Author: Kate McElwee

WOW call on Pope Francis to dialogue with women called to priesthood

For Immediate Release: June 23, 2018 Women’s Ordination Worldwide (WOW) is deeply disappointed by Pope Francis’ reiteration of the “closed door” stance on women’s ordination.  We call on Pope Francis to lead by example and dialogue with the many women who are called to priesthood. The Vatican’s repeated attempts to limit God’s priestly call to…
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Cardinal Walter Brandmüller on Women’s Ordination

May 22, 2018  For Immediate Release Contact: Kate McElwee, Executive Director kmcelwee@womensordination.org +1.607.725.1364 The Women’s Ordination Conference must speak out against any suggestion that the ordination of women, or even the discussion of it, is heretical. We therefore affirm that Cardinal Walter Brandmüller’s recent comments that those who advocate for women’s ordination “fulfill the elements…
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Vocations Sunday Witness on April 22nd

On April 22nd, as Roman Catholic Church marked the World Day of Prayer for Vocations, Women’s Ordination Conference supporters held witness at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Baltimore.  As the Church asked its members to welcome God’s “unique story into their lives,” supporters stood as…
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The movement for women’s equality in the church cannot be stopped

As Catholic feminists and leaders of organizations committed to justice for women within our church as well as throughout society, we have followed Voices of Faith’s efforts to crack open the Vatican walls by sponsoring an annual forum about women inside one of the last remaining bastions of male domination in the western world. Since 2014, Voices…
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Francis After Five: a Feminist Review (New Date!)

The Women’s Ordination Conference and Dignity NY invite you to join women theologians, journalists, ministers, and activists in conversation as we survey Pope Francis’ progress on poverty, ecology, sexuality, racism, inclusion of women, and young adults — and his overall impact on 51% of the human population.   Our speakers include:  Anne Barrett Doyle, Bishop Accountability Teresa Cariño, St. Ignatius Parish NYC…
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BBC Radio Ulster: Kate McElwee on “Sunday Sequence”

With BBC Radio’s Audrey Carville, WOC executive director, Kate McElwee and Paula McKeown from Down & Conor Diocese discuss Mary McAleese’s address at Voices of Faith 2018 and the question: are women valued in the Catholic Church?  https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p060sfyc

Mary McAleese: The time is now for change in the Catholic Church

The time is now for change in the Catholic Church Mary McAleese, President of Ireland 1997-2011 8 March 2018 PDF Version Here The Israelites under Joshua’s command circled Jericho’s walls for seven days, blew trumpets and shouted to make the walls fall down. (cf. Joshua 6:1-20). We don’t have trumpets but we have voices, voices…
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Every Day is International Women’s Day

DignityUSA, Women’s Ordination Conference, and the Women’s Alliance for Theology, Ethics, and Ritual (WATER) sponsored a teleconference on March 9, 2018: “Every Day is International Women’s Day: A Discussion of Voices of Faith’s 2018 “Why Women Matter” event and the Work of Feminist Ministries.  You can listen to the audio of the discussion here. Remarks from…
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Women’s Ordination Advocates call for Progress, not ‘Process,’ on International Women’s Day

The exploitation of women in the Vatican and the Church must end. March 8, 2018 This International Women’s Day, Women’s Ordination Worldwide (WOW) joins the global community in the #PressForProgress for women’s equality by calling for an end to sexism and abuse within the Roman Catholic Church. The theme of International Women’s Day, “Press for…
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“Reasonably Catholic” Kate McElwee discusses Voices of Faith 2018

Rome-based Kate McElwee, executive director of the Women’s Ordination Conference, praises the previously deferential-to-cardinals organization Voices of Faith for taking its annual International Women’s Day conference outside the Vatican walls after three planned speakers were rejected from the program. One of them is former President of Ireland Mary McAleese, an outspoken proponent of women’s ordination and…
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