Women’s Ordination Worldwide campaigner Miriam Duignan interviewed on Times Radio (UK)

“Miriam, how big a step forward for women in the Catholic Church is this?”

“Well, it’s a big step forward in the sense that even though it feels like it’s not much progress because so many women in so many churches have been performing these roles, it’s a big step forward because it’s the first official recognition in the Church’s law that women can serve in positions on the altar during Mass. Before, they were officially banned from the altar, and the women that have been doing reading and helping on the altar with Communion as altar servers, they were there only—legally, technically—they were only there in a temporary position. They were never allowed to be permanently installed in those roles, it always at the discretion of the bishop. It was instituted in the 1970s as: basically, if there were no men able to do the job, a woman will do, and they were always very clearly there at the discretion of a man, and they could be taken away at any time. So this now is a big change because it means they can be officially installed in these roles—it exists in canon law. And what that means is the bishops who don’t want women on their altars—and believe me, that is still happening in England, across the UK, in many Western countries as well as in Southern countries—they can no longer act with impunity. They can’t just decide, ‘I don’t want women on my altar, and therefore I can,’ they can now be held to account and people can say ‘Hang on a minute, Pope Francis said so, it’s in canon law, women are now allowed officially on the altar.'”

Listen to the full interview with Times Radio here (starting at the 2 hour, 6 minute mark). You can also read our press release on the Vatican’s announcement here.