Author: Kate McElwee

WOC is hiring: Development Associate

Job Description Position Title: Development Associate Reports to: Executive Director Organizational Description: Women’s Ordination Conference (WOC) is a feminist non-profit organization that advocates and prays for the ordination and the full equality of women in an inclusive and accountable Roman Catholic Church. Position Summary: WOC seeks a highly motivated and organized individual to support the…
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WOC reflects on the legacy of Pope Benedict XVI

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEDecember 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…
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America: ‘The call to priesthood comes from God, not from one’s body parts’: Reactions to Pope Francis’ comments on women’s ordination

Editors’ note: On Nov. 22, five representatives of America Media interviewed Pope Francis in his residence at Santa Marta at the Vatican. They discussed a range of issues, including polarization in the U.S. church, racism, the war in Ukraine and the Vatican’s relations with China. The pope’s comments on the ordination of women in particular…
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Women’s Ordination Conference Responds to Francis’ Interview in America Magazine

For Immediate Release: November 28, 2022 In an interview with America Magazine, Pope Francis upheld the Catholic church’s unequal treatment of women by exploiting misogynistic metaphors to dismiss the sincerely discerned vocations of women. When asked what he might say to a woman who serves her church and experiences a call to priesthood, Francis responded…
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The Vatican mentioned calls for women’s ordination. Here begins the revolution?

With the Vatican’s Oct. 27 release of the document to guide the next phase of Pope Francis’ innovative new process for the Synod of Bishops, the Catholic Church has shown it has the capacity to listen to its people. The 45-page synthesis of national and local listening sessions from countries around the world — known as the Working…
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WOC respond to the “Working Document for the Continental Stage”

For Immediate Release: 27 October 2022 The Women’s Ordination Conference is encouraged by the expansive “Working Document for the Continental Stage” released 27 October 2022 by the Vatican’s synod office, a text synthesizing national and local listening session reports that will serve as the basis for the next phase of Pope Francis’ now three-year synod…
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Catholic Women’s Council Synod Findings

October 3, 2022 For Immediate Release On 4 October 2022, an international delegation from the Catholic Women’s Council (CWC), a global umbrella network of more than 60 Catholic women’s organizations, will present their synodal synthesis to the Vatican’s synod office. From March through June 2022, CWC coordinated many sessions of discernment, discussion, and prayer with…
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Irish Independent: Irish protester among seven held after demonstration at Vatican calling for women’s inclusion in Church

Seven protesters, including one Irish woman, were detained by police in Rome over their protest at the Vatican calling for women’s inclusion at all levels of the Catholic Church. Miriam Duignan joined six other women in St Peter’s Square yesterday to draw attention to the lack of any female presence at a consistory – a…
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NCR: Women’s ordination advocates detained outside of Vatican meeting

ROME — As 197 Catholic cardinals, patriarchs and priests entered the Vatican on Aug. 29 for a closed-door, two-day meeting on the church’s governance, women’s ordination advocates gathered outside to protest the absence of women at the event — only to then be removed from the premises and later detained by Italian authorities. “We hoped…
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Women’s Ordination Advocates Detained at Vatican

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEAugust 29, 2022 On August 29, as Pope Francis convened an extraordinary two-day meeting of the world’s cardinals, a delegation of Women’s Ordination Worldwide (WOW) processed towards the Vatican carrying red parasols with messages of inclusion and reform. Making their way toward the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, the women welcomed…
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