Campaigners shine a light on the Vatican’s exclusion of women ahead of historic meeting
On the eve of Pope Francis’ all-male consistory, Women’s Ordination Worldwide (WOW) shined a bright light on one of the greatest cons-in-history: the exclusion of women from ordained ministry. In a stealth operation on the night of Friday August 26, WOW assembled in the shadow of St. Peter’s to draw attention to those who were not invited to be present.
Following the creation of 20 new cardinals, Pope Francis has called an extraordinary consistory for the world’s cardinals to discuss his new Apostolic Constitution in a closed door session. The reforms significantly expand leadership roles once reserved for cardinals and bishops to laypeople, including women, who will ironically be left out of the meeting. Nevertheless, extraordinary women are making themselves present outside those doors.
On the morning of Monday, August 29, WOW will welcome the male cardinals with some delicate reminders that the world is watching and will see that an all-male consistory is a shameful display of discrimination.
The following quotes are from members of the WOW delegation in Rome:
“The ever-moving Holy Spirit is calling us to be a more just, inclusive, and transparent church. The church cannot fly with one wing, cannot “journey together” behind closed doors, and cannot model Jesus by excluding women. Jesus counted women as partners in ministry. We ask church leaders to do the same.” — Kate McElwee, Women’s Ordination Conference (USA)
“We are lighting the way to a renewed model of priesthood and servant leadership in a church where all are welcome and all are equal. We stand outside with and for all women who have no voice and no vote, yet represent more than half the church.” — Kathleen Gibbons Schuck, Roman Catholic Women Priests (International)
“Women, who constitute more than half the Catholic church and the world’s population, are barred from the sacramental life of and highest leadership roles in the church. We’re here to shed light on this injustice.” — Rhiannon Parry Thompson and Pat Brown, Catholic Women’s Ordination (UK)
“The church calls us to pray for more vocations to the priesthood, yet it chooses to ignore the vocations already here. The church wastes the gifts of women, who are called to sacramental ministries and ready to lead.” — Alicja Baranowska, WOW individual member (Poland)
“The Vatican’s cover-up of the history of women’s founding role and leadership in the early centuries of the church is a con that must be challenged. Expert theologians, including those inside the Vatican, have concluded there is no scriptural justification for the banishing of women; it is a choice and it can and must be changed.” — Miriam Duignan, Wijngaards Institute for Catholic Research (International)
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Media contacts:
Kate McElwee +1 607-725-1364 or +39 393 692 2100
Miriam Duignan: +44 7970 926910;
Women’s Ordination Worldwide (WOW): Founded in 1996, WOW is an international network of groups whose current mission is the inclusion of Roman Catholic women in all ordained ministries. WOW currently includes representatives from Australia, Bangladesh, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Great Britain, India, Ireland, Poland, South Africa, and the United States.
UPDATE: 29 August 2022
On a cloudless Monday morning, we gathered with Women’s Ordination Worldwide dressed in cardinal red, carrying red parasols intended to share messages of inclusion to the cardinals gathering at the Vatican for their extraordinary consistory. At a meeting of 197 church leaders that includes zero women, we seven women peacefully and creatively made our presence known outside.
As we began, we prayed that our voices might carry beyond the church’s closed doors and that our witness may challenge the conversations and consciences of our brother cardinals inside the Vatican.
We then opened our umbrellas, walking in a vivid line down the via della Conciliazione toward St. Peter’s Basilica. As we passed, a passerby watching exclaimed, “Cardinale!”
With each step your prayers, donations, and support were with us. We were not sure how far we would get before being stopped by one of many layers of security around the Vatican, but to our surprise, we made it right to the gates surrounding St. Peter’s Square. So we kept going.
Next we processed to the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, where we welcomed cardinals entering the consistory with our parasols, which read in part: “Sexism is a cardinal sin;” “Ordain women;” “Reform means women;” and “It’s reigning men.”
After greeting several prelates, the surrounding police apprehended and kettled our group into a makeshift holding area for more than an hour. Despite various promises of being let go, we were eventually escorted across the Piazza del San Pietro to the nearest police station. At the station we were held for an additional 3 hours in a stale hallway waiting for our paperwork to be processed. Our parasols were confiscated as evidence but there was a little joy as our “subversive messages” were carefully detailed one-by-one in the police report. Eventually, we were released “pending investigation,” just as the cardinals were drifting out of the Vatican for their various lunch dates.
Without a doubt, we put the SISTER back in consistory, and our presence and absence were deeply felt. Our “Ministry of Irritation” continues to threaten the patriarchal business-as-usual at the Vatican. We are grateful for our Women’s Ordination Worldwide partners and all those praying for us as we risked arrest to raise up the absolute injustice of the inequality of women in the Catholic church.
The Holy Spirit will not be detained!
Update Tuesday, 30 August 2022
We ruffled a few (cardinal) feathers yesterday...
While peacefully witnessing outside the Vatican with red parasols drawing attention to the absolute lack of women at a closed-door meeting of the world's cardinals, we were detained by police. Most of our demonstration was silent, except for when a cardinal passed by and one of us would say: "Remember the women who are outside."
First kettled into a makeshift holding pen between the colonnades for an hour, we were then escorted across St. Peter's Square (without our parasols, which had been confiscated as evidence) to the nearest police station.
At the station, our phones were apprehended (passports had long been in the hands of the officials), and we were told to wait in a hallway. We stood, guarded by several policemen, for three more hours as the officers located a public defender to be assigned to us (a necessity by Italian law). At one point an officer had to go out and get more paper to print all of the documents needed to capture our transgressions.
What each of us had to sign in the end is quite an intimidating document. It details a criminal law procedure and how it might escalate, pending an investigation. I had hoped I adequately prepared the group for the possibility of detainment, but this was beyond even my expectations.
Seven women praying with parasols occupied the resources of that police department for the better part of a working day. While it may sound harmless, our very presence is a threat to business-as-usual at the Vatican.