100 signatures reached
To: Pope Francis and Cardinal Victor Fernandez
Catholic Women Strike
“Not ripe”...“No room for positive decision”...“Niche issue”...“Rushing is not the way to promote women today”...“More study is needed” ...“More maturation is needed”...“A step by step approach”...“When the time is right”
Sound familiar? These are headlines from the October 2024 Synod on Synodality. The same tired excuses to continue to keep women out of ordained ministry.
We know: Endless “study” on the subject of women is a patriarchal stalling tactic developed by ordained men to maintain the status quo. Ordained men decide the parameters and pace of synodality, and when the time is “ripe” for women’s ministries. And they do so at an incalculable cost. The church has lost generations of women who endured the pain and humiliation of having to prove the validity of their calling.
Women are the lifeblood of the church: We lead and coordinate the vast majority of parish ministries around the world, and serve as deacons and priests in everything but name in places where clergy are scarce. Women were protagonists on the synodal journey. Women were the first to preach the Good News! And on and on and on.
We will no longer wait until ordained men decide the time is right.
We, the undersigned are striking from sexism by withholding time, labor, and financial resources from the church during Lent 2025.
We believe the time is "ripe" to demand what is right, and so we are launching Catholic Women Strike, a global effort to disrupt the status quo. Instead of waiting for a papal “yes,” we issue forth our “no” to the systems of misogyny, sexism, and patriarchy that seek to stop the Holy Spirit.
Why is this important?
A strike is necessary because we are not being heard. The historic, three-year Synod on Synodality formally ended in October 2024 with no meaningful movement on the issue of women’s ordination, despite the issue being consistently raised by Catholics worldwide at every step of the synodal process.
Now is the time to escalate because we need to show that we will no longer patiently wait to work on the Vatican’s timetable. A strike is a means of taking power into our own hands.
It is time to disrupt the patriarchal status quo.
Now is the time to escalate because we need to show that we will no longer patiently wait to work on the Vatican’s timetable. A strike is a means of taking power into our own hands.
It is time to disrupt the patriarchal status quo.