WOC Responds to Pope’s Exhortation, “Christus Vivit”

2 April 2019
For Immediate Release

Pope Francis’ new post-synodal Apostolic Exhortation, “Christus Vivit” (Christ is Alive), offers only lip service to the movement for women’s equality in the Roman Catholic Church, suggesting no concrete actions to further his own bishops’ call for the inclusion of women in decision-making and leadership roles in the Church.

The “urgency of inescapable change,” as the 260 bishops put it at the end of their Synod on young people in October, is nowhere to be found in the Pope’s letter.

Pope Francis acknowledges the Church’s “fair share of male authoritarianism,” and suggests the Church should support women’s “legitimate claims” for justice and rights. However, without critical introspection and active dismantling of the patriarchal structures of the Roman Catholic Church and its discriminatory policies, our claims for justice go unheard. If the Pope really wanted the Church to support women’s rights, he would begin by ordaining women.

We also reject the weak explanation offered by the Vatican that the Pope couldn’t “cover everything” in a 33,000-word document, in reference to his failure to mention women in decision-making roles in the Church. The bishops recognized, however incompletely, the desire of young people for real change regarding the status of women in the Church, and it is disgraceful that the Pope chose not to further that charge.

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Contact:  

Kate McElwee, Executive Director
+1 607-725-1364 (USA)
+39 393 692 2100 (Italy)
kmcelwee@womensordination.org