Women in the Church

Three years ago, Pope Francis elevated the memorial of St. Mary Magdalene, on July 22, to a feast day. To help better appreciate the gifts that women bring to the church, it is time to further elevate the feast day to a solemnity.

The tumult in Catalonia continues. Many Catalans wonder what the future holds for their community. Among them is a rabble-rousing Benedictine nun, Sister Teresa Forcades, one of the most recognizable voices within Catalonia’s independence movement.

“We have to admit that things move very slowly in the church,” Sharon Holland, I.H.M., told America, “But this is a piece of really good news.”

Almost 30 years ago, congregations of Catholic sisters in the United States split into two groups: the Leadership Conference of Women Religious and a newly-formed group that would become the Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious.

As a woman in leadership in the church, I think we are having the wrong conversation when we focus so narrowly on the question of women deacons that we fail to see the ways Catholic women can—and already do—lead.

Responses to 10 of the principal objections that are commonly raised against the Catholic Church's teaching on the ordination of women.