An Early Christmas Gift for Sexists Statement from Women’s Ordination Worldwide Regarding Vatican Refusal to Restore Ordained Women‘s Diaconate 05 December 2025

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December 5, 2025

In what must surely be an early Christmas present for those who fear women’s equality, the Vatican announced on December 4th 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 designed 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: Historical evidence, tradition and the teaching and legacy of Jesus be damned.

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 knows our 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 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.

Contacts:

Deacon Phoebe Named In scripture by Apostle Paul in his letter to the Romans 16: 1,2

‘I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a deacon of the church at Cenchreae,  that you may welcome her in the Lord in a way worthy of the saints, and help her in whatever she may need from you, for she has been a patron of many and of myself as well.’
- Apostle Paul in his letter to the Romans, 16:1-2

Women’s Ordination Worldwide

Founded  in 1996, WOW is an international network of groups whose current  mission is the inclusion of Roman Catholic women in all ordained  ministries.

Founded on the principle of equality, WOW opposes all discrimination.
'There  is neither Jew nor Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no  longer male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
-Galatians 3:28

Who is WOW?

Women’s Ordination Worldwide (WOW) is an international leader in creative, prayerful action.  We bring visibility to the need for equality of women in the Roman Catholic Church.  

An international network, WOW draws national and international groups together in common cause to end global discrimination against women in the Church.

WOW now includes nearly 20 reform minded member groups from Australia, Austria, Canada, Colombia, France, Germany, Great Britain, India, Ireland, Portugal, and USA.

WOW is…

  • The Future: Working to make real a Catholic Church that includes women in all realms of leadership including ordained priesthood

  • Active: media voices, international vigils, globally connecting, raising awareness, moving forward, being the change

  • Spiritual: women's liturgies, vigils, leadership in prayerful action

  • Promoting: new found respect in the Church for women's gifts and presence and leadership ... and as a consequence, building new respect for the Church