​PROJECT: ORDINATION JUSTICE explores the scripture, tradition, and history related to ordination justice in the Roman Catholic Church. There are several aspects to the project. It offers an audio course that can be used by individuals as well as in parishes, by high schools and college campus ministries, and any interested group. It will also offer age-appropriate educational materials for parents and catechists to help children explore some of the concepts in the curriculum.  The project is also creating oral history archive that features the voices of young women who are called to be ordained as priests and would enter if given the opportunity. This puts a face on the many women affected by the doctrine of exclusion and shows the Church in a compelling and concrete way what it is being denied. PROJECT: ORDINATION JUSTICE is designed to help bring the Church into alignment with God on this issue. ​  LEARN MORE

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ordination justice is not a women's issue:

It is a matter that affects every person within the Roman Catholic Church, regardless of gender, as well as the many beyond its walls who are impacted by the Church's vast sphere of power and influence. For this reason "women's ordination" is a misleading and limiting term. It is the responsibility of all Catholics, most especially the male bishops and Pope, to work together to bring the Church into alignment with God on the teaching of ordination. 

The doctrine of a male-only priesthood has been emerging as an open question for decades. At this point in history faithful Roman Catholics at every level of the Church--including vowed religious brothers and sisters and ordained male deacons, priests, bishops, and cardinals--have come to know that God is, indeed, calling women to the ordained priesthood. This divergence in the Church is plain fact. ​In addition, because the bishops are not in communion on this issue, the doctrine of a male-only priesthood cannot be definitively held per the teachings of the Second Vatican Council. 

The single greatest issue at this moment in history is silence: those bishops who secretly support ordination justice are remaining silent, which violates the Church's teaching on conscience and allows the ungodly oppression of women to continue. But, what if those bishops all came together to declare that the doctrine is not settled and is open for discernment? This one courageous act force the Church to confront reality and se the Church finally on the path of coming into alignment with God on the doctrine of ordination. 
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PROJECT: ORDINATION JUSTICE sprouted up alongside the Vatican's study on the role of women in the Church. This study was commissioned in March 2024 by Pope Francis as part of the Synod on Synodality, which unfolded from October 2021 to October 2024. Many issues arose during the Synod. However, while all other study groups were assigned to a group of experts, the topic of women was assigned to the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF).

Some time later it was revealed that Francis  made this decision because he had quietly commissioned a similar study of his own accord through the DDF, so when the topic arose in the Synod he thought it best to keep it with the DDF. Francis was either not aware or indifferent to how poorly this decision landed with parts of the Body of Christ, including some Synod representatives. Historically the DDF, formerly the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), was a fierce watchdog agency that shut down any voices it deemed as dissent or disobedient. To put it perhaps crudely, the CDF was experienced as the doctrine police. Thus, to assign the most prominent, urgent, and important issue of the Synod to this office while at the same time assigning all other major issues that arose in the Synod to groups of experts, smacked of an unwillingness to honestly engage with where the Holy Spirit may be leading when it came to the role of women. 

Indeed, the design of the study on the role of women in the Church has been faulty from the start. It's core focus is to investigate how some lay women have come to lead within a Church structure that is run by an all male hierarchy. Rather than address the root causes of theologized prejudice against women, the study is designed to examine the exception of some lay women's participation in hopes of being able to replicate it somehow. It is a fundamentally dishonest framing and so it will not produce proper fruit. The DDF was to carry out its work and make recommendations to Pope Francis in June 2025. However, Pope Francis--rest in peace--passed away in April 21, 2025 and Pope Leo XIV was elected May 8, 2025.  With this tremendous transition to a new Pope still underway, the results of the study have been delayed to December 31, 2025. 

In addition to the study on the role of women, Pope Francis also commission a second study in 2020 on female deacons. Shrouded in secrecy, the membership, process, and conclusions of the commission were not made public. However, recently, Pope Leo XIV released the conclusions of the committee, which were in favor of keeping an all-male diaconate. 

PROJECT: ORDINATION JUSTICE picks up where the two faulty studies--the Synod study on the role of women being carried out by the DDF (working group 5) and the second commission to study the diaconate--leave off. PROJECT: ORDINATION JUSTICE takes on priesthood, making accessible and digestible the scripture, theology, and history that must be explored if the Church is to be honest and engage the issue of the ordination of women as priests.  
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It can be difficult to grapple with aspects of Church life that are out of alignment with God. While the institutional Church is masterful in presenting itself as unchanging, the truth is that Catholic tradition has changed dramatically over its 2000-year existence. This is fact. These changes include total reversals in doctrine on issues like religious freedom, celibacy, the presence of truth in other religions, the sinfulness of slavery and anti-Semitism. By pretending tradition doesn't change, the institutional Church commits a disservice to the Body of Christ because it leaves us ill-prepared for the awakenings that naturally occur when authentically engaged with a teaching God. 

The reality is as human beings we can never know all there is to know about God or about the mystery of life because we are not God. There is always another horizon of learning. This means we must cultivate the disposition to allow God's Holy Spirit to ever-deepen our understanding of what it means to be fully human in God's world. In other words, we must give the Holy Spirit the freedom to teach, to live the paschal mystery and be brought to new life. To this end, you are invited to set aside preconceived notions and attachments and allow God the opportunity to teach you about this issue. Listen, learn, and take what you discover to prayer.