Women's Ordination Worldwide: 2019 A Year in Review
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Members of Women’s Ordination Worldwide in action at the Vatican’s Synod on the Amazon. October 2019
2019 was a year of action for Women’s Ordination Worldwide. Here is a review of worldwide events and where took action.
2019: In February, Pope Francis acknowledged a longstanding dirty secret in the Roman Catholic Church — the sexual abuse of nuns by priests. It's an issue that had long been kept under wraps, but in the #MeToo era, a #NunsToo movement has emerged, and now sexual abuse is more widely discussed. Sexual Abuse of Nuns: Longstanding Church Scandal Emerges From The Shadows
2019: Women’s Ordination Worldwide writes to Pope Francis asking the hierarchy to stop mansplaining Easter ‘The hostage-taking of Christianity by the all male clerical caste is wrong. Why is Pope Francis allowing this injustice to continue when Jesus reminded us that we are all in his image and that we are all asked to bring his message of love to the world? Dear Pope Francis, if Jesus chose Mary Magdalene to be the herald of the Good News, why won't we be hearing a woman preaching the Gospel this Easter Sunday?
2019: April —Sr. Ruth Schönenberger, prioress of the monastery of the Missionary Benedictine Sisters of Tutzing, and responsible for Benedictine communities in Bernried, also in Bavaria, and Dresden, in Saxony (The Missionary Benedictine Sisters of Tutzing has 1,300 sisters in 19 countries) publicly calls for gender equality in the Church. ‘I take for granted that a woman can also be ordained. I do not understand the reasons against it. I am surprised that the presence of Christ is reduced to being a man. We have here also qualified theologians who only lack consecration — nothing else. I often wonder why this differentiation is made based on sex and not qualifications and further education. One should look for who is qualified for this task.’
2019: May - Statement of Indian Women Theologians Forum: ‘The servitude that is the lot of a great majority of women betrays male privilege that is normalized in families and in the Church. This situation makes us interrogate whether the ‘Gender Policy of the Catholic Church in India’ acclaimed as the first of its kind, has remained a failed promise even after 10 years of its existence… Speaking truth to power like the Syrophoenician woman of the Gospels, we reclaim our position, voice and rights as disciples of Jesus in the Church. Stepping beyond the boundaries of gendered identity constructions that have devalued us over the ages, we wish to retrieve our full humanity as persons created, graced and commissioned by the empowering God to build a new Church and social order which is egalitarian and inclusive. We resolve to continue our struggle to build a GENDER JUST CHURCH by exercising our collective agency and networking with individuals and communities committed to realizing the vision of the Reign of God in this world.’
2019: Pope Francis stalls on restoration of the ordained women’s diaconate. He claimes a lack of clarity as to historical roots of the sacramental rite. Women’s Ordination Worldwide calls for action through its statement, Women’s Ordination Worldwide Responds to Pope Francis’s Delay on Women Deacons.
2019: German Catholic women launch a weeklong boycott by suspending voluntary work in churches. Their protest has crystallized fury over a male-only priesthood and bishops' foot-dragging on sex scandals. The grassroots Catholic women's movement Maria 2.0 holds its own services, without priests, outside Catholic churches in 50 cities and towns in Germany. From May 11 until May 18, participating women do not enter churches or perform volunteer work in their parishes in order to make known how empty the churches are without women. Ruth Koch, a leader of Maria 2.0, calls on the Vatican to open the priesthood to women and to drop the celibacy requirement for priests. She explains that the name Mary (Maria in German) is chosen for the movement because she is the most important woman in the Bible. The term 2.0 refers to a new and modern version. It is reported that Bishop Franz-Josef Bode of Osnabrück supports the campaign.
