One vote for women - Women’s Ordination Worldwide responds to the breaking of a barrier

Women’s Ordination Worldwide (WOW) celebrates the news that Sister Nathalie Becquart has been appointed as one of two new undersecretaries of the Synod of Bishops. We are hopeful this means she will become the first, but not the last, woman to be able to vote in the Roman Catholic Church.

When Sister Becquart takes her place among hundreds of male Bishops in the next Synod, she will not be voting as someone recognised as their equal who has the authority to influence and change teaching. She will be the sole woman permitted to participate in the decision-making process but those decisions will have been made exclusively by men and her presence among them cannot change this fact.

We lament the fact that Sr Becquart’s new colleague and counterpart in this role will not be her peer. Father San Martin has, by virtue of his gender, been automatically elevated to the status of Bishop – something still unthinkable for a woman in today’s all-male hierarchical church. The first woman to ever be allowed to vote in a Vatican synod will only do so because she has been temporarily appointed to this position of responsibility as undersecretary. Sr Becquart can be removed at any time and, like all women in the Catholic Church, she will be at the mercy of her male supervisors at whose sole discretion she serves.

This small but visible step towards women’s inclusion is a result of decades of pressure being put on the Vatican to stop excluding women from their own church. And whilst we welcome every sign of progress, we refuse to accept as inevitable the slow drip of occasional solitary positions for individual women. Our work will only be done when women everywhere can fulfill their vocation to minister as priests alongside men and can take up roles in every institutional department based on their qualifications and commitment.

WOMEN’S ORDINATION WORLDWIDE MEDIA CONTACTS:

Kate McElwee (USA and Italy): +39 393 692 2100; kmcelwee@womensordination.org

Miriam Duignan (Ireland and UK): +44 7970 926910; miriam.duignan@wijngaardsinstitute.com

Therese Koturbash (Canada): +1 204 648 5720; t.m.koturbash@gmail.com

Alicja Baranowska(Belgium & Poland): +32 488 67 60 20  alicja.baranowska@wp.pl

Women's Ordination Worldwide (WOW): 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).