Women’s Ordination Conference Responds to Francis’ Interview in America Magazine

For Immediate Release: November 28, 2022

In an interview with America Magazine, Pope Francis upheld the Catholic church’s unequal treatment of women by exploiting misogynistic metaphors to dismiss the sincerely discerned vocations of women. When asked what he might say to a woman who serves her church and experiences a call to priesthood, Francis responded with sexist smoke and mirrors theology, which the Women’s Ordination Conference considers an indefensible attempt to obscure women’s capacity to act in persona Christi. 

To make his point, Francis repeats the phrase: “The church is woman. The church is a spouse. Therefore, the dignity of women is mirrored in this way.” This “spousal metaphor” claims a male-female relationship between Christ and the church: By extension, only men can truly represent Christ, and therefore only men can be priests. The simplistic gendering and sexualization of one’s relationship with God and discipleship are not just a disservice to the Catholic imagination, but a tool of oppression. It is only when women claim their authentic call to priesthood that the spousal metaphor becomes the central ecclesiology of the church.

Just last month, the Vatican’s synod office released an encouraging “Working Document for the Continental Stage” which acknowledged global calls for women’s ordination and a collective longing for women in ministry. Yet today, Francis’ reductive understanding of women’s ministerial gifts rings hollow beyond measure, and discordant with synod reports from around the world. His claim that the exclusion of women from ministerial life is “not a deprivation” reflects a man who does not know the depth of pain that women in his own church carry.  He shows willful ignorance to the treasures that have been lost by denying the sacramental gifts of more than half its members.  

The synod implores the global church to “enlarge the space of your tent,” yet today we read the words of a man who would rather build walls out of bad theology than make room for women as equals in Christ. 

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CONTACT: Kate McElwee, Executive Director, Women’s Ordination Conference
kmcelwee@womensordination.org

Founded in 1975, the Women’s Ordination Conference (WOC) is the oldest and largest organization working to ordain women as deacons, priests, and bishops into an inclusive and accountable Roman Catholic Church. A feminist voice for women in the Roman Catholic Church, WOC is a grassroots-driven movement that promotes activism, dialogue, and prayerful witness to call for women’s full equality in the Church.