In the News

NPR religion correspondent Jason DeRose interviewed Executive Director Kate McElwee and others on the legacy of Sr. Theresa Kane for Weekend Edition. Listen to the story or read the transcript.

By Nicole Winfield The Vatican said Tuesday that its doctrine office will prepare a document on women in leadership roles in the Catholic Church, a new initiative to respond to longstanding demands by women to have a greater say in the church’s life. The document will be written by the Dicastery of the Doctrine of the Faith…
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By Heidi Schlumpf Alyssa Pedicino wrote her first letter to Pope Francis when she was 9. By that age, she had been an altar server for two years and already felt called to be a deacon, just like her dad. In her letter, Pedicino congratulated the pope on his new position and shared her frustration…
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By Emma Cieslik This past April, the Pew Research Center shared that 54 percent of U.S. Catholics believe the church should recognize the marriages of gay and lesbian couples. The data affirmed that 2024 was ripe for LGBTQ+ inclusion in the Catholic Church, but the timing—the report released just one week after the Vatican’s Dignitas Infinita document denouncing gender-affirming…
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Pope Francis twice said “no” to the possibility of ordaining women deacons in an interview with CBS’s “60 Minutes” that aired on Paramount Plus last night. Some advocates of women’s ordination both to the priesthood and to the diaconate have questioned whether the pope’s “no” on a topic that is still under study has undermined…
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This Religion News Service report features an interview with WOC Executive Director, Kate McElwee: “It’s a very sad day when a powerful man like a pope tells a young girl that they will never be equal in their own church and will never be able to follow their call from God.” Read the full interview…
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By Florence Gaillard In October 2023, for the first time in the history of the Catholic Church, women were allowed to participate in and vote at the Synod of Bishops, a religious gathering that had previously been reserved only for bishops. The landmark event came amid calls from feminists in many countries for the ordination…
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By Heidi Schlumpf As the delegates to the Synod on Synodality met in Rome for the first day of the month-long summit to determine the future of the Catholic Church, down the street several dozen women held a gathering of their own. Representing four continents and dressed in episcopal purple, the women unfurled a giant…
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By Katie Collins Scott On Oct. 3, 2018, as bishops and cardinals entered the Vatican to participate in the Synod of Bishops on young people, a group peacefully protested the fact that no women would be allowed to vote at the international gathering.  Standing outside the Palace of the Holy Office, near where the synod members…
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