Crux: Protestors seek female ordination during Women’s Day march in New York
By Christopher White
NEW YORK – Churches may have been emptier than usual this past weekend due to fears related to the coronavirus – but according to a group of demonstrators in Manhattan, the Catholic Church’s unwillingness to expand the priesthood to women has led to a decades-in-the-making clearing out of its pews.
A small, but merry band of protestors – made up of a dozen women, two men, and a dog – marched just under a mile on Sunday from the headquarters of the United Nations along New York’s East River to the steps of Saint Patrick’s Cathedral on Fifth Avenue calling for “Equal Rites and Equal Rights,” through the end of the all male hierarchy.
Both the route and the day were intentional, according Kate McElwee, executive director of the Women’s Ordination Conference (WOC), noting it was meant “to demonstrate that women have rights in the world that stop at the doors of our churches.”