While priesthood for women may appear an impossibility in the Roman Catholic Church, it isn’t. A pathway to its realization has arisen through the Synod on Synodality, but only if the process were to be honestly implemented. Unfortunately, Pope Francis—who typically practices remarkable inner freedom—has repeatedly violated his own synodal process and values to obstruct the synodal process when it comes to the role of women in the Church. Barriers to a free discernment include scrubbing the topic of priesthood for women from agendas and documents, excluding priesthood from the Vatican-commissioned study on the role of women, and ultimately removing the diaconate for women off the table. 

How can Pope Francis get away with this? There is one reason: the silence of bishops.

The Pope is often mistaken as a king, but he is best understood as the head pastor of the Church. While power has been increasingly concentrated in the papacy over the last millennium, it has limits. We saw this in real time when some bishops rejected the Pope’s teaching on same-sex blessings. They simply stood up and said, “No.” I use this example in no way to support anti-LGBTQ sentiments, but to show how power functions in the magisterium when bishops claim their collective power.

At this moment in history, there are bishops from all parts of the world who know wholeheartedly that the exclusion of women from all ordained ministries is immoral. Further, they know this at the level of conscience, which—according to Catholic doctrine—means they are required to come forward. In other words, it is not a choice; it is a moral duty. What if instead of silence they urgently embraced their moral obligation and spoke out as one body on behalf of women?

While this transparency of bishops is critical to the proper functioning of the Church, frankly, they might considering coming forward for their own sanity. While some bishops are criminal, many are faithful, humble men who get up day after day to carry the cross of an impossible job through an especially difficult time. They are good people paying for the sins of their forefathers at great cost to themselves. At this point, how much of a bishop’s daily job—especially in the West—consists of navigating lawsuits and bankruptcies, deciding which parishes to close and cluster, navigating complaints from the Catholics devastated by these decisions, all the while witnessing their male priests be crushed by ungodly workloads because of a “shortage” of vocations. Things are not good, and the bishops are on the frontlines, doing their best to pick up the pieces. 

At the very same time, however, today’s bishops are becoming culpable for the sexual violence that is continuing at the hands of the Church other parts of the world. They are the ones in the driver’s seat now, and the fundamental thing that must occur above all else to create safe environments for women and children is the full participation of women at every level of Church life—and this includes ordination to priesthood.  If the supportive bishops fail to speak up forcefully on behalf of women during this opening of the Synod, the sexual violence that continues across the globe will be on their hands. I would think that Archbishop Gomez, Archbishop Wester, Archbishop Aymond, Bishop Soto and the many the other bishops who have had to navigate this nightmare would take this to heart.      
 All this is to say that the bishops all around the world--and especially those in the Synod hall right now in Rome--who support ordaining women as priests face a decision: they will either band together to hold Pope Francis accountable to a free and fair study on the role of women in the Church that unfolds with transparency and without prejudice, or they will go along with the wrongdoing. They have two more days to decide.
 
In a spirit of great hope and deep respect, I implore my brothers in Christ: God gave you balls, so use them--speak up for women before it is too late.

The bedrock value of synodality is the inner freedom to give God the freedom to move as God desires. Giving God this freedom requires the removal of the barriers that stand in the way of the Spirit. Unfortunately, when it comes to the topic of the ordination of women, especially as priests, Pope Francis continues to erect barriers instead of remove them. Let us trace the topic of holy orders for women through the Synod process, which began in October 2021. 

• Calls for women in preaching, women in governance and women in the diaconate surfaced from around the world. Calls for ordination of women as priests also surfaced, though not universal. (paragraph #64)
  
  
• Under the Pope's direction, the process immediately narrowed the acceptable topics for conversation down to the diaconate. Priesthood for women was notably absent from Instrumentum Laboris, the document used to prepare delegates for the October 2023 assembly.
  
  
• Though eliminated from the preparatory document, delegates have explained that priesthood for women came up on the Synod floor during the October 2023 assembly. However, it was scrubbed from the final synthesis report.  
  
  
• In March 2024, Francis created ten working groups to study the significant issues that arose early in the Synod, appointing Working Group 5 to investigate the role of women in the Church. However, he intentionally excluded priesthood from the scope of its work. 
  
  
• Nine of these ten working groups are made up of a group of appointed experts, however, the study on women is being treated differently. It has been assigned to the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, best known for its formidable enforcement of doctrine. The reason given for this different treatment is that before the Synod was conceived, Pope Francis tasked the DDF to study the role of women in the Church. Rather than have two separate studies, the Pope asked the DDF to take on the work of Working Group 5. 
  
