The modern struggle for ordination justice in the Roman Catholic Church has been ongoing since the 1970s. Ordination Justice Initiative was founded in 2026 to build on this history while bringing a distinct Jesuit charism to the movement, which includes a reframing of the issue.
Together, this reframing moves the conversation beyond the question of women’s access to priesthood toward the deeper questions of justice, discernment, and God’s action in the Church. This approach, grounded in a deep reverence for the institutional Church and its tradition, is the foundation of OJI's work to expand the Catholic imagination and create the conditions that make transformation possible.
- OJI shifts the language of “women’s ordination” to ordination justice, reframing the issue from a special interest concern that impacts only a small handful of women to an injustice that wounds the entire Church.
- OJI reframes the issue of ordination as one of rights and duties: while no one has a right to be a priest, all Catholics have a right to discernment, and the Church has a corresponding duty to protect this fundamental right.
- OJI reframes the discernment question. The institutional Church frames the question, “Can the Church ordain women?”, which places the Church and its past decisions at the center of discernment. OJI reframes the discernment question to “Is God calling women to ordained ministries?”, which makes God’s Holy Spirit the protagonist of discernment, bringing fresh eyes to scripture and tradition, while also making room for new evidence of God's action in women's lives.
Together, this reframing moves the conversation beyond the question of women’s access to priesthood toward the deeper questions of justice, discernment, and God’s action in the Church. This approach, grounded in a deep reverence for the institutional Church and its tradition, is the foundation of OJI's work to expand the Catholic imagination and create the conditions that make transformation possible.
Learn more about our values.
OJI stands on the shoulders of decades of advocacy for the ordination of women as deacons and priests and works within a diverse movement of organizations. Additional Church reform organizations, such as Call to Action and FutureChurch, have also participated in the struggle for ordination justice.
Women's Ordination Conference
In 1975, nearly 1,200 people gathered in Detroit, Michigan, for the first Women’s Ordination Conference (WOC). This three-day event launched what would become the oldest grassroots organization advocating for the ordination of women as deacons, priests, and bishops in the Roman Catholic Church. Early efforts included high-profile public actions—such as demonstrations timed with papal visits—alongside conferences and direct engagement with U.S. bishops. Over the decades, WOC has continued to organize national gatherings, sustain public attention on ordination justice, and expand its work to include education about the roots of exclusion and advocacy for structural change within the Catholic Church. LEARN MORE
Women's Ordination Worldwide
Women’s Ordination Worldwide (WOW) was founded as an international coalition of organizations advocating for the ordination of women in the Roman Catholic Church. By the mid-1990s, the movement for women’s ordination had spread far beyond the United States, creating momentum for a global coalition. With the leadership and initiative of the Women’s Ordination Conference (WOC), WOW emerged in 1996 from the First European Women’s Synod in Austria, uniting organizations and activists from multiple continents in a shared commitment to advancing women’s ordination in the Roman Catholic Church. LEARN MORE
Roman Catholic Women Priests
Roman Catholic Women Priests (RCWP) traces its origin to June 29, 2002, when seven women — later known as the Danube Seven — were ordained to the priesthood on the Danube River in Europe by a male bishop. The Vatican declared the ordinations invalid and imposed excommunications, but the new priests and their supporters asserted the sacramental validity of the ordinations. The next year, several women were ordained as bishops by male bishops. These female bishops went forward to continue ordaining women as priests and bishops. Over the last two decades RCWP has built a small international network of 260 ordained deacons, priests, and bishops across the United States, Europe, Colombia, the Philippines, Canada, and beyond. RCWP has developed formation programs, ethics standards, and models of inclusive ministry. While RCWP collaborates with WOC, the primary focus of its work is preparing and ordaining women as deacons and priests. At its heart, the RCWP charism is prophetic in relation to the institutional Church, modeling what an inclusive Church might look like through liturgies that offer inclusive language and different images of God, as well as priests who may be married and have children and grandchildren. LEARN MORE
Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests
The Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests (ARCWP) emerged from RCWP in 2010 and shares much of the same history, theology, and approach to ministry. Like RCWP, ARCWP prepares and ordains women and people of all genders as deacons, priests, and bishops outside the institutional structures of the Roman Catholic Church. Its communities emphasize inclusive liturgy, expansive images of God, and models of priesthood that include married clergy. Father Anne was ordained through ARCWP in 2021 but left the organization in 2022. OJI is not affiliated with ARCWP or RCWP. LEARN MORE
Discerning Deacons
Discerning Deacons launched in April 2021 to engage Catholics in the Church’s discernment about women and the diaconate and to contribute to the renewal of the diaconate. The organization works within institutional Church structures through formation, synodal dialogue, prayer, and engagement with Church leaders. Its work intentionally confines discussion of ordination to the diaconate, separating it from priesthood and reinforcing an artificial division among vocations to ordination. OJI rejects this division, holding that ordination justice is one question and that every vocation requires the same freedom of discernment. LEARN MORE