Vatican Website Links to Group That Supports Women's Ordination

The Vatican has linked on their website to an organization that supports women’s ordination.

The Vatican included a women’s ordination advocacy group, the Women’s Ordination Conference, on a website that promotes the Synod, which is a meeting of bishops.

This means that Pope Francis is open to both men and women for this year’s process.

Kate McElwee, executive director of the Women’s Ordination Conference, told the Associated Press she was surprised that the Vatican had accepted the group’s inclusion on the “resources” site and said it showed “a lot of courage."

“The integrity and impact of the synod will depend on the inclusion of courageous conversations about women’s equality,” McElwee told the AP in an email. “I hope that this move from the synod office empowers more women to engage with the process and speak out.”

Founded in 1975, the Women’s Ordination Conference, or WOC, "is the oldest and largest organization working to ordain women as priests, deacons, and bishops into an inclusive and accountable Roman Catholic Church," the organization says on its website. "A feminist voice for women in the Roman Catholic Church, WOC is a grassroots-driven movement that promotes activism, dialogue, and prayerful witness to call for women’s full equality in the Church."

In Catholicism, women are not allowed to be ordained as priests.

This is not the first time the synod has made the news, as last year the Vatican removed a link to an LGBTQ Catholic advocacy group, New Ways Ministry, after having initially included them.

The group pushed a campaign for gay LGBTQ+ Catholics to be considered for the synod process, and the website’s moderators ultimately put the group’s link back.

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