Urging Justice for Women, WOW Welcomes Pope Leo

Women’s Ordination Worldwide congratulates Pope Leo on his election as pope.

We take hope in that like his successor Pope Francis, Leo expresses solidarity with the poor and marginalized. We welcome his call for bridge building, and peace in the Church and the world. His message brings to memory the wisdom of Pope Paul VI who taught that without justice there can be no peace.

We express concern for the emergence of a possible abuse cover up or inaction. This is now a familiar story for Catholics and we hope that the claims can be fully investigated.

In the Synod on Synodality, clear and unequivocal cries from every corner of the earth were made pleading for justice for women in the Church.

We hope that Leo’s solidarity with the marginalised will include more than half the world’s Catholics – women – who continue to be unjustly excluded from Church leadership and sacramental ministry.

In his conviction for peace, we hope that his leadership will include work for justice for women in both the Church and the world. This will mean more than extending charitable hands of compassion to women.

Justice will involve dialogue, encounter, listening, bridge building, courage, and removing boulders of discrimination that continue to block the way for inclusion of women as full, unquestioned equals and protagonists in their own right in all realms of the Church. It is the same baptism, the same Spirit, and the same God who calls for us all. Justice in the Church will mean ending centuries old indefensible discrimination against women in both sacrament and leadership. Justice for women in the world will include many things not the least of which will be the acknowledgement that the Church’s male domination signals to the world endorsement of women’s second class status all over the world whether they are Catholic or not.

If our Church follows Christ, it is both a sin and a scandal that discrimination against women persists. We pray for Pope Leo. And we pray that his leadership will be a beacon for peace and justice for women in the Church and around the world.

Habemus papam!

Women’s Ordination Worldwide