“Women are knocking on the door of the church…. But I fear a generation will come that will stop knocking,” Dr. Carolyn Woo, president and C.E.O. of Catholic Relief Services, said at the Vatican on March 8 during a panel discussion organized by Voices of Faith, a Catholic women’s international network. “This conversation about women is not for women, it is for the church,” Woo told the third annual gathering of Voices of Faith to celebrate International Women’s Day. Geralyn Sheehan, country director for the U.S. Peace Corps in Colombia, noted that mothers are the ones who teach children about service and worried over a generational change that suggests there are fewer young women in the church today. She spoke too about the fact that women are so often victims of physical violence and sexual behavior, adding that it is an issue the church must address.
Women’s Voices
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Luis Gutierrez
9 years ago
I hope that, as more and more women leave the Church, Catholic men will push harder for the ordination of women to the priesthood and the episcopate. Men are harmed the most by the absence of female priests, because men need spiritual mothers.
Lisa Weber
9 years ago
Anyone not a child does not need a mother. Mother is the wrong archetype for women leaders in the church.
Lisa Weber
9 years ago
The church is unwelcoming to women generally and to young women in particular. A patriarchal/matriarchal leadership model does not allow the laity the status of adults. Jesus was not a patriarch. He did not allow even his own mother to be a matriarch. Until the church revises the family model for the church, it can expect to lose members because people want the rights and privileges of adults. If they cannot have those rights and privileges in the church, they leave. It is really quite simple.
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