2019: May - Fr. Frank Brennan, SJ, Professor of Law in the Public Policy Institute at the Australian Catholic University, Chief Executive Officer of Catholic Social Services in Australia and former Chair of Australia’s National Human Rights Consultation Committee renews his call for Church to consider women priests. Saying he has long been a supporter of women’s ordination, he observes the Church must adapt and ensure equality for everyone. He expresses his fear for the future of the Church unless it engages in open dialogue on issues such as women priests. In a talk at a Concerned Catholics of Canberra Goulburn forum, he refers to Pope Francis's view that a church that loses its humility and stops listening to others "loses her youth and turns into a museum". Yet this thinking has not been extended to speaking about women priests. He observes: "The official position is no longer comprehensible to most people of good will, and not even those at the very top of the hierarchy have a willingness or capacity to explain it.”
2019: June - SANTIAGO, Chile — Pope Francis accepts the resignation of the auxiliary bishop of Santiago, Carlos Eugenio Irarrázabal, just 24 days after the pontiff appointed him to the post, and weeks after the bishop made comments about the lack of women at the Last Supper. His short tenure began with a television interview in which he noted that there were no women seated at the table at the Last Supper and that “we have to respect that.” “Jesus Christ made decisions, and they were not ideological,” he said, “and we want to be faithful to Jesus Christ.” He also said that perhaps women “like to be in the back room.” The bishop’s comments angered women’s groups and critics of the church in Chile at a time when confidence in church leadership in the once staunchly Catholic nation has plummeted. In a statement issued by the archdiocese, Bishop Irarrázabal said he wanted to “reiterate my apologies to those have been affected by my comments.”
2019: July - Pope Francis who has said repeatedly said that "time is greater than space," and some six years and three months into his pontificate, appoints seven women — superiors general of religious orders — to the space of a Vatican congregation. This is a first. As members of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, these women will have a voice as part of the global body most directly involved in matters related to their vocation. A call is made for a ‘Synod on Women.’
2019: August - Retired Father Joseph Patrick Breen speaks out publicly in support of ordination of women. Citing that ‘women in most every Christian church today can be priests or ministers’ and that women in Judaism, the faith of Jesus, are ordained, he says, ‘We need to study this and overcome prejudice we inherited from the past and fully appreciate the greatness of womanhood and equality. I also believe it is a matter of justice. I would encourage us, as a church, to study, pray and have a sincere discussion to perhaps come to a better understanding. Women priests would certainly enhance the quality of our church and our faith experiences, and in turn be a great blessing to our church. I believe that we must respond to “the signs of the times” and make changes, if we want people to stay with us and return to the church.’
2019: Radicals and the Rule - Member group of Women’s Ordination Worldwide Women’s Ordination Conference (WOC) hosts a ‘not-to-be-missed fall event’, "Radicals and The Rule," a conversation between Benedictine sisters Joan Chittister and Teresa Forcades. These radical sisters follow the Rule of Benedict - but they're not afraid to challenge other rules. The event is a first encounter between these Catholic feminist leaders, and an her-storic evening for WOC.
2019: October - Women’s Ordination Worldwide’s International Steering Committee meets in Lisbon, Portugal. The meeting is hosted by member group Nós Somos Igreja (We Are Church Portugal).
2019: October - Women’s Ordination Worldwide publicly gathers at the Vatican’s Synod on the Amazon to remind Synod Bishops who gather to discuss priest shortages in Amazonia that women are already serving in priestly roles and to demand that they too are recognized as equal leaders of the Church. Women’s Ordination Worldwide joins the call for ecological justice and says that it cannot be separated from the call for spiritual and sacramental equality. WOW’s message to the Synod is: "Empowered women will save the Earth, Empowered women will save the Church" . Click here for WOW’s Press Release WOW at the Amazon Synod to Demand that Women Are Finally Recognized as Equal Church Leaders. Although police issue WOW a protest and procession permit, procession is is disallowed when police see that the umbrellas have the subversive words ‘Women Priests’ printed on them. Unmarked umbrellas, say police, are fine but not ones that say women priests. The action is covered by international media.
