The church needs the voices of women wherever important decisions are made—and it needs their voices now more than ever, speakers said during the three-day Women of the Church Conference.

Participants expressed support for proposals to ordain women deacons and warned of the deadly consequences of climate change.

Sister Birgit Weiler told journalists on Oct. 11 that such changes would allow the church to become “a community of sisters and brothers, sharing faith, discerning together.”

Bishop Kräutler said there are thousands of indigenous communities in the Amazon that “do not celebrate the Eucharist except perhaps one, two or three times a year.” The bishops in favor of ordaining married men, he said, “are not against celibacy. We just want these brothers and sisters of ours not to have just a celebration of the word but also the celebration of the Eucharist.”

Reform groups are seeking to bring attention to the fact that 185 men but no women are voting members of the Special Synod of Bishops on the Pan-Amazonian Region that begins on Oct. 6.

Tania Tetlow, president of Loyola University New Orleans, remembers her friend and mentor Cokie Roberts, who passed away on Sept. 17.