From Rome: Statement During Year for Priest Celebration from Executive Director, Erin Saiz Hanna
For Immediate Release: Contact: Erin Saiz Hanna, ehanna@womensordination.org or
(202) 675-1006 or U.S. mobile in Rome 011-39-401-588-0457
Women’s Ordination Advocates Hold Press Conference During Vatican Year for Priests celebration,
Vigil Calling on Pope to Ordain Women
Today, Erin Saiz Hanna, executive director of the Women’s Ordination Conference (WOC), joined Catholic activists from around the world to call on Pope Benedict XVI to ordain women and accept their full and equal participation in the Catholic Church. The remarks came during a press conference that WOC and Women’s Ordination Worldwide held in Rome to protest the Vatican’s "Year for Priests" celebration, which begins tomorrow. After the press conference, the groups staged a vigil in St. Peter’s Square.
Statement
ROME, ITALY – Hello. My name is Erin Saiz Hanna, Executive Director of the Women’s Ordination Conference, an organization that represents the vast majority of U.S. Catholics who support women’s ordination into an inclusive and accountable Roman Catholic Church.
Today, during the final days of the Vatican’s declared Year for Priests, we are lifting up the voices of Catholics from around the world to call for women to be fully included in our Church, especially as priests, deacons, and bishops. We denounce the injustice of prohibiting women from being ordained.
The absolute hypocrisy of the ‘Year for Priests’ celebration cuts to the core of what is wrong with the hierarchy today. The Vatican is all too happy to turn a blind eye when men in its ranks destroy the lives of children and families, but jumps at the chance to excommunicate women who are doing good works and responding to injustice and the needs of their communities. While the hierarchy spends their time covering up scandals and throwing major celebrations for themselves, Catholic women are working for justice and making a positive difference in the world.
At the same time the Vatican announced this Jubilee Year for Priests with great fanfare, it was sending investigators to scrutinize communities of women religious in the U.S. These women who have been the backbone of the U.S. Catholic Church are currently under fire for everything from supporting women’s ordination, to refusing to condemn homosexuality.
And while the Vatican celebrates its priests this weekend, every day more than 31,000 lay ministers – 80% of whom are women – serve the Church with paltry pay, no job security, and little recognition. It’s clear the Vatican’s priorities need a serious realignment.
For far too long, only ordained, male, celibate clergy have dictated -or tried to dictate- how Catholics worship, pray and make decisions. Canon 1024, which states that only men can validly receive the sacrament of ordination, is unjust and does not value the gospel message of Jesus. It must be changed.
The Women’s Ordination Conference calls for an official opening of the discussion on women’s ordination. The refusal to ordain women is nothing more than an egregious manifestation of sexism in the church. In a church reeling from abuse, scandal, and oppression, it is time for the Vatican to listen to its own research, its own theologians and its own people who declare that women and men are equally created in the image of God.
When women are full and equal partners in every aspect of the Catholic Church, only then, will the Roman Catholic Church be associated with accountability, transparency and justice rather than hierarchy, hypocrisy, exclusion, and scandal. Until then, we will continue to raise our collective voices and organize actions that will bring our church closer to the gospel values of Jesus.
Thank you.
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Founded in 1975, the Women’s Ordination Conference is the oldest and largest organization that works to ordain women as priests, deacons and bishops into an inclusive and accountable Catholic church. WOC represents the 63 percent of US Catholics, and millions of Catholics worldwide, who support women’s ordination. WOC also promotes new perspectives on ordination that call for more accountability and less separation between the clergy and laity.