“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.

Our survey of Catholic women found little opposition to the ordination of women as permanent deacons, but a survey of U.S. bishops revealed more skepticism of the idea.

Today, 16 of the 28 Jesuit colleges and universities in the A.J.C.U. are led by lay presidents, three of whom are women. Their perspectives as lay women professionals in leadership has brought needed skills to their institutions and created opportunities to clarify their institutions’ Jesuit mission and identity.