In the News

As white smoke over the Sistine Chapel captured the world’s attention, smoke of another hue at the Vatican has gone largely unnoticed. According to Reuters, protestors in Rome set off pink smoke on a hill above the Vatican on Tuesday, as they called for the ordination of female priests and a more prominent role for…
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Even as pope-watchers spotted the first puffs of white smoke coming from the Vatican chimney and announcing a successor to Pope Benedict XVI, a few other Catholics were setting off their own fireworks. The Women’s Ordination Conference renewed its calls to expand the role of females in the church, in particular allowing them to become priests, and sent…
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While the world waited for white smoke to flow from the Sistine Chapel chimney to indicate a new pope had been chosen, smoke of a different color began billowing into the sky over the Vatican. It was released by protesters demanding a greater role for women in the Catholic Church. [includes rush transcript] On Wednesday, Democracy…
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EuroNews: The smoke billowing into the Rome sky was neither white, nor black, but pink – to back the argument in favour of women being able to be ordained as priests in the Catholic Church. A group of several Catholic women – from Britain, America and Australia – gathered in Rome to protest against the…
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….   Benedict also gets poor grades from liberal Catholics who felt abandoned by a pope who seemed to roll back the clock on the modernizing reforms of Vatican II and launched a crackdown on Vatican nuns, deemed to have strayed too far from his doctrinal orthodoxy. Some priests are now living in open rebellion…
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NEWARK — For those hoping to change the role of women in the Catholic Church, Pope Benedict XVI’s tenure did not inspire much hope. During his eight years as pope, the Vatican reaffirmed the church’s ban on women priests and publicly rebuked American nuns for promoting "radical feminist" causes. But with a new pope comes…
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Executive Director of the Women’s Ordination Conference, Erin Saiz Hanna, discusses the resignation of Pope Benedict with host Barbara Serra. Watch here

(Reuters) – Supporters of liberal reform in the Catholic Church said on Monday they hoped Pope Benedict’s successor would give a greater voice to women and reconsider rules on priestly celibacy, women priests and same-sex couples. Benedict, who, like his predecessor John Paul, firmly opposed the ordination of women priests and described gay marriage as…
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[VATICAN CREST OF ARMS]   CONGREGATION FOR THE DOCTRINE OF THE FAITH (Dismissal from clerical state and dispensation from clerical duties) Protocol Number 270/2008   The Catholic Foreign Mission Society of America Reverend Roy L. Bourgeois The Supreme Pontiff, Pope Benedict 16th   after having heard the relation of this Congregation about the reproachful behavior1…
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By: Antoinette Kelly Song pleads: ‘Hey, I was baptized, and this is crazy, But God just called me, so ordain a lady’ One of the oldest women’s Catholic organizations in the world has released a music video in their latest effort to persuade the Vatican to ordain women. Women’s Ordination Conference, which claims to be…
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