The men are talking, the women are walking! Advocates for women’s ordination launch prayerful demonstrations in Rome and respond to the dubious dubia
/The men are talking, the women are walking! Advocates for women’s ordination launch prayerful demonstrations in Rome and respond to the dubious dubia: 03 October 2023
Press Release
For Immediate Release
Rome, Italy
03 October 2023
As Women’s Ordination Worldwide launches a series of demonstrations to mark the opening of the Synod on Synodality, senior clerics remain fixated on silencing and excluding women.
Five cardinals have submitted a new set of five dubia (doubts) to Pope Francis focusing on women’s ordination, as well as the blessing of same-sex unions and the authority of the synod to issue binding teaching.
Their concern about women is: Could the Church in the future have the faculty to confer priestly ordination on women, thus contradicting that the exclusive reservation of this sacrament to baptized males belongs to the very substance of the Sacrament of Orders, which the Church cannot change?
This fearful reaction is no doubt a response to the synodal listening sessions where the majority of parishes around the world raised their own question for the Catholic hierarchy, namely: How long must women wait for equality? The call for women’s ordination was heard around the world as both a pastoral need and a matter of justice.
In his response to the dubia, Pope Francis stated that Pope John Paul II’s teaching that the ban on women’s ordination to the priesthood must be definitively held is not a dogmatic definition, and yet it must be adhered to by all. Francis said no one can contradict it publicly, and yet it can be a subject of study.
To this, WOW, responds: women do not need to be the subject of further study. If the synodal process has revealed anything to the global church so far, it is that women must be protagonists in the collective discernment of the movements of the Holy Spirit. The days of Catholics being silenced are over, and such treatment, especially of women, does not align with the collective call of a synodal church to attend to the urgent injustices in our church.
Those five cardinals are right to be worried: Pope Francis has now confirmed that the ban on women priests is not dogma. We recognise that further study is a stalling tactic but trust that the ever increasing calls for justice will lead to the restoration of women’s equal ministry sooner rather than later.
And we will not stop, we will not be silenced. WOW will continue to publicly demonstrate to send a clear message that our church can no longer be ruled over by a small but influential minority of hard-line clerics who have an unhealthy fixation on maintaining an all-male hierarchy despite the fact that this is clearly contrary to the intentions of Christ, the practise of the early Church and the will of the people they are supposed to serve.
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Press Contacts:
Kate McElwee
+ 1 607 725 1364
or + 39 393 692 2100
kmcelwee@womensordination.org
Miriam Duignan
+ 44 7970 926910
miriam.duignan@wijngaardsinstitute.com
WOW’s Synodal Demonstrations:
As Pope Francis convenes the historic Synod on Synodality this October, Women’s Ordination Worldwide, and global partners, will host several events on the prophetic edges of the Vatican with the simple message for Pope Francis and the synod assembly: walk with women as equals. Details below.
Tuesday, 3rd October - 4:30 pm GMT +2
Prayer vigil: Let Her Voice Carry
Live-Streamed: https://www.youtube.com/ordainwomen
Location of the vigil not widely publicised due to security concerns. Any media who would like to attend should contact us directly.
We will host a prayer vigil featuring the stories and testimonies of women worldwide praying for the courageous inclusion of women’s voices during the synodal gathering. Following the prayer service, WOW invites attendees and press to a drinks reception. (For details please contact us)
Wednesday, 4th October - 7:30- 8:30 am GMT +2
Widen the space of your tent action and delivery to Synod Office
Lungotevere Castello (Angolo Largo dei Mutilati ed Invalidi di Guerra)
On the opening day of the Synod, advocates for women’s ordination will offer a visual display of the synodal tent in a message that reflects the Synod’s official mission statement to Enlarge the space of your tent (Isaiah 54:2). We will then process to the Synod office and deliver more than 1000 symbolic squares of extra material for the Vatican to enlarge the space of their tent to include the voices of those who support opening all ordained ministries to all genders. Each piece of fabric represents a person from the grassroots calling for a larger, colorful, wide-open tent where all are included.
Friday, 6th October - 3 pm (activists gather at 2:30) GMT+2
Walk with Women: March to the Vatican
Route begins at San Giovanni dei Fiorentini (Via Acciaioli, 2) via Lungotevere Castello
and concludes at St. Peter’s Square
At the Opening Mass of the Synod in 2021, Pope Francis said: ‘The Holy Spirit always surprises us, to suggest fresh paths and new ways of thinking.’ Let’s make our Walk with Women a fresh path to full equality in the church.
Global advocates for women’s ordination will process from the site of a relic of the foot of St. Mary Magdalene, Apostle to the Apostles, and walk peacefully to St. Peter’s Square. Inspired by US suffragist movements, advocates will carry messages such as: Pope Francis, How Long Must Women Wait for Equality? and Resistance to Patriarchy is Obedience to God.
Background:
Women’s Ordination Worldwide has actively and faithfully engaged with the discernment of the Synod, encouraging broad and hope filled participation by women in the process, despite the Vatican’s minimal credibility in truly listening to the voices, vocations, and concerns of women. Yet against these odds, synod reports from all corners of the church have lifted up the call for women’s ordination, both as a pastoral need and as a matter of justice. WOW is hopeful that the inclusion of women in ordained ministry is clearly high on the agenda, and prays that the Holy Spirit is not constrained by misogyny, clericalism, or fear.
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)
WOW currently includes representatives from Australia, Bangladesh, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Great Britain, India, Ireland, Poland, South Africa, and the United States.