  
• While the names of those participating on the nine other working groups were released, there has been no transparency regarding who is participating on the DDF's Working Group 5.  This  changed on Thursday, October 24 after delegate outcry (see below). 
  
  
• Before the October assembly, Pope Francis violated the process of prayerful listening and freedom to be led by the Spirit by going onto 60 Minutes and answering "no" to the question of ordaining women as deacons.  
  
  
• On day one of the October 2024 assembly, Cardinal Fernandez of the DDF announced that no serious consideration would be given to ordaining women as deacons though this issue arose consistently at all levels of the Church throughout the three year process. He has repeatedly doubled down on this position, likely at the request of the Pope.
  
  
• Nevertheless, while priesthood for women continued to be taken off of agendas and scrubbed from synod documents, the topic of priesthood for women came up multiple times on the Synod floor during  the October 2024 assembly.
  
  
• After synod delegates voted to have input in the work of the working groups, Cardinal Fernandez did not show up to the October 18th meeting with delegates, which caused outrage at his absence. It turned out he tasked the priest Fr. Amando Matteo who is leading the study to attend, but he had a medical appointment and did not communicate that he would be absent. No arrangements were made for other members of the DDF's Working Group 5 attended the meeting, only junior staff with no authority to answer questions. While it is clear this debacle was not malicious in intent, it clearly reveals the deep lack of awareness regarding the significance of the issue and the respect it demands at this historic moment. 
  
  
• Under pressure from the fallout of the mishandling of the October 18th meeting, Cardinal Fernandez agreed to release the names of the working group and, probably with the Pope's support, restart the 2020 Commission on the study of the diaconate for women. Priesthood is still being left out of the study on women.

While it is the synod process began in good faith, it has become clear that the Pope lacks interior freedom on the issue of the ordination of women, whether as deacons or priests. This lack of freedom leads to decisions over discernment--the erecting of obstacles to the work of the Spirit by determining the outcome before a proper discernment can be made.  If the Pope and those in charge of the Synod honored the integrity of the process, every issue related to women in the Church would be included without prejudice in the study, giving God the opportunity to lead the Church where God desires us to go. 

Excited to see the excellent article written by Jeannine Pitas on #GodSaysNow movement! Read it here and please share it with your networks.


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​Dear Cardinal Hollerich,

Thank you for the constant care and concern you show for the People of God as we journey together through the historic Synod on Synodality. You have been boldly supportive of women, even using  the media at times to offer new ways to consider the topic of women's ordination. There are not many cardinals or bishops who take on this work, and I want you to know that I and many others sincerely appreciate you for it.

This being said, I was surprised at your recent interview with Crux and want to take you up on your offer to dialogue. You used the term “lobbying” to describe the movement's work of calling for the ordination of women. I have been trained by Jesuits and am quite competent in discernment, and I understand and support the methodology of conversation in the Spirit that Pope Francis has instituted in the Synod. While I respect your warning to the movement not to push for a particular outcome in the process, I want to offer you another way to understand the dynamics at play when it comes to this issue.

First, I refute the label of “lobbying” to describe the specific effort the movement is undertaking to hold the Church accountable to the very values and process that Pope Francis has laid out for the Synod. The Synod is supposed to be rooted in values of prayerful dialogue, the willingness to encounter reality in the other, humility to be truly open to the Spirit, and the prioritizing of voices on the margins. Yet, these values have not been fully embraced when it comes to the topic of women in the Church. For example, calls for the ordination of women as priests came from all around the world early in the Synod as noted in Enlarge the Space of Your Tent (paragraph 64), yet this topic was notably absent from the detailed worksheets in Instrumentum Laboris that were used to prepare delegates for the Synod assembly in October 2023. In addition, my understanding is that the topic of priesthood for women still arose and was debated at those meetings, yet again the topic was omitted from the synthesis report released after the assembly.

In addition to removing the topic of priesthood for women from synodal documents and meeting agendas, Pope Francis recently created a working group to study the role of women in the Church; however, he excluded priesthood from the scope of its work. He subsequently assigned the study to the Dicastery of the Doctrine of the Faith, but there are no details about who will carry out the study and what the study will actually entail. While I understand Pope Francis' impetus to focus only on "issues of convergence," it seems to me the point of these study groups is to delve fully into their complex topics. How can the DDF do its work with integrity if it is cutting out a central issue to its subject of study? Practically speaking, there is no difference between issues of convergence versus those of divergence: God's Spirit is present in both, and the point of discernment is to honestly discover the invitation from God. There is no greater issue of significance for the Church than the ordination of women as priests.     

