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“Vocations Sunday” is an annual day of action for the Women’s Ordination Conference. When the institutional church prays for vocations on Good Shepherd Sunday each spring, we make visible the many vocations turned away on the basis of gender. This year our message is Be Not Afraid. This is a call to the hierarchy to…
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A Catholic woman who flew from the United States for the installation of the first female Archbishop of Canterbury has voiced her hope that the Vatican is “paying attention” to the historic occasion. Jane Varner Malhotra, 57, from Washington DC, held a sign reading “Catholics, let’s do this” outside Canterbury Cathedral in Kent on Wednesday, ahead of Dame…
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Catholic Women’s Ordination and Women’s Ordination Worldwide offer ‘warmest congratulations’ to Dame Sarah Mullally ahead of installation tomorrow. Campaigners for women priests and deacons in the Catholic Church extended their “warmest congratulations” to Dame Sarah Mullally as she prepares to be formally installed as the 106th Archbishop of Canterbury at Canterbury Cathedral tomorrow. “We are…
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Carol Crowley was a twenty-one-year-old student at Michigan State University when a parish staff member invited her to a Thanksgiving-weekend conference in Detroit on women and Catholic priesthood. Crowley had already discerned, with the help of priests at the student parish, that she was called to ordination, so when women with a calling were asked…
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For Immediate Release (23 March 2026) The Women’s Ordination Conference celebrates the historic installation of Sarah Mullally as Archbishop of Canterbury, the first woman to hold this role in its 1,400-year history. We honor the countless courageous advocates within the Anglican Communion whose faith and persistence helped open hearts and doors to women’s ordination. Their…
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By Aili Winstanley Channer A study group established during the Synod on Synodality denounced “machismo clericalism” and said that “much remains to be done” to enable women to embrace their vocations, both within and beyond formal ministries and institutional positions. … …The Women’s Ordination Conference said: “The authors of this report are frustratingly close to,…
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In a frank assessment of the complex role of women in the Catholic Church and its leadership, a Vatican study group called for broader access to positions of authority for Catholic women worldwide and for the church to confront what it described as persistent patterns of clericalism and “machismo.” … In a statement reacting to…
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For Immediate Release: March 10, 2026 Today, the Vatican released its “Final Report” on the multi‑year study “The Participation of Women in the Life and Leadership of the Church,” an extension of Pope Francis’ Synod on Synodality inviting all Catholics to discern the needs of the church today. The work of “Study Group 5” reveals…
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Continuing the all-male tradition, on Thursday, Dec. 4, the Vatican’s papal commission voted against permitting women to serve as deacons in the Roman Catholic Church. Though not the highest in the clergy food chain, deacons are ordained ministers permitted to administer the sacraments of matrimony, baptism and engage in other roles; they do not celebrate…
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Pope Leo XIV arrives at the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit (St. Esprit Cathedral) in Istanbul for a meeting with bishops, priests, deacons, consecrated men and women, and pastoral workers on Nov. 28. A commission appointed by his predecessor, Francis, on Dec. 4 ruled out admitting women to the Diaconate. (Photo: AFP) Pope Francis formed two…
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The latest decision on women deacons won’t help stop the exodus of young women from the Church … Others were not so positive. The Women’s Ordination Conference was “appalled by the Vatican’s refusal to open its doors to women, even a crack,” it said in a statement. “Make no mistake: this is a decision that will…
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VATICAN CITY — A Vatican commission is yet to take a firm decision on whether women could become deacons, but the answer for now remains no, according to a document made public on Thursday. The late pope Francis set up the commission under Cardinal Giuseppe Petrocchi in 2020 to look into the issue amid a…
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The U.S.-based Women’s Ordination Conference (WOC), which supports ordination of women as deacons and priests, said it is “appalled by the Vatican’s refusal to open its doors to women, even a crack.” “Make no mistake: This is a decision that will harm the global Church,” WOC said in a statement. “Few will have the patience to excavate hope…
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A high-level Vatican commission voted against allowing Catholic women to serve as deacons, maintaining the global Church’s practice of all-male clergy, according to a report given to Pope Leo and released on Thursday. Read the article with a quote from WOC here

Perhaps someday, the Catholic Church will allow women to serve as deacons. But that time, a Vatican commission has decided, is not now. The Vatican’s decision was excoriated by the Women’s Ordination Conference, a national group that has long advocated for women’s ordination in the Church. “The Women’s Ordination Conference is appalled by the Vatican’s refusal to open…
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