Pope’s recent appointment of women is too little, too late
Administrative tinkering to Vatican bureaucracy is hardly the stuff of stop-the-presses headlines, but Pope Francis’ recent naming of three women to the office that helps select bishops around the world is certainly more substantive than changing the office’s name from “congregation” to “dicastery.”…
…A statement from the Women’s Ordination Conference, or WOC, welcomed the pope’s move as “an important step in removing all barriers to women’s full participation in the life the church,” while noting that these appointments “cannot alone address the injustices women face in the church,” especially in light of the “culture of clericalism and sexism that has long thrived within [Vatican] walls.”
The WOC statement also noted “the deep irony that women may now aid in selecting bishops, a role they themselves are prohibited from holding on account of their gender.”