, to bring to it the qualities and charismas that each baptized person receives for the good of the community."
"Will the Pope one day agree to meet with some of us fraternally so that we can give him news of all those people who love him from the heart and who suffer because they do not feel listened to or taken into account?"
"Anyone who witnessed our ordination ceremony would realize that what was experienced there was a peaceful and gentle act, that the grace and affection that come from above and are poured out and overflowed was palpable."
| Christina Moreira Vázquez. ARCWP Priest
When the first Christian communities (late 1st century and early 2nd century, as attested by the Epistle of James, among other sources) needed to expand the staff for proclaiming the Good News brought by Jesus of Nazareth, caring for the sick and even healing them in his name, caring for the growing communities, breaking bread and praying within them, some figures were created, considered as successors of the apostles and called deacons, deaconesses, priests and presbyters, bishops and bishops .
I am sorry that the reader's vision is clouded, but a careful reading of the New Testament will give you information on this subject. It is enough to look at the Epistle to the Romans where we find a female apostle: Junia, who has been unsuccessfully attempted to camouflage herself in "Junias", a supposedly masculine and non-existent name . I do not give precise quotes on purpose because I believe that people deserve to access the same sources to scrutinize truths that have gone unnoticed.
The three ordained deaconesses: Loan Rocher, Teresa Riveiro and Txus GarcÃa
Following this tradition, which is that of our Catholic and Roman Mother Church, and before following the footsteps of our Master Jesus who did not make any distinction between persons, as the Son of God that he is, nor did he practice discrimination at all, the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests (acronym in English RCWP-ARCWP https://arcwp.org/cristina-moreira-the-first-spanish-woman-priest/ ) perpetuates the lineage of our founders, the courageous “Danube 7” as we affectionately call them.
Seven women who were ordained deaconesses, priests and finally bishops by various Roman Catholic bishops with apostolic succession . We thus join the already unstoppable tradition of administering the sacrament of Holy Orders to women and it encourages further research. We do not usually hide or keep quiet. We are on four continents and we have finally reached the contingent of 300 with the latest entrants, among whom four are European.
No one expressly prohibited our ceremony, nor was it clandestine. Our focus was precisely on showing, to the greatest number possible, that we are willing to put ourselves at the service of our Church, to bring to it the qualities and charisms that each baptized person receives for the good of the community . This is the “order” that the bishop gave when she gave the Gospel to the ordained: “Receive the Gospel of Christ, whose messenger you are now. Believe what you read, teach what you believe, and practice what you teach.” That is ordaining with meaning.
It is true that we wear alb, stole and chasuble with the affection of those who receive a valuable legacy and are ready to use it for good. In fact, we are here to build the new Church that we dream of ; our communities around the world are numerous shoots that show flourishing life and, as we are told, are a sign of hope. And that is not by chance: the password to enter is “Come as you are, everyone is welcome.” We do not ask about life status, sexual or emotional orientations, we do not inquire about the origin or number of divorces or sins. We are interested in those who come feeling loved, listened to in their needs, cared for and respected, without conditions.
We do nothing that Jesus of Nazareth did not entrust to his disciples, nothing that we should feel guilty about, when we sit in the midst of his family to break bread and pour wine, to perpetuate his presence where he is sought and needed . The strange thing is that we have to justify ourselves for this. The strange thing is that for centuries this function has been associated with the genitalia of the person who does it. But, they often reply, Jesus was a man. Yes, from the tribe of David, Israeli, circumcised. Do we have to dismiss all those who are not?
I heard that afternoon phrases like “Do you love the Pope?” and I answered without hesitation, of course, we profess to love our neighbor, there are no exceptions. But, I added, “Does he love us? Will he one day agree to meet fraternally with some of us so that we can give him news of all those people who love him from the heart and who suffer because they do not feel heard or taken into account? ” Without a doubt, we have much to tell him, and, to begin with, our beautiful vocations for service, also that of the altar and the sacraments, and our perplexity when we note that they do not seem to be necessary; when after long discernment (in the Church) we surrender to the evidence that they are the fruit of the Holy Spirit and someone answers us that “it cannot be,” because the law does not authorize it.
