The Vatican’s handling of the women deacon issue is drawing criticism as the October Synod of Bishops approaches, with calls for greater transparency intensifying. Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich of Luxembourg, a key organiser of the Synod of Bishops on Synodality, has called for sincere dialogue on women’s roles in the Church. Hollerich said that as a Read more
The first assembly of the Synod on Synodality saw a number of world firsts, perhaps none more surprising than the inclusion of 54 women as voters in what had, until now, been a synod exclusively of bishops. One of them was Sydney’s Professor Renée Köhler-Ryan, National Head of the School of Philosophy and Theology at Read more
The first female president-delegate has presided at a Synod of Bishops assembly. Sister Maria de los Dolores Valencia Gomez (pictured) says her inclusion in the role at the Synod on Synodality shows the Church “has… something that places all of us at the same level”. Gomez led the Synod on Synodality assembly Friday morning in Read more
Pope Francis has overhauled the Vatican’s central bureaucracy, dramatically expanding the number of top leadership roles lay Catholics, both men and women, can hold. On Saturday, Francis issued a new constitution for the Vatican’s central administration, known as the Curia, stating that any baptised lay Catholics can head Vatican offices. For centuries, male clerics have Read more
“I’m not angry,” says Catherine Ulrich. “I just want things to move.” Ulrich works for the Catholic Diocese of Lausanne, Geneva and Fribourg (LGF) in Switzerland and is a member of the Network of Women in the Church. She’s one of the figures of the women’s movement in French-speaking Catholicism who are calling for more Read more
The Catholic Church has no future without women, Catholic journalist Joanna Moorhead said at an International Women’s Day webinar on Monday. “We are talking about the survival of the Church,” Moorhead said. Whether women have a future in the Church is no longer a women’s issue but an issue for everyone, Moorhead told the 200 Read more