The omission of priesthood from documents, meeting agendas, and the upcoming study on the role of women point to the stark reality that the institutional Church is attempting to pre-determine the outcome of the discernment before it even takes place. As you well know, this is a deathblow to a valid discernment. The bedrock value of the Synod is having the freedom to allow God the ability to move as God desires, but when it comes to the role of women in the Church, instead of removing the barriers to God’s communication, the Church keeps putting them up. The movement for women's ordination responds by pointing out these violations and calling the Church to greater integrity, honesty and transparency in the very process that it has set up. When this work of accountability is labeled as “lobbying,” not only does it insult our intelligence, it poisons the Church against us, insinuating we have a nefarious desire to sabotage the Synod process when we are doing exactly the opposite--calling for a proper discernment that is fully inline with Synodal values. Put bluntly, y'all set up the process, so y'all need to use it--and allow it to take its course. 

But there is more. There are, indeed, many times when the movement calls for a specific outcome—like when I asked you to go on record in the media in favor of including priesthood in the upcoming study on the role of women in the Church as a matter of synodal integrity. But to label this work “lobbying” is to participate what is called structural projection. Structural projection occurs when institutions ascribe to individuals behaviors or outcomes that are actually caused by the failures or prejudices of the institution. Such projection shifts the blame for those behaviors and outcomes on individuals while absolving the institution from its role in creating the situation in the first place. In this case, structural projection is labeling spirit-filled advocacy for a deeply oppressed group in the Church as “lobbying” instead of asking the question, why do people feel the need to “lobby” on this issue to begin with?

I fully agree with your assessment that the ordination of women is a difficult issue, but the reason why it is difficult is because the institutional Church makes it so. The Church makes it difficult by, for example, going on 60 Minutes and declaring women cannot be ordained as deacons regardless of the fact that the Church is up to its eyeballs in a process that is supposed to be rooted in interior freedom and listening; by harshly punishing priests and theologians who have spoken out on behalf of justice for women as a matter of conscience; by publishing an apostolic letter that says the issue is closed when it was clearly open even back then (otherwise there was no need to publish the letter!); by later proclaiming this same letter as infallible, which it clearly is not; by stacking the deck with men who must promise to uphold the doctrine of a male-only priesthood if they want to advance in their career as bishop; and by refusing to admit that even with the episcopal deck stacked in this way, the bishops still are not in communion on this issue—and have not been for decades—which means the teaching cannot be definitively held.

I ask you with all sincerity and respect, Cardinal Hollerich, who in this situation is doing the real “lobbying?”

There is still more. The most pernicious way the Church makes the issue of women’s ordination difficult is by pretending that the Church already has all the answers, that it doesn’t change with time, and that it can never be wrong. Such a posture of certainty produces poorly formed Catholics who are unable to accept the growth in the Spirit that naturally occurs when we authentically engage in a love relationship with a teaching God who constantly calls us to deeper understanding of what it means to be human. In other words, we have to ask: how would this situation be different if the Church simply stopped clinging and just admitted that sometimes it is wrong?

The institutional Church behaves as if admitting this truth undermines its credibility when the polar opposite is true. People are not fooled by a narrative that proclaims the Church is always right—especially now, after teaching for 1900 years that slavery was not against God’s desires, even itself forcing black people into bondage; after tearing indigenous children away from their families and forcing them into boarding schools with a mission to obliterate their culture and identity; after centuries of truly appalling antisemitism; after thousands of children have been sexually abused by male priests sick with pedophilia, who were then hidden and protected by male bishops. Can we just get over ourselves, please? Church doctrine is not always right. In fact, many times it has been dead(ly) wrong, and this is a simple fact.

While it is easy to admonish us for "lobbying," the truth of the matter is that the institutional Church has created the situation where those calling for the full participation of women must advocate to be heard. There is no more long-standing, entrenched, maligned issue in the Church than the ordination of women as priests, and there is no more silenced group than the women themselves who are called by God to serve as priests. To this day, Pope Francis has not had an audience with us, nor has the Synod taken seriously our voices. Instead, the institutional Church continues to erase us, pretending we do not exist.

All this is to say, Cardinal Hollerich, that #TimesUp. The Church has finally reached the moment where it must, as Pope Francis says, deal with reality rather than “sacrifice it on the altar of the idea.” If the Church fails to confront the God's honest truth that the topic of priesthood for women is open for discernment--and therefore must be studied--it will be 100 years or more before another opportunity for true engagement on this issue arises. By that time, women everywhere in the world will be long gone, and they will have taken their families with them. If this happens, history will look back on this moment and ask, how could this treatment of women have been allowed to go on? My prayer is that you never have to answer this question.

