WOC Calls for Women’s Justice and Equality in the Catholic Church on World Day of Prayer

WASHINGTON, DC-Today, on the 15th annual World Day of Prayer for Women’s Ordination, Aisha S. Taylor, executive director of the Women’s Ordination Conference (WOC), issued the following statement regarding the need for women’s leadership in all levels of the Roman Catholic Church. Every year on March 25th, the feast of the Annunciation, WOC joins the global women’s ordination movement in celebrating this day of prayer.  The theme for this year is Break the Silence. Shatter the Stained-Glass Ceiling!  WOC members in twelve U.S. cities have planned public demonstrations and inclusive liturgies.
 
"The Vatican has intentionally created an atmosphere of fear and intimidation, and we are not afraid.  Today, I am speaking on behalf the 63 percent of U.S. Catholics, and millions of Catholics worldwide, who stand firm in the knowledge that God created women and men equally in God’s image and who support women’s full inclusion in the Roman Catholic Church, especially as priests, deacons, and bishops.  We urge the Vatican to listen to this message and respond by doing what is necessary to ordain women.

"Since 1975, WOC members have worked for women to be priests and for renewal of the priesthood.  We have denounced the sexism that keeps women banned from ordination, while at the same time, we work to change church structures that are secretive, exclusive and lack transparency.  Our aim is to restore the equality that Jesus and early church leaders modeled. For too long, only ordained, male, celibate clergy have dictated-or tried to dictate-how Catholics worship, pray and make decisions.  This must change.

"In 1976, the Pontifical Biblical Commission concluded that there is no valid scriptural reason for denying ordination to women. However, the Vatican ignored this finding and in 1994, Pope John Paul II officially forbade discussion of women’s ordination.  People have been fired from their jobs in Catholic institutions simply for discussing the issue. This is why we must break the silence.

"The Vatican says women are equal to, but different than, men.  This ‘different but equal’ policy results in terrible injustices against women in the church.  I have heard countless stories of women who feel called to ordination by God and their community.  Many of these women, after serving the church faithfully as pastoral administrators for years, have been fired by a new priest who has the unilateral power to do so.  This is where the rubber hits the road.  This is the reason why excluding women from the priesthood is a grave injustice: ordination is a requirement for most church governance positions, and only men can be ordained.  In other words, women are banned from most decision-making roles in the church simply because of our gender. We are treated as second class citizens in our own spiritual home.
 
"Over the past year, the penalties doled out to women, and the men who support them, demonstrate how sexism plays out in the church. Ruth Kolpack, a pastoral associate for over a decade at St. Thomas the Apostle Church Wis., was fired by her local bishop this month because she did not denounce her thesis on inclusive language. Earlier this month, the mother and doctors of a nine year old girl in Brazil were excommunicated by their local Bishop for deciding to go forward with an abortion for the eighty-pound girl, whose life was in danger after she was impregnated with twins by her stepfather. The Vatican supported the local bishop.  Last May, on the feast of Joan of Arc, the Vatican excommunicated over 60 Roman Catholic women priests for prophetically obeying their calls to ordination. Last June, the girls of a church in Madison, Wisconsin were told they could no longer be altar servers because of their gender. Roy Bourgeois, a Maryknoll priest, is currently facing excommunication for participating in a woman’s ordination and standing by his belief that sexism is a sin.

"While Pope Benedict XVI calls the world to a deeper commitment to women’s dignity, women suffer countless injustices from the hierarchy.  When it comes to the way women are treated within the church, the Vatican is only paying lip service to women’s equality.  The ban on women priests is the most consistent example of the hierarchy’s hypocrisy.  Today, we are breaking the silence on women’s ordination and sexism within the church in order to shatter the stained-glass ceiling. We urge Pope Benedict XVI to initiate a discussion on women’s ordination and to deepen his own commitment to true equality and dignity for women.  The best place to start is within the Roman Catholic church itself."

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