PRESS RELEASE: 20 March 2026: WAC Ireland Responds to the Vatican Study Group 5 Report, on the Participation of Women in the Life and Leadership of the Church.
HOPES DASHED AGAIN!
Last week, the eagerly awaited final report on ‘Women’, Study Group 5 from the Secretariat of the Global Synod, dropped into our laptops. We applaud the fact that the Vatican has recognised and is renouncing the attitudes of ‘male chauvinism, clericalism and machismo’ that is prevalent in the institutional church. This evoked hope. Sadly, our hope was dashed in the density of words, which effectively reflects no change in the current position for women, beyond acknowledging the eclectic range of church service, millions of women are already doing. Stating that ‘all change comes from below’, this report reflects the opposite. There are frequent references to Papal documents, to confirm the unique role of the cleric specifically that of deacon and priest, services that firmly remain denied to all women.
Thoughts turn to Mary, a teenage girl in Nazareth, who troubled by God’s request, asked a pertinent question: ‘how can this be done?’ What she was asked to do through the Spirit was outside the law, both religious and cultural! Mary’s courageous and radical ‘YES’ amplified in her ‘Magnificat’, was the antithesis of the ‘status quo’. In 2026, we are witnessing women with similar courage, responding to the same Spirit, calling them to serve the Kin-dom in ways not yet recognised or permitted by the institutional church. In addition to women priests and deacons, even the role of preaching and in some cases Eucharistic Minister, are not permitted services for women.
So, let us all continue to pray with HOPE, that the Spirit will enable every person to accept the reality that: ‘God calls each of us to service by name, not by gender!’
Denise Boyle and John Colreavy
Joint Coordinators of We Are Church Ireland
Ph: Denise: 087 7940563
Ph: John: 086 8151054
Registered Charity No. 20203544