Author: Kate McElwee

Leaders the Church can’t have

The Tablet (UK) named 50 “remarkable women” leaders of the Catholic church, including WOC executive director, Kate McElwee. Read the full article here. There is one tragedy that an increasing number of Catholics agree on – the Church’s failure to make full use of the enormous wealth of experience and the talents, expertise and special…
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WOC in NCR: Grant women’s ordination advocates the respect of encounter

Executive Director, Kate McElwee responds to the suggestion that the Women’s Ordination Conference might impose an “American activist agenda” onto the synodal process. A hopeless believer in dialogue, I regularly send messages to the Vatican and bishops to inform them of what the Women’s Ordination Conference is up to. These messages are almost always met…
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10 Reasons to Support WOC

We know that unjust practices and laws don’t reverse themselves. Change is not possible without an empowered grassroots movement. As we prepare to count down to a new year, we need your help to keep the movement for women’s equality strong, visible, and vocal.  While the journey is long, we are determined to work uncompromisingly and unwaveringly for…
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Giving Together, To get her Ordained

As a small organization with a big mission, when you give to the Women’s Ordination Conference, your donation will have an outsized impact on our efforts and will be put to work right away to advance women’s ordination and gender justice in the Roman Catholic Church. Thank you for the support you can give to…
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Vocation Awareness Week 2021

This week is what the U.S. Bishops call “National Vocation Awareness Week,” and we’re here to help. While we at the Women’s Ordination Conference are plenty aware of the vibrant and valid vocations of women and non-binary people in the Catholic Church, many of our brothers in Christ have yet to embrace the Good News.…
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Chicago Sun Times: Marion Flynn, corporate banker with passion for community service, dies at 69; staunch advocate for women in Catholic priesthood

We remember WOC board member Marion Flynn for her generosity of Spirit, her big heart, and her unwavering support of the Women’s Ordination Conference. Read her obituary here.

NCR: Future womanpriest ‘Father Anne’ blames God for leading her towards ordination

When asked why she has chosen to be ordained as a Roman Catholic priest — thus breaking the Catholic Church’s ban on the ordination of women and crossing the threshold of formal excommunication — Anne Tropeano’s response is simple. “God is asking me to do this,” she says. “God is calling me to be ordained…
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Santa Fe New Mexican: New Mexico woman plans ordination to dismay of Catholic hierarchy

Anne Tropeano is set to be ordained Saturday as a Catholic priest, then automatically excommunicated from the Church. Tropeano, a 47-year-old grants manager with the United Way of Central New Mexico, insists she has been called by God to the priesthood. She said this week her planned act stems from frustration with the sexism of…
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Let Her Voice Carry

Beginning in mid-October 2021, the global Catholic Church begins what is arguably its most important initiative since Vatican II — the Synod on Synodality.   This two year process will explore what it means to “journey together” as the People of God in a local and global Church. Pope Francis is inviting us to what he…
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Becoming Fr. Anne: A Festival of #JoyfulResistance

Anne Tropeano, known as Father Anne, was joyfully ordained to the Roman Catholic priesthood in Albuquerque, NM on Saturday, October 16, 2021 at the Cathedral of St. John. She is defying the Vatican and breaking canon law, which automatically excommunicates women who attempt ordination.  Anne Tropeano holds a Master of Divinity from the Jesuit School…
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