Another question that is repeated: “You are causing a schism” and, with pain, I usually answer that the schisms have already occurred and continue: the working people have left, the young people are residual, women are leaving en masse, as was recently published, and we must add the schism of all those who do not feel welcomed because of their “sinful” condition, such as married people who have remarried, those from the entire LGBTIQ+ spectrum and, respect obliges us to mention all the victims of priests, monks, bishops and superiors who rape children, girls, women and vulnerable people together with those who show solidarity. Does anyone see these schisms? Do we only fear the schism of those who support the purse and political power in the Church?
We too have questions. For example: Is someone trying to dictate to the Holy Spirit the terms of reference for discipleship recruitment? Can we really believe, after more than two millennia of Christianity, that the Spirit only speaks to prelates? Isn’t it time to ask whether his Word is not rather spread among his favorites, “the least of these”? How can the Beatitudes be read over and over again without asking this? If prostitutes will enter the Kingdom of Heaven first, there is a different roadmap from the beginning. This is ours.
Ordination of female priests
Once again the law prevails over the divine will. At what point have we forgotten Jesus' sentence: “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. And the Son of Man is also the owner of the Sabbath.” (Mark 2:23-28). It is true that sentences like these have forged the condemnation of the one who pronounced them… we will not forget that either.
We women are all familiar with the so-called “theological arguments” for not receiving holy orders; arguments that are not such, but rather vain attempts to maintain the status quo, the clerical and hierarchical, heteropatriarchal system , which is concerned with preserving its privileges.
Jesus did not ordain anyone, he was not a priest, and he only asked that we remember him. That is what I do, and that is what my companions do, with the utmost love and respect. From our suffering, violated, undervalued and so often despised bodies, we understand from within what surrender means .
Ordination of female priests
We ask from here that, for God's sake, they stop using Mary to distance us from the table of her Son, from his Body and his Memory . It doesn't work, it doesn't convince us. Mary, the Virgin, Our Lady, the Mother of God... was the first woman and the only one with the right to say: "This is my body, this is my blood." She is with us. Another day we will talk seriously about the two principles of Urs Von Balthasar and how, sometimes, theologians invent fictions to justify the unjustifiable.
To those who reproach us for wearing the vestments, we can respond that these white vestments are those of baptism. It is not us women who have vilely defiled them with blood and other things, it is not we who use them to dominate and abuse. For us, to wear an alb, a stole, a chasuble or to hold a staff is to return home after a very long journey and open the trunks of our heritage , it means seeking to enter into our tradition with simple intentions and a desire to fully belong also in the symbolic sense. It means seeking to speak the language of the people who understand the signs, clothes and colours and love them in many places on the planet.
Anyone who witnessed our ordination ceremony would have realized that what was experienced there was a peaceful and gentle act, that the grace and affection that come from above and are poured out and overflowed was palpable . Far from the rebellious and “defiant” attitude that the media usually accuse us of, perhaps to make their headlines more explosive, we have no other desire than to call for communion, beyond all borders and respecting diversity. We are servants of communion.
Ordinations of female priests
I wondered why I cried during the laying on of hands . Seeing those people, many of them friends, respond to their calls, seeing them become part of the long cohort of invisible apostles since Mary of Nazareth, Mary of Cleophas, Mary the wife of Chuza and Mary Magdalene overwhelmed me. I felt a joyful fluttering in my ear, I felt love and sweetness, and the verses we read at Easter came to me, those of the first Pentecost, the one that founded catholicity, universality, thanks to the understanding of languages.
There were people on that boat from the United States, Ireland, Colombia, Germany, Holland, France, Spain (Galicia, Castile, Andalusia, Catalonia…), Portugal and Italy of course. They all understood each other, and not only because our heroic team of interpreters made it possible in very adverse conditions, but because our signs, symbols and faces spoke of salvation and of heaven. The Church among us was Catholic, apostolic and Roman, and no one will be able to steal that happiness from us . We will be caring for it all our lives. We cultivated hope with the stubbornness of faith and the serenity of a peaceful conscience.
I serve in the Comunidade Cristiá do Home Novo (A Coruña- Galicia- Spain)
galilea.luz@gmail.com
Catholic women ordination. It was turned into a web story. Here it is:
Advocates for women’s ordination protested this month in front of the Vatican.Credit...Andrew Medichini/Associated Press
Kate McElwee, the executive director of the Women’s Ordination Conference, addressing members during a prayer vigil last fall in Rome.Credit...Gregorio Borgia/Associated Press
A ceremony ordaining women was held this month on a barge on the Tiber River in Rome.Credit...Filippo Monteforte/Agence France-Presse — Getty 
