WOC reflects on the legacy of Pope Benedict XVI
| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE December 31, 2022 Women’s Ordination Conference (WOC) joins Catholics worldwide to mourn the death of Pope Benedict XVI. His lifelong devotion to the Roman Catholic Church led him to offer a profound example of humility and willingness to overturn tradition by resigning from the papacy in 2013. However, as head of the Vatican’s doctrine office for decades and as pope, he orchestrated a rigid campaign of theological suppression on the question of women’s ordination, creating a culture of fear and pain within the church. “For many Catholics, Pope Benedict’s papacy is a chapter of our church’s history that we are still healing from,” said Kate McElwee, executive director of the Women’s Ordination Conference. “His relentless pursuit to stifle the movement for women’s ordination revealed a man unwilling or unable to engage with the urgent needs of the church today.” In his inaugural homily as pope in 2005, Benedict said: “Each of us is the result of a thought of God. Each of us is willed. Each of us is loved. Each of us is necessary.” WOC prays that the truth of this deepens in the heart of the church, and the necessary gifts of women and all of God’s people are welcomed into the ministries to which they are called. We pray that the same God whom he served will continue to guide the church to the fullness of its calling by recognizing the sacramental equality of all of its members. ### |
| CONTACT: Kate McElwee, Executive Director, 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. |