Sincerely, 
​Father Anne +

Recently 60 Minutes aired an interview with Pope Francis where he offered a succinct “no” to ordaining women as deacons. As expected, the internet went wild with hot disappointment on one side and giddy elation on the other. While each set of responses is understandable, there is something much deeper at work.

While Francis’ “no” appears on the surface to settle this issue, it doesn’t. What it does do is reveal quite plainly that this doctrine has been and continues to be open for discernment. This latest “no” is best seen as one more utterance in a long line of contradictory statements from all corners of the Church. Francis himself grapples. One minute, he is establishing commissions to study a female diaconate, another minute he is noodling the question in an interview, and the next minute he is saying “no” (to ordination specifically, not to women serving in some “deaconess” role where they are not ordained). Layer on top of this his assertion that the ordination of women as priests can be a “subject of study” and his decision to meet with female Anglican bishop Jo Bailey Wells to learn more. What will he say or do next month? While it might appear confusing, this wrestling is a hallmark of a vibrant relationship with God.

The inconsistency on this issue only grows when we zoom out to look at the whole of the Magisterium, with some bishops in favor while others decry it, as the vast majority remain silent. Not only this: the very next day after the 60 minutes interview, we are greeted with words from a Cardinal about the possibility of Francis agreeing that women should be ordained as priests! Whiplash, much? Then, of course, there is the Body of Christ, who—regardless of what the Pope or any bishops have to say—has trumpeted a resounding and universal call for a female diaconate, which makes Pope Francis’ “no” all the more curious since he is in the midst of championing a synod process rooted in the values of open sharing and prayerful listening. The more inconsistent the collective Church is on this doctrine, the louder the Spirit clamors for us to recognize that within this inconsistency pulses an invitation from God.
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But it gets even better. There is no question that people have been feeling great hope about the possibility of the Church ordaining women as deacons, even if hints from leadership indicate that the Church would steer those female deacons into something “other” than male deacons (never a good sign in a patriarchy, but, hey, let’s just take what we can get). Now that Francis has been so blunt, maybe we will finally wake up to the enormity of this rare and willing historic moment when it comes to the ordination of women in the Church. With four months yet before the Synod meetings in October, there is still time to embrace the freshness of opportunity before us.

First, the movement to ordain women as deacons must once and for all stop buying into the institution’s framing of the ordination of women as two distinct discernment questions: deacons and priests. It should be quite clear at this point that this strategy will not get the movement where it wants to go. When it comes to the ordination of women, there is one—and only one—discernment question: is God calling women to ordained ministries? To frame the discernment in any other way is disingenuous and will always set the process on the path to an incomplete or even mistaken discernment. The diaconate movement seems to think it has a better chance at success by approaching vocation as two separate questions, but even if this “success” were to materialize, it would only amount to a Pyrrhic victory that impedes the far deeper work of the Spirit to bring about true fullness of life for women in the Church and the world. The gift of Francis’ blunt response is that it spells out the reality that there can only be one movement when it comes to the ordination of women, and that is a united one that calls for the freedom for women to follow their vocation from God, whatever that vocation is.

Second, the bishops who are supportive of the ordination of women as priests need to speak up. It is as if they have forgotten who they are for the Church, largely remaining silent when collectively they have the power (and the moral obligation) to guide the trajectory of the Church. Francis is not a king, but the head pastor; and bishops are not his princes, but shepherds invested with a power all their own by the Holy Spirit through their ordination. The only reason Francis can get away with saying “no” to ordaining women as deacons, and—for that matter—excluding priesthood from the upcoming study on the role of women in the Church, is because those bishops who secretly support the ordination of women at all levels are largely remaining silent, rather than boldly—and collectively—claiming their God-given power to lead.

The plain, undeniable fact—whether you are on the left, the right, or anywhere in between—is that THE BISHOPS ARE NOT IN COMMUNION ON THE ORDINATION OF WOMEN AS PRIESTS OR DEACONS. No matter how you slice it, the doctrine is not settled, and it hasn’t been for decades. But as long as the bishops keep quiet, the institution can keep pretending—steamrolling over the ordination question and all the women within it while upholding a malformed theology that produces speeches like that of Harrison Butker, who genuinely believes in his heart that women’s elementary vocation in life is to be man’s helper through wife-ing and mothering. Even if collectively women are wives and mothers and somehow “maternal” (whatever that means), we are not merely that, which you only need eyeballs in your head to see. But he cannot see, because as long as the Church teaches through the lens of a lopsided theology, it will never be able to properly discern a more full understanding of who God is and what God desires of us.

