Why it matters - Ordination Justice Initiative

Encounter with God

Catholic symbols help facilitate encounter with the living God so that we can better receive the gifts that God desires to bestow on us. God--as revealed in Jesus--is incarnational, and so God pours something of God's very self through the openings of our faith symbols to touch us, to heal us, to guide us.

Because the Church restricts the priest symbol to the male form alone, it prevents the Body of Christ from experiencing the full range of sacramental encounter that God is offering. This constrained encounter produces a misunderstanding of who God is and how God is calling humans into relationship with God and with one another.

Such misunderstanding has grave consequences for women and children, and all people. A lopsided priest symbol facilitates lopsided encounter with God. This lopsided encounter with God produces a lopsided world where women are symbolically rendered as a second order of creation that is inferior by nature and worthy of subjugation.

Until women are fully participating in the symbolic life of the Church, the Church will continue to betray God, sanctifying and perpetuating the very injustice that God desires to transform in the Church and beyond.

For a healthy Church & world

Ordination justice is not simply about who stands at the altar.

When the Church is brought into alignment with God, the Church's capacity to encounter God will be expanded. This expanded in counter will help the Church be able to more fully discern the movement of God's Holy Spirit, which will lead to better formation for the People of God and a greater effectiveness in carrying out its mission.

A Church that receives the fullness of what God desires to bestow upon it will become more whole, more credible, and more capable in revealing God's love to the world.

Proper discernment

Excluding a particular group of people from leadership on this or that basis significantly hinders the Church’s ability to discern and receive God's self-communication and gifts. The natural outcome of lopsided discernment is oppression. By welcoming women into full participation in the Church, the Church can better discern the ongoing invitations from God. The Church will gain a fuller understanding of what it means to be human, how to be in relationship with one another, and what it means to be stewards of creation.

Better formation

A Roman Catholic Church that embodies ordination justice will provide far healthier formation for Catholics. The Church is currently forming 1.4 billion Catholics in a distorted theology of the human person that oppresses women and girls, narrows fullness of self-expression for men and boys, and perpetuates a worldview that obstructs God's desires for the flourishing of all God's people. Imagine instead a Church where women and girls are embraced as fully human, where men and boys are free to develop and express all aspects of their personhood, and where all people are taught to value women and girls as true co-partners in the creation of life with God.

Effectiveness in mission

The Church's effectiveness in mission depends largely on its credibility. It cannot persuasively proclaim the dignity of all people while violating women’s fundamental right to discernment and restricting them from participating in its most powerful symbolic roles. This hypocrisy weakens the Church's moral authority within the Body of Christ and in the wider world. When Church structures embody the Gospel it proclaims, the Church will be able to act and speak with far greater credibility about human dignity, justice, and the flourishing of all people. Ordination justice will not only enable the Church to receive the gifts God bestows through women, but it will also strengthen the Church's witness and increase its ability to collaborate with God in the transformation of the world.

Safer environments for women & children

The Roman Catholic Church has a devastating history of sexual abuse of women and children, as well as the exploitation of labor of women religious. The sexual abuse crisis is still ongoing, including in parts of Africa and India, where reports have documented male priests raping sisters and male bishops failing to protect victims and hold perpetrators accountable. The participation of women in ordained ministry will not only symbolically reveal women as true co-partners, but also bring greater transparency and accountability, and cultivate safer environments for everyone—especially those most vulnerable to abuse.

A Global Vision

The Roman Catholic Church is growing fastest in Africa, India and other parts of Asia. When women are ordained as priests, women can also be ordained as bishops. Imagine this global church with its vast resources being co-led by African women, Indian women, Asian women. These leaders will bring critical perspectives, produce much-needed theology, and re-order priorities, helping the Church be more effective in mission of loving the world into alignment with God.