Women Advocate for Ordination in Groundbreaking Vatican Gathering

A small group of protestors gathered to advocate for the ordination of women on Wednesday as Pope Francis held the opening mass for a three week long meeting on the future of the Catholic Church in St. Peter’s Square.

Before the opening Mass got under way, they unfurled a giant purple banner at a piazza nearby reading “Ordain Women.”

Women have long complained they are treated as second-class citizens in the church, barred from the priesthood and highest ranks of power yet responsible for the lion’s share of church work — teaching in Catholic schools, running Catholic hospitals and passing the faith down to next generations.

They have long demanded a greater say in church governance, at the very least with voting rights at the periodic synods at the Vatican but also the right to preach at Mass and be ordained as priests or deacons.

For years supporters of female deacons have argued that women in the early church served as deacons and that restoring the ministry would both serve the church and recognize the gifts that women bring to it.

Francis has convened two study commissions to research the issue and was asked to consider it at a previous synod on the Amazon, but he has so far refused to make any change.