FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 3, 2008

Contact: Erin Saiz Hanna, 202 675-1006, woc@womensordination.org

Women's Ordination Conference Decries Ban on Altar Girls in Wisconsin Diocese

WASHINGTON, DC – July 3, 2008 – On Tuesday, June 24, Rev. John Del Priore of St. Barnabas Parish in Mazomanie, Wisc. declared that he will no longer allow girls to serve at liturgy.  Rev. Del Priore was assigned to the parish on June 1, 2008. In response, Women’s Ordination Conference has requested that Bishop Robert C. Morlino, of the Madison diocese, overturn Rev. Del Priore’s decision and reinstate female altar servers in that parish. Women's Ordination Conference members have made dozens of calls to the church, asking to speak to Rev. John and expressing their serious concerns about this decision.

“With this policy, Rev. John brings the Madison diocese into the infamously sexist ranks of only one other diocese in the country that bans young women and girls from faithfully serving their church in this capacity,” said Aisha Taylor, executive director of the Women’s Ordination Conference. “Around the country, young women have been lawfully serving at the altar for well over a decade.”

Since 1994, the Vatican and the U.S. Bishops have allowed female altar servers. There is no restriction in Canon Law for women to help at the altar during the liturgy.

“Rev. John has told our members that he banned female altar servers because he wants only boys to prepare to be priests in this way. This is not only untenable, it is impractical. Women comprise at least 80 per cent of church lay ministers, and they are backbone of most parishes around the world,” continued Taylor. “If young women in the Madison diocese want to grow up to work for the Church – or even aspire to the priesthood – I, and the vast majority of U.S. Catholics, don’t see the harm in that.

“The Vatican’s stance on the ordination of women is based on arguments that have been refuted time and again.  In 1976, the Vatican’s own Pontifical Biblical Commission determined that there is no scriptural reason to prohibit women’s ordination.  Jesus included women as full and equal partners in his ministry, and the hierarchy would do well to follow suit,” Taylor concluded.

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Founded in 1975, the Women’s Ordination Conference is the oldest and largest national organization that works to ordain women as priests, deacons and bishops into an inclusive and accountable Catholic church. WOC represents the 63-70 percent of US Catholics that support women’s ordination. WOC also promotes new perspectives on ordination that call for more accountability and less separation between the clergy and laity.