Our Alliances Have Educated Us For This Moment

WOC understands that getting women ordained is not only about justice for women; it is really a question of justice for all people in the church. A key piece in moving the question of an inclusive priesthood forward, a priesthood modeling the partnership of women and men in ministry, has been WOC’s participation in the coalition known as Catholic Organizations for Renewal (COR). There, WOC learned of other organizations such as CORPUS, Federation of Christian Ministries, Dignity, Celibacy Is the Issue, FutureChurch and others who were grappling with these questions of justice: justice for married priests and their families; justice for un-served and underserved Catholics; justice for those who wished to prepare for ministry, but were excluded from Catholic institutions. We shared our concerns, and our fears. The groups do not always agree, but they learned one another’s stories and often made common cause, particularly in the late 1990s, when Vatican retrenchment on all of our issues became so painfully obvious.

By coming to grips with our fears and our differences, we have come to see the larger picture. We have come to see that the ministry must mirror the People of God. It must be inclusive in order to be authentic.