In the News

October 20th, 2021

Santa Fe New Mexican: New Mexico woman plans ordination to dismay of Catholic hierarchy

Anne Tropeano is set to be ordained Saturday as a Catholic priest, then automatically excommunicated from the Church. Tropeano, a 47-year-old grants manager with the United Way of Central New Mexico, insists she has been called by God to the priesthood. She said this week her planned act stems from frustration with the sexism of…
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September 21st, 2021

National Catholic Reporter: A ‘love letter of unanswered questions’ about women’s ordination

The ethnographic work Womanpriest: Tradition and Transgression in the Contemporary Roman Catholic Church by Jill Peterfeso is one of the most comprehensive studies of the Roman Catholic Womenpriests movement. The book thoughtfully wades through the “unfolding case study” of the Roman Catholic Womenpriests in the U.S. as the movement negotiates its relationship with Rome, Catholicism and priesthood as a…
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September 17th, 2021

National Catholic Reporter: As Francis visits Slovakia, international crowd celebrates Czech woman priest

Just hours after Pope Francis addressed Catholics in Slovakia, more than 420 Catholics from all over the world gathered in an online event to celebrate Ludmila Javorova, the first publicly known woman priest ordained in the modern era. In 1970, Bishop Felix Maria Davidek ordained her to serve the underground church in Czechoslovakia, where communist leaders were killing and…
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September 15th, 2021

The Tablet: Let women preach in the churches, synod told

The lay-led Root and Branch Synod, which is taking place online and in Bristol until Sunday 12 September, began last night with a panel discussion on feminism in the Church and clerical reform. “To suggest that God is incapable of ordaining women is inconsistent with our conception of an omniscient, omnipotent God,” said Kate McElwee,…
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June 21st, 2021

The New Yorker: The Women Who Want to Be Priests

A network of church-reform organizations around the world have been pushing for women’s ordination for decades, and in recent years they have become feistier. The Women’s Ordination Conference, which was founded in the mid-seventies, has been headed since 2017 by an energetic thirty-five-year-old American, Kate McElwee, who is based in Rome. She has organized protests…
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June 2nd, 2021

CNN Español: El papa Francisco revisa la ley de la Iglesia y actualiza las reglas sobre abuso sexual

(CNN Español) — El papa Francisco emitió el martes la revisión más extensa de la ley de la Iglesia católica en cuatro décadas, insistiendo en que los obispos tomen medidas contra los clérigos que abusan de menores y adultos vulnerables, que cometen fraude o intentan ordenar mujeres. … El código revisado advierte específicamente que tanto la…
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June 2nd, 2021

NPR: The Pope Is Toughening Church Laws On Sex Abuse, Fraud And The Ordination Of Women

ROME — Pope Francis on Tuesday issued a major revision of Catholic Church laws regulating clerical sex abuse, fraud and the attempt to ordain women. It is known as an apostolic constitution with the title, Pascite Gregem Dei, or “Tend the Flock.” … Penalties are established for attempting to ordain women as priests While the church…
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June 2nd, 2021

Reuters: Pope revises Church law, updates rules on sexual abuse

VATICAN CITY, June 1 (Reuters) – Pope Francis on Tuesday issued the most extensive revision to Catholic Church law in four decades, insisting that bishops take action against clerics who abuse minors and vulnerable adults, commit fraud or attempt to ordain women. …. The revised code specifically warns that both the person who attempts to…
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May 12th, 2021

AP: Pope creates lay ministry to boost supply of faith teachers

Pope Francis has formally created a new lay ministry to encourage greater participation of secular women and men in the teaching of the Catholic faith, especially in places where priests are in short supply. WOC’s statement on the change was quoted in this AP article by Nicole Winfield. Read the full article here. The Women’s…
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March 9th, 2021

The Tablet: Catholic Church ‘has no future’ without women

Women of faith celebrated International Women’s day on Monday with discussions on women’s future in the Catholic Church and by exploring if women have been written out of scripture. “We are talking about the survival of the Church,” said Joanna Moorhead, The Tablet’s Arts editor, who has written widely on the subject of women in the…
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