Urging Justice for Women, WOW Welcomes Pope Leo XIV - 09 May 2025

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Press Release
For Immediate Release
Women’s Ordination Worldwide
09 May 2025
Rome, Italy

Women’s Ordination Worldwide congratulates Pope Leo on his election as pope.

We take hope in that like his predecessor Pope Francis,  Leo  expresses solidarity with the poor  and marginalized.  We welcome his call for bridge building, and peace in the Church and the world.  His message brings to memory the wisdom of Pope Paul VI who taught that without justice there can be no peace. 

We express concern for the emergence of a possible abuse cover up or inaction.  This is now a familiar story for Catholics and we hope that the claims can be fully investigated.

In the Synod on Synodality, clear and unequivocal cries from every corner of the earth were made pleading  for justice for women in the Church. 

We hope that  Leo’s solidarity with the marginalised will include more than half  the world’s Catholics – women –  who continue to be unjustly excluded from Church leadership and sacramental ministry.

In his conviction for peace, we hope that his leadership will include work for  justice for women in both the Church and the world. This will mean more than extending  charitable hands of compassion to women.

Justice will involve dialogue, encounter, listening, bridge building, courage, and the work to lift boulders of discrimination that continue to block the way for inclusion of women as full, unquestioned equals  and protagonists in their own right in all realms of the Church.  It is the same baptism, the same Spirit, and the same God who calls for us all.  Justice in the Church will mean ending centuries old indefensible discrimination against women in both sacrament and  leadership. Justice for women in the world will include many things including  acknowledgement that the Church’s male domination signals to the world endorsement of women’s second class status for women all over the world whether they are Catholic or not.

If our Church follows Christ, it is both a sin and a scandal that discrimination against women persists. We pray that his leadership will be a beacon for peace and justice for women in the Church and around the world.

Habemus papam.

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Contacts:

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

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