Ordain women! The chorus goes global

For Women’s Ordination Worldwide (WOW), a coalition of advocacy groups, March 25 was the fifth annual day of prayer for ordaining women. Since the date was a Sunday, highly visible prayer vigils occurred in front of cathedrals in many U.S. cities during weekend Masses. In Syracuse, N.Y, local CTAers were among 50 participants invoking modern women prophets unjustly treated by the Church: among them, Joan Chittister, Jeannine Gramick, and Lavinia Byrne, whose book, “Woman at the Altar,” brought repression from the Vatican. In Chicago the Young Feminist Network of Women’s Ordination Conference (WOC) held vigil in the bitter cold, but warmed to hear a six year old girl exclaim to her father as they came out of Mass, “I want to be a priest!” At Philadelphia’s St. Vincent de Paul Church, WOC member Eileen DiFranco preached a sermon on women’s equality.

Chittister to keynote in Dublin

At the Lexington, Ky., cathedral, a local WOC group handed out prints of the new Last Supper painting that shows women and children at Jesus’ table, and leaflets about the first International Conference of WOW June 29- July 1 in Dublin. Both the painting and the meeting originate with BASIC (Brothers and Sisters in Christ), the WOW affiliate in Ireland.

BASIC announced that several billboards in downtown Dublin in June will proclaim, “Women Priests: Now Is the Time.” In the U.S. WOC has erected similar billboards in Chicago, Milwaukee and Minneapolis-St. Paul, and is helping to pay for the signs in Dublin. The June meeting will be opened by Nobel peace laureate Mairead Corrigan Maguire. The dean of Ireland’s priest-theologians, retired Maynooth National Seminary professor Enda McDonagh, will be a participant. Keynoter will be Sr. Joan Chittister. All the publicity is deeply embarrassing to Dublin’s new cardinal, Desmond Connell, a staunch ally of the Vatican against even discussing women priests.

In Austria, 40 women have completed a two-year training course for the priesthood organized by We Are Church. Progressive Bishop Paul Iby apologized for not being able to ordain them, but said, “Please wait and see if things change.”

For information about the Dublin conference, and action opportunities in the U.S., contact WOC (703 352-1006). woc@womensordination.org On the Web: www.womensordination.org