In the News

October 3rd, 2023

News Nation: Women’s votes to loom large at upcoming Synod in the Catholic Church [VIDEO]

October 2nd, 2023

AP: Women’s voices and votes loom large as pope is set to open a Vatican meeting on church’s future

By Nicole Winfield and Trisha Thomas VATICAN CITY (AP) — A few years ago, Pope Francis told the head of the main Vatican-backed Catholic women’s organization to be “brave” in pushing for change for women in the Catholic Church. … …“I’m hopeful that there is room in that space for these bold conversations, courageous conversations,…
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September 13th, 2023

WOC’s Kate McElwee on CNN This Morning

WOC Executive Director, Kate McElwee appeared on CNN This Morning on Sunday, August 8th 2023 to discuss Pope Francis’ far-right critics and what makes them so nervous about the upcoming Synod on Synodality. Watch the interview:

July 14th, 2023

Washington Post: Ruth Fitzpatrick, who fought to ordain female priests, dies at 90

“We will not accept men telling women they can’t be priests because that’s the way God wants it,” Ms. Fitzpatrick once said. “She does not!” Ruth M. Fitzpatrick, a prominent and fierce advocate for the ordination of women as priests who called the Catholic Church “the last of the sexist institutions,” died June 15 at…
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July 14th, 2023

New York Times: Ruth Fitzpatrick, Crusader for Letting Women Be Priests, Dies at 90

Ruth Fitzpatrick, who felt she was called to the Roman Catholic priesthood beginning as a teenager and later helped lead a movement to press the church to stop barring women like her from being ordained, died on June 15 in Fairfax, Va. She was 90. The cause was cerebral arteriosclerosis, her son John Fitzpatrick said.…
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July 14th, 2023

NCR: The Vatican’s synod document is good. But how long must women wait?

Kate McElwee contributed this piece to the National Catholic Reporter on the Instrumentum Laboris for the upcoming Synod on Synodality. And while I will not discount the value and affirmation that comes from a Vatican process or document capturing the experiences of women with a semblance of depth, we simply must journey together beyond words.…
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July 12th, 2023

NCR: The Vatican’s synod document is good. But how long must women wait?

“And while I will not discount the value and affirmation that comes from a Vatican process or document capturing the experiences of women with a semblance of depth, we simply must journey together beyond words. If we are to take up the challenge of “missionary urgency” the synod must listen to and walk with those…
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June 21st, 2023

NCR: Church reformers hopeful about synod document mention of women’s ordination, LGBTQ inclusion

Church reform groups and theologians say they are finding hope in the new Vatican document setting the stage for the upcoming Synod of Bishops in October, even as many harbor reservations or skepticism about the possible outcomes of the synod itself. The document, released June 20, mentioned many topics previously considered taboo in similar high-level conversations,…
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May 30th, 2023

NPR Weekend Edition: Pope Francis says women can now vote on a Vatican panel that was exclusively male

Pope Francis says women will be allowed to vote on a Vatican panel that had been exclusively male. NPR’s Scott Simon asks Kate McElwee of the Women’s Ordination Conference about it.

April 27th, 2023

The Irish Times view on the pope’s decision to allow women to vote at the next synod: a crack in the stained glass ceiling (Editorial)

The latest move, however, represents a welcome, if long overdue, step in the right direction, a “significant crack in the stained glass ceiling,” as Kate McElwee director of the Women’s Ordination Conference put it.Read the full editorial here.