Press Releases

March 8th, 2016

WOC Joins Global Interfaith Feminists Call for End of Gender Discrimination on International Women’s Day 2016

  For Immediate Release:  March 8, 2016 Contact:  Erin Saiz Hanna 401-588-0457 Kate McElwee 607-725-1364 Washington, DC: Today, on International Women’s Day, the Women’s Ordination Conference (WOC), a U.S. based organization working for the ordination of women in the Roman Catholic Church, launched an interfaith campaign calling out gender injustice and sexism in faith traditions.…
Read more

January 21st, 2016

Statement on Vatican Decree Opening Holy Thursday Foot Washing to Women and Girls

For immediate release January 21, 2016 Contact: Erin Saiz Hanna 401-588-0457 ehanna@womensordination.org Kate McElwee 607-725-1364 kmcelwee@womensordination.org The Women’s Ordination Conference (WOC) celebrates Pope Francis’ decree to change the Roman Missal, opening Holy Thursday foot washings to women and girls. While the foot washing of women and girls has taken place in parishes and communities for…
Read more

November 12th, 2015

Women’s Ordination Advocates Support Irish Priests’ Statement on Women: Call for Greater Moral Courage of Catholic Hierarchy to Join Grassroots

For Immediate Release November 12, 2015 Contact: Pat Brown: UK: +44(0)7950048628 pat@patbrown-at.co.uk Miriam Duignan: UK (+44) 7970 926910 m_duignan@hotmail.com Erin Saiz Hanna: USA (+1) 401-588-0457 ehanna@womensordination.org Kate McElwee: Italy (+39) 393-692-2100 kmcelwee@womensordination.org   Women’s Ordination Worldwide (WOW) extends our deepest gratitude to the twelve Irish priests who publicly signed their names to a statement calling…
Read more

October 6th, 2015

Response On Women Deacons Discussed at Vatican Synod

Contact: Miriam Duignan: UK (+44) 7970 926910 m_duignan@hotmail.com Kate McElwee: Italy (+39) 393-692-2100 kmcelwee@womensordination.org Erin Saiz Hanna: USA (+1) 401-588-0457 ehanna@womensordination.org For Immediate Release 6 October 2015   Response On Women Deacons Discussed at Vatican Synod Rome, Italy:  Recent statements made by Canadian Archbishop Paul-Andre Durocher of Gatineau, Quebec during the Vatican’s Synod on the…
Read more

September 28th, 2015

Pope Francis on women priests: “That cannot be done.”

For Immediate Release September 28, 2015 Contact:  Erin Saiz Hanna 401.588.0457 Kate McElwee 607.725.1364 On the papal plane from Philadelphia to Rome, Pope Francis was asked: “Will we one day see women priests in the Catholic church as some groups in the U.S. ask, and some other Christian churches have?” “On women priests, that cannot…
Read more

September 23rd, 2015

Fr. Jack McClure removed from ministry for speaking at Women’s Ordination Worldwide Conference

Contact:  Miriam Duignan, Women’s Ordination Worldwide 510-984-8678 As Pope Francis arrives in the United States, a parish priest is banned from ministry for following his conscience. On Saturday, September 20, Fr. Jack McClure shared his support for women’s ordination during a panel held in Philadelphia, PA at the Women’s Ordination Worldwideconference. Precious Blood Fr. McClure…
Read more

August 25th, 2015

WOC, RCWP respond to attack on woman priest

For Immediate Release Jennifer O’Malley,  RCWP-USA Board President (310) 408-9122 Erin Saiz Hanna, WOC Co-Director (401) 588-0457 Roman Catholic Womenpriests (RCWP) and Women’s Ordination Conference (WOC) are deeply saddened by the violent attack that Alexandra Dyer, a Roman Catholic Womanpriest in New York City, experienced when leaving work on Wednesday evening.  As she was getting in her car,…
Read more

August 4th, 2015

Sr. Joan Chittister and Martin Sheen endorse WOW 2015

“The reason some questions cannot be suppressed, do not go away–regardless how many people think they should–is because the human heart knows they must be asked or have yet to be clearly answered.  When that question concerns the quality of the discipleship of half the Catholics in the world, it cries out for attention. And will continue to…
Read more

June 18th, 2015

WOC responds to Pope’s Encyclical

For Immediate Release Contact: WOC Co-Executive Directors Erin Saiz Hanna, (USA) +1 401.588.0457 Kate McElwee, (Italy) +39 393.692.2100 The Women’s Ordination Conference applauds Pope Francis for awakening global consciousness about the exploitation and suffering of our natural and spiritual world in his encyclical Laudato Si’. Integral ecology has long been the study of feminist theologians.…
Read more

May 12th, 2015

International Catholic Leaders Call on Pope to Revamp Parish Structure and Management

For Immediate Release: May 12, 2015 Francis DeBernardo, New Ways Ministry, 240-432-2489 Sister Jeannine Gramick, SL, National Coalition of American Nuns, 301-864-3604 Kate McElwee, Women’s Ordination Conference, 202-675-1006 Deborah Rose-Milavec, FutureChurch, 216-228-0869 International Catholic Leaders Call on Pope to Revamp Parish Structure and Management Representatives from 22 international Catholic groups working for a more just…
Read more