Third, we simply need to stop tolerating this nonsense, the “we” being women and all our allies who know full well that God is—and has always been—calling women to be deacons and priests. Enough is enough already. At any time, we can claim our rightful place in the Church as God intends. Women are the ones doing the vast majority of work in the Church, women are the ones doing most of the catechizing in the Church, women are the ones directing much of the funds to the Church. Want to see the Roman Catholic Church come to a grinding halt? Then all that we and our allies have to do is just stop: stop providing our labor, stop offering our money, and stop lending our support…until they listen.

So, rather than get upset by or feel overly jubilant at Francis’ “no” on 60 minutes, take it as one more sign that the issue of the ordination of women in the Church is far from settled. God is a God of surprises, and God ain’t done yet. Not in your wildest dreams.
 
Father Anne was ordained on October 16, 2021, through the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests. She earned a Master of Divinity from Jesuit School of Theology, and her deepest desire is to be a parish priest in the Roman Catholic Church.

Dear Pope Francis, 
​
I am deeply thankful for your leadership and the extraordinary interior freedom you demonstrate each day in the face of immense pressures that the vast majority of us never see. I pray for you daily.
 
As a woman trained by Jesuits and deeply rooted in the Spiritual Exercises, I write to offer important feedback on the discernment regarding the role of women in the Church. As you know, the way a discernment question is phrased profoundly shapes how the discernment unfolds. Only a proper question permits access to the full availability of possible invitations from God. 

When it comes to the ordination of women, the Church seems to be asking the question: “Can the Church ordain women?” However, this phrasing is problematic because it centers the discernment on the institutional Church rather than on God. Phrasing the question in this way prompts the Church to look primarily at itself—its past behavior and interpretations—for the answer. From the outset, the question narrows the information gathering stage of discernment before it even begins, making a good discernment impossible. 

Instead, the better question is, “Is God calling women to ordained ministries in the Roman Catholic Church?” This phrasing centers the discernment on God’s action in the life of the Church, and makes the Holy Spirit the protagonist of the discernment. This question inspires the Church to look with fresh eyes and hearts upon the relevant scripture, tradition, and lived history of the Church–as well as any current signs of the times–which will naturally lead to new insights. This question gives the Church the freedom to gather all the information relevant to the question–including information that has thus far been missing from the synodal process. Information such as: 

• (1) The voices of women around the world who are called to priesthood (a proper discernment must center the voices of those most marginalized by the doctrine, for God leads us through the voices of the  marginalized to God’s vision of flourishing for all creation); 
  
  
• (2) An accurate history of the leadership, participation and ordination of women in the Church (which has been made hidden until recent decades as scholars have started to uncover the rich history of the ongoing struggle of women for full participation in the Church);
  
  
• (3) Total transparency of where vowed religious and ordained deacons, priests, bishops and cardinals stand (there are thousands of religious and ordained around the world who are in favor of holy orders for women, but they are silenced. This silencing is not only a true obstacle to a proper discernment, but a hallmark of the Dark Spirit. Religious and ordained must be given the freedom to speak plainly, and the entire Church must see where those with institutional privilege and power stand.)
   

You know better than anyone how much the discernment question matters in making a proper discernment. If the Church truly wants to hear what God desires for women and for the Church, then the Church must ask the question that enables a proper discernment to unfold. I urge you to please introduce the proper question on the ordination of women, so that the Church can uncover God’s invitation, without which we cannot follow. 

Thank you for the great sacrifice of your ministry and leadership.
​
In prayer, 
Father Anne +

Artist Eric Carson created this beautiful icon of  St. Thérèse of Lisieux for the #GodSaysNow campaign. The image is filled with rich symbol. Eric explains:

• The red text 1873 Orne is the year and place of St Thérèse's birth.
• The red text 2023 ABQ is this year and the start of the #GodSaysNow campaign, marking 150 years.
• Under her nun's habit, she wears the Roman collar, symbolizing her vocation to priesthood.
• She also wears a breastplate, which recalls the time she posed as Joan of Arc.
• Thérèse is raising the host and chalice of the Eucharist, breaking chains to the keys of the Vatican, which symbolizes how the institutional Church binds her into the more passive "official" sainthood.
• Her stole carries her direct quote,  "I'd rather be a warrior, priest, apostle, or martyr."
• As she raises the Eucharist, she sets down the crucifix and her roses (symbols her official sainthood), symbolizing a departure from the "little way" to take up the chalice of her true calling.
• All of this is done on a simple table that becomes an altar as she uses it for Mass.
  
  

If you would like a prayer card, please email your name and address to [email protected].

Listen to the talk on YouTube.