Founded in 1975,
the Women’s Ordination Conference is the oldest and largest organization working
to ordain women as deacons, priests, & bishops
into an inclusive and accountable
Roman Catholic Church.
A feminist voice for women in the Roman Catholic Church, WOC is a grassroots-driven movement that promotes activism, dialogue, and prayerful witness to call for women’s full equality in the Church.
Women in Future Priesthood Now –
A Call for Action
Mary B. Lynch was by some standards an unlikely progenitor of this event.
Mary is quiet, soft spoken, no claimer of the limelight.
But she is persistent.
She has her own vision.
And she asks questions. – Nadine Foley, O.P.
Did you know?
More than 1,200 people, including many religious sisters, participated in the first ordination conference, November 28-30, 1975. The conference was publicly endorsed by 49 religious congregations (men’s and women’s), organizations, and individuals.
Mary B. Lynch – WOC Founder
In March 1971, Mary B. Lynch applied to the Catholic Seminiary of Indianpolis, and with her acceptance letter, the academic dean wrote that she was the first woman to ask to follow the Master of Divinity program. Judy Heffernan, who attended the first ordination conference, was also accepted that year.
Recommended Reading
Incompatible with God’s Design: A History of the Women’s Ordination Movement in the U.S. Roman Catholic Churchby Mary Jeremy Daigler
Women and Catholic Priesthood: An Expanded Vision. Proceedings of the Detroit Ordination Conference,
edited by Anne Marie Gardiner, SSND
“It’s time to lay to rest the heresy that women cannot image Jesus in the priesthood.”
In 1978, WOC hosted a second conference, “New Women, New Church, New Priestly Ministry,” in Baltimore, Maryland, challenging Pope Paul VI’s 1976 encyclical, Inter Insignores: A Declaration Against the Ordination of Women, which stated that women could not image Jesus, and therefore, could not be priests, and calling for a renewed priesthood, deeper feminist theologies, and public witness.
LEARN MOREWOC & the Bishops
In response to the demonstration following the Baltimore Conference, the U.S. Bishops’ Committee on Women in the Church invited the women to meet that day. Bishop Dingman stood on the floor of the bishop’s meeting and called for dialogue with the Women’s Ordination Conference on the issue of women priests.
In 1979, the bishops met with WOC women and agreed to engage in dialogue on the issue. Rosemary Radford Reuther later described them as “a non-meeting of the minds.” Although the women at one point walked out and boycotted the meetings, the talks, nevertheless, resumed and continued for about three years. The impact of these real, live and priestly women on the bishops during these meetings is beyond measuring.
As a way of
nourishing one another & keeping the issue alive,
conferences were planned and held several times for many decades, including in 1985, 1988, 1995, and later with the international group, Women’s Ordination Worldwide in 2001, 2005, and 2015.
Pictured here is powerhouse mujerista theologian Ada Maria Isasi-Diaz in action as WOC’s membership coordinator in the Rochester office.
Sisters, Carry On…
PARTNERS
WOC collaborates with various organizations and coalitions working for a more just Church, including: the Catholic Women’s Council, Catholic Organizations for Renewal, and Women-Church Convergence.
WOMEN’S ORDINATION WORLDWIDE
WOC is a founding member of the global umbrella group, Women’s Ordination Worldwide (WOW). Founded in 1996, WOW is an ecumenical network of national and international groups whose primary mission at this time is the admission of Roman Catholic women to all ordained ministries.
Read moreRAPPORT
RAPPORT, an acronym for Renewing and Priestly People Ordination Reconsidered Today is a covenanted community of women called to renewed priesthood. Since 1987, the group has navigated relationships with members of the U.S. hierarchy and supported one another on the course.
Read more
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