Women, make your presence in the Church known by your absence.
“Not ripe”...“No room for positive decision”...“Niche issue”...“Rushing… is not the way to promote women today”...“Further study is needed” ...“More maturation is needed”...“A step by step approach”...“When the time is right”
Sound familiar? These are headlines from the past month of the Synod on Synodality. The same tired excuses to continue to keep women out of ordained ministry.
We will no longer wait until ordained men decide the time is right.
We are calling on the women of the church to join us in striking from sexism by withholding time, labor, and financial resources from the church during Lent 2025.
OUR MISSION
A project of the Women’s Ordination Conference, Catholic Women Strike seeks to remove all barriers to ministry and governance—including Holy Orders—for women and people of all genders, through withholding women’s time, labor, and resources from the Catholic Church for the duration of Lent 2025.
“If women do not feel comfortable in the church, we have failed.”
— Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich
In the news
National Catholic Reporter: Catholic women urged to 'strike' over inequality in the church
What would the Catholic Church do without women? If some activists have their way, we're about to find out.
A new project is urging women to strike by withholding time, labor and financial resources from the church during Lent, which begins March 5. The planned action is in response to the Vatican's synod on synodality, which concluded in October without action on women's leadership, including the opening of ordination to the diaconate or priesthood.
"The strike is for Catholics who are looking for a way to express their disappointment, frustration or anger at an institution that refuses to recognize the equal dignity of half of its members," said Kate McElwee, executive director of the Women's Ordination Conference, which is organizing the strike.
VG: Katolske kvinner oppfordres til streik
Katolske kvinner verden over oppfordres nå til å gå til streik mot kirken i protest mot manglende fremgang i spørsmålet om kvinnelige prester, skriver The Guardian.
Kampanjen «Catholic Women Strike: Global Witness for Equality» ble lansert tidligere denne måneden.
Den oppfordrer kvinner som går regelmessig i katolske kirker, jobber frivillig eller har betalte stillinger i katolske organisasjoner, til å holde tilbake sin arbeidskraft gjennom hele fasten neste år, fra 5. mars til 20. april.
Guardian/Observer: Catholic women urged to strike over ‘betrayal’ on ordination
Catholic Women Strike: Global Witness for Equality was launched this month and is calling on women who are regular churchgoers, who work for the church on a voluntary basis or who have paid jobs with Catholic organisations to withhold their labour through Lent next year (5 March to 20 April). “We believe the time is ripe to demand what is right … Instead of waiting for a papal ‘yes’, we issue forth our ‘no’ to the systems of misogyny, sexism and patriarchy,” says the campaign’s website.