Women's Ordination Conference
The Women's Ordination Conference is the oldest and largest national organization that works to ordain women as deacons, priests, and bishops into the Roman Catholic Church. Founded in 1975, it primarily advocates for the ordainment of women within the Catholic Church. The idea for the Conference came in 1974, when Mary B. Lynch asked the people on her Christmas list if it was time to publicly ask "Should Catholic women be priests?" [1] 31 women and one man answered yes, and thus a taskforce was formed and a national meeting was planned. This first meeting was held in Detroit, Michigan, on Thanksgiving weekend of 1975, with nearly 2,000 people in attendance. [2]
Erin Saiz Hanna
Erin Saiz Hanna is Executive Director of the Women's Ordination Conference. She feels the Roman Catholic Church sex abuse scandal is a massive betrayal beyond the comprehension of ordinary Catholics.
| “ | For far too long, the all-male boys club has covered up decades of abuse [child sex abuse] with lies and secrets that have put our most vulnerable in severe danger, a far cry from Jesus’ commandment to live a life of love. (...) When women are full and equal partners in every aspect of the Catholic Church, only then, will the Roman Catholic Church be associated with accountability, transparency and justice rather than hierarchy, exclusion, and scandal. | ” |
| —[3] | ||
She feels women should be ordained because leaving all decisions to men has failed. She calls on supporters to withdraw financial contributions that benefit the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.[3]
Erin Saiz Hanna feels Pope Francis is selecting precedents he personally likes and ignoring those he dislikes. John Paul II is taken as authoritative over female ordination; Benedict XVI's refusal to accept gay priests is disregarded. She cites an earlier conclusion from the Pontifical Biblical Commission that women can be priests.
| “ | He [Francis] could have quoted the Vatican's own the Pontifical Biblical Commission that concluded in 1976 that there is no valid scriptural or theological reason for denying ordination to women. | ” |
| —[4] | ||
Controversy
The WOC's sister organization, Roman Catholic Womenpriests, has incurred an automatic excommunication by decree of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Leaders of the WOC that have attempted female ordination or who have worked alongside RCW also join them in a state of latae sententiae excommunication.
See also
- Leadership Conference of Women Religious A group which proposes women's ordination among other issues
- Catholics for Choice An organisation favoring women being allowed to use contraception