Women's Ordination Worldwide (WOW) is an ecumenical network of groups whose primary mission is to allow
Roman Catholic
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...
women admission to all ordained ministries. The WOW network includes organizations from Australia, Bangladesh, Canada, France, Germany, Great Britain, Ireland, Japan, Malta, Poland, Western Europe, and the United States.
Leadership and views
WOW is led by a Steering Committee of representatives from all member groups. It draws on scriptural and theological sources to argue for the participation of women in the Catholic priesthood.
History
WOW was founded in 1996 in Austria during the First European Women's Synod. In 2001, Ireland's Brothers and Sisters in Christ (now merged with We Are Church Ireland) organized WOW's first international conference in Dublin. WOW's second international conference was held in Ottawa, Canada in July 2005. Speakers at the Ottawa conference included
Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza and
Rosemary Radford Ruether
Rosemary Radford Ruether (; 2 November 1936 – 21 May 2022) was an American Catholic feminist theologian known for her significant contributions to the fields of feminist theology and ecofeminist theology. Her teaching and her writings helped e ...
. The third was sponsored by the U.S.-based
Women's Ordination Conference The Women's Ordination Conference is an organization in the United States that works to ordain women as deacons, priests, and bishops in the Catholic Church.
Founded in 1975, the conference was seeded from an idea the year before, when Mary B. Lyn ...
in Philadelphia, PA in September 2015. The 2015 conference took place ahead of the first visit by
Pope Francis
Pope Francis (born Jorge Mario Bergoglio; 17 December 1936 – 21 April 2025) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 13 March 2013 until Death and funeral of Pope Francis, his death in 2025. He was the fi ...
to the U.S.
Controversy
Catholic priests have been sanctioned for their involvement with WOW. Two days after appearing at the Philadelphia conference, Precious Blood Fr. Jack McClure was told that he could no longer celebrate Mass at Most Holy Redeemer parish in San Francisco.
Roy Bourgeois, founder of
SOA Watch
School of the Americas Watch is an advocacy organization founded by former Maryknoll Father Roy Bourgeois and a group of supporters in 1990 to protest the training of mainly Latin American military officers, by the United States Department of Def ...
, was dismissed from the
Maryknoll
Maryknoll is a Catholic non-profit mission movement consisting of four organizations. Together, they work as missioners around the world as Lay People, Priests, Brothers and Sisters.
Mary's Knoll to Maryknoll
In 1912, the Catholic Foreign Missi ...
Fathers and Brothers for his support of women's ordination and has participated in WOW actions.
See also
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Ordination of women and the Catholic Church
In the liturgical traditions of the Catholic Church, the term ''ordination'' refers to the means by which a person is included in one of the holy orders of bishops, priests, or deacons. The teaching of the Catholic Church on ordination, as expr ...
*
Women in the Catholic Church
Women play significant roles in the life of the Catholic Church, although excluded from the Catholic hierarchy of bishops, priests, and deacons. In the history of the Catholic Church, the church often influenced social attitudes toward women. In ...
*
Roman Catholic Womenpriests
Roman Catholic Womenpriests (RCWP) is an independent international organization that claims a connection to the Roman Catholic Church. It is descended from the Danube Seven, a group of women who assert that they were ordained as priests in 2002 by ...
*
Women's Ordination Conference The Women's Ordination Conference is an organization in the United States that works to ordain women as deacons, priests, and bishops in the Catholic Church.
Founded in 1975, the conference was seeded from an idea the year before, when Mary B. Lyn ...
*
Leadership Conference of Women Religious
The Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) is one of two associations of the leaders of congregations of Catholic Church, Catholic Religious sister (Catholic), women religious in the United States (the other being the Council of Major Su ...
References
{{reflist
Ordination of women and the Catholic Church
Christian women's organizations
Women's ordination activists