Updates to Canon Law Fail to Correct the “Crime” of Women’s Ordination

For Immediate Release: June 1, 2021

Pope Francis’ June 1 changes to the Code of Canon Law (Book VI) on offenses and punishments fail to correct the mischaracterization of the “grave crime” of women following their authentic vocations to ordained ministry. While not new, the revised canon 1379 is a painful reminder of the Vatican’s patriarchal machinery, and its far-reaching attempts to subordinate women. 

In 2007, the Vatican issued a decree stating the attempted ordination of women would result in automatic excommunication, and in 2010, Pope Benedict XVI classified the “attempted ordination of a woman” as one of the most “grave crimes” in the church, on par with those who sexually abuse children. 

The consistency of the Vatican’s misogyny does not diminish its power to shock and appall the faithful, who can distinguish between the actually “grave crime” of sexual abuse of a child and the fulfillment of a priestly vocation to serve the People of God.  

At a time when Pope Francis has convened a second commission to study the diaconate for women, we lament the reinforcement of any barriers against women answering their vocation to “sacred orders,” which includes the diaconate.

If the church is to heal from its wounds of abuse, we know that canonical punishments alone will not suffice, particularly if the Vatican prioritizes excommunicating women above all else. The continued exclusion of women from holy orders contributes to the very culture of abuse that has failed and harmed so many. 

A synodal church demands the full participation of women as equal partners in ordained ministry, and nothing less. 

###

Contact: Kate McElwee, Executive Director

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.