God Says Now

St. Thérèse of Lisieux the Priest icon by Eric Carson
read about her vocation to priesthood.

If you would like a copy of the prayer card, please email your address to speakupinthesynod@gmail.com.

"When she realised that she had pulmonary tuberculosis, she said: ‘You see, God is going to take me at an age when I would not have had the time to become a priest…. If I could have been a priest, I would have been ordained at these June ordinations. So what did God do? So that I would not be disappointed, he let me be sick: in that way I could not have been there, and I would die before I could exercise my ministry’.”

In other words, she believed God let her die rather than suffer life under the burden of being unable to live out her vocation as priest as God was calling her.

#GodSaysNow Campaign

The time has come for all women and our allies to refuse to accept the treatment of subjugation in the name of God and demand to be treated as fully human. Enough is enough.

Ordination
not Subordination

The goal of the #GodSaysNow campaign is to make the issue of women's ordination to priesthood issue impossible for the bishops to ignore. The strategies of the campaign are:

RAISE AWARENESS.
EDUCATE ON THE ISSUE.
DEMAND INTEGRITY IN THE DISCERNMENT PROCESS ON THE ROLE OF WOMEN HAPPENING THROUGH THE SYNOD.

1. RAISE AWARENESS.

There are literally hundreds of millions of people around the world who believe women are called to be priests, yet they are unaware that the issue is even on the table through the Synod on Synodality that ends in October 2024. The first step is alerting people to the opportunity that God has placed before us.

2. EDUCATE ON THE ISSUE.

Most people do not understand how the Church constructs its argument of exclusion: (1) by employing a fundamentalist interpretation of scripture--a practice the Church teaches against because it leads to views contrary to the Gospel; and (2) by perpetuating a misleading narrative that women were not ordained or in leadership over the Church's 2000 year history. People must understand how scripture and a false narrative of tradition are being misused to oppress women--a direct violation of the covenant with God.

3. DEMAND INTEGRITY IN THE DISCERNMENT PROCESS ON THE ROLE OF WOMEN HAPPENING THROUGH THE SYNOD.

The role of women in the Roman Catholic Church emerged from the Synod on Synodality as a prominent issue to be discerned. However, right from the start the discernment has been faulty. For a proper discernment to take place, the Church must gather all relevant information on the topic so that it can be brought into the Church's prayer. The #GodSaysNow campaign calls for the inclusion of three critical sources of data thus far missing from the process of discernment:

The history of women's ordination and leadership. This history has been obfuscated and made hidden. Reputable scholars have demonstrated women's participation in the Church throughout the centuries, as well as their ongoing battle against the cultural forces that have subjugated them.
The direct experience of women from around the world who are called to be priests. These voices are some of the most marginalized in the Church. The women who bear the brunt of the teaching of exclusion from priesthood must be given the space and authority to speak about their experience.
Transparency regarding where all vowed religious and ordained stand on the issue. In addition to the millions of lay people who believe women are called to serve as priests, there are thousands of sisters, brothers, deacons, priests, and even bishops and cardinals who believe, but they are silent/silenced. Their position on the issue must be made clear for the entire Church to see.

While the Church has invested great resources into claiming priesthood for women is closed, the synod has revealed in two short years that it isn't (see paragraph 64 in the document Enlarge the Space of Your Tent). Indeed, it never was. The Church must set aside its narrative about women's ordination to priesthood, and confront what is actually true if the Church is to discover the invitation from God on the role of women in the Church.

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WHY NOW

WHY IT MATTERS

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