Press Releases

October 28th, 2023

Women’s Ordination Conference responds to final document of Pope Francis’ October 2023 Synod on Synodality

For Immediate Release: October 28, 2023 Following the month-long 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops convened by Pope Francis at the Vatican, the Women’s Ordination Conference (WOC) expresses its support for the ways in which the need for the greater participation of women in the pastoral life and governance of the church…
Read more

October 5th, 2023

Campaigners mark the start of the Synod with women-led liturgy in Catholic Basilica and Demonstrating Outside the Vatican

For Immediate ReleaseRome, Italy [See this press release on the Women’s Ordination Worldwide website.] Today marks the beginning of an unprecedented four-week long Synod where bishops and lay people will discuss the formerly taboo issue of women’s ordination and the need for women’s full participation in the life of the church. For the first time…
Read more

June 20th, 2023

WOC Finds Hope in New Working Document of the Synod on Synodality

For Immediate Release: June 20, 2023 The Women’s Ordination Conference (WOC) finds hope in the Vatican’s document released June 20 that will guide discussions for the Synod of Bishops this October. Known as the Instrumentum Laboris, or working document, the text invites discernment on the urgent needs of the church today, including ways to recognize…
Read more

April 26th, 2023

WOC Celebrates Expanded Voting at Vatican Synod

For Immediate Release: April 26, 2023 Today, in a historic move, the Vatican’s synod office expanded participation in the Synod of Bishops, granting non-ordained lay persons—including women—the right to vote as full members of the body. In an April 26 press conference, Cardinal Mario Grech, secretary-general of the Synod, and Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, relator general…
Read more

December 31st, 2022

WOC reflects on the legacy of Pope Benedict XVI

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEDecember 31, 2022 Women’s Ordination Conference (WOC) joins Catholics worldwide to mourn the death of Pope Benedict XVI. His lifelong devotion to the Roman Catholic Church led him to offer a profound example of humility and willingness to overturn tradition by resigning from the papacy in 2013. However, as head of the Vatican’s doctrine…
Read more

November 28th, 2022

Women’s Ordination Conference Responds to Francis’ Interview in America Magazine

For Immediate Release: November 28, 2022 In an interview with America Magazine, Pope Francis upheld the Catholic church’s unequal treatment of women by exploiting misogynistic metaphors to dismiss the sincerely discerned vocations of women. When asked what he might say to a woman who serves her church and experiences a call to priesthood, Francis responded…
Read more

October 27th, 2022

WOC respond to the “Working Document for the Continental Stage”

For Immediate Release: 27 October 2022 The Women’s Ordination Conference is encouraged by the expansive “Working Document for the Continental Stage” released 27 October 2022 by the Vatican’s synod office, a text synthesizing national and local listening session reports that will serve as the basis for the next phase of Pope Francis’ now three-year synod…
Read more

October 4th, 2022

Catholic Women’s Council Synod Findings

October 3, 2022 For Immediate Release On 4 October 2022, an international delegation from the Catholic Women’s Council (CWC), a global umbrella network of more than 60 Catholic women’s organizations, will present their synodal synthesis to the Vatican’s synod office. From March through June 2022, CWC coordinated many sessions of discernment, discussion, and prayer with…
Read more

August 29th, 2022

Women’s Ordination Advocates Detained at Vatican

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEAugust 29, 2022 On August 29, as Pope Francis convened an extraordinary two-day meeting of the world’s cardinals, a delegation of Women’s Ordination Worldwide (WOW) processed towards the Vatican carrying red parasols with messages of inclusion and reform. Making their way toward the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, the women welcomed…
Read more

August 27th, 2022

Women’s Ordination Worldwide light up the Vatican

Campaigners shine a light on the Vatican’s exclusion of women ahead of historic meeting For Immediate release: 27 August 2022 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…
Read more