Open Letter To Each Newly Appointed Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church

From: Woman’s Ordination Worldwide

We are representatives of a network of organizations whose aim it is to see women and men sharing fully together in all ordained ministries within our Catholic Church. On their behalf we congratulate you on your elevation to the position of Cardinal. We respect and celebrate your service, past and present, to the Universal Church, and wish you a fruitful term of service in your new role.

We ask you to consider our distressing situation.  As your names were announced, His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI, stated that “the list of new cardinals reflects the universality of the Church, as they come from various parts of the world and carry out different tasks."  Sadly, we cannot share that view. We fail to see the universality of the Church reflected in a College of Cardinals which does not include the name of a single woman, as women constitute half the baptized members of the Church. Surely women and men together form the universality of the Church?

Without women among your number, you will struggle in the modern world to complete the task which the Holy Father has set before you “of assisting the Successor of the Apostle Peter in accomplishing his mission of perpetual and visible source and foundation of unity of the faith and communion in the Church”. Without women in formal roles of authority the Church is incomplete and damaged.

As advisor to the Holy Father, in your function as Cardinal, we hope and pray that you can and will work towards ending this invisibility of women at the highest levels of the church. We call upon the intercession of Mary, blessed Mother of God, to assist you in this task.

Yours in Christ,

Soirse Ben, BASIC - Ireland

Erin Saiz Hanna, Women's Ordination Conference - USA

Colette Joyce, New Wine - UK

Mary-Ann Schoettly, RCWP - USA