2019: Women’s Ordination Worldwide is encouraged by the renewal of the Pact of the Catacombs, signed by 40 Bishops from the Synod on October 20, demanding that the church: ‘Recognize the services and real diakonia of a great number of women who today direct communities’ and for ‘an adequate ministry of women leaders of the community’. Without women, the Catholic Church would not exist in the Amazon and it is a matter of justice that they too are finally empowered as equals rather than being supplanted by local men whilst women continue to do the work of serving the communities.
2019: October Bishops presiding at the Vatican’s Synod on the Amazon signal openness to giving married men the green light to priestly ordination but still keep women marginalised by holding that restoration of the ordained women’s diaconate requires yet further study. Women’s Ordination Worldwide Responds to the Amazon Synod Conclusion that Women’s Ministry Requires Further Study by saying, ‘Adding married men to sacramental ministry in the Amazon will further push aside the women the Synod recognised are currently doing the work. This reinforces prejudice and signals the supplanting of women whose spiritual leadership will be sacrificed in the name of God but is for the sake of men.’
2019: November San Diego Bishop Robert McElroy publicly announces his support for restoration of the ordained women’s diaconate. This appears as the first such public disclosure of a U.S. prelate since Pope Francis reopened consideration of the history of women's diaconal ordination in 2016.
2019: November 2- Women the Vatican Couldn't Silence, WOW member group We Are Church Ireland, Voices of Faith, Trinity College Dublin jointly host former President of Ireland, Mary McAleese and Sister Joan Chittister OSB speak their truth about issues besetting the Catholic Church today that are mobilizing Catholic women and men into action and what our current leaders need to do...for a start, listen.
2019: December German Synodal Path opens: With growing dissatisfaction within the Catholic Church in Germany, the German Church begins a "synodal path" aimed at renewal. The loudest voice for a transformation of the church — comes from Catholic women who are no longer willing to accept a subordinate role in a male-dominated church. ‘The grief that women have had to endure through the power of churchmen was too great, and the hope for real change is too small, ‘ says Mechthild Heil who is the leader of the Catholic Women's Association in Germany and a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union Party in the Bundestag. Women are calling for full equality between women and men, and women's access to all ministries in the church. "This includes all ordained ministries and governing ministries," she says.
2019 Advent: Augustinian priest John Shea writes to Pope Francis reminding him that Advent is a time to wake up asking him to wake up to the injustices against women in the Church.
2019 Advent: Augustinian priest John Shea writes to the College of Cardinals reminding them that Advent is a time to wake up to the injustices against women in the Church.
2019: German Synodal Path - The Catholic Women’s Association of Germany (KFD) draws ‘red lines’ for that country’s Church’s ‘synodal path’ reform process: full equality in Church responsibility and a call to Rome for women’s ordination With an eventual petition to Rome to ordain women, the German Bishops would send a signal that the desire for female priests is there “not only in the Church in Germany, but also in the world Church”, say Agnes Wuckelt, Vice President of KFD. She is a member of the synodal path forum on Women in service and offices of the Church. She tells katholische.de: ‘If that [petition to Rome] did not happen, in our eyes definitely a red line would be crossed.’ Her Association is pushing for the access of women to priestly ordination via the first step, if necessary, of the sacramental diaconate. The KFD recognises that the German Church can’t take such a step on its own without the rest of the world Church. But the Association does expect that if the synodal path calls for women’s ordination, the German Bishops will take that call to the Vatican.
2019 Advent: French Bishop Vesco publicly admits, ‘Sometimes, I have the impression that Jesus’ view of women was much more open than ours. Is it that the Word of God cannot be commented on by a woman at Sunday Mass? This is really a question that touches me. Today, we have women trained in theology. Why can’t we ever hear them preach?’
2019 Advent: Cardinal Walter Kasper, President Emeritus of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, former member of the International Theological Commission, and known as ‘the Pope’s theologian, says he is convinced that “in time, doors will be opened” to women at the altar, celebrating the Mass.
We look forward to advancing progress for women’s equality in the Church in 2020.
