I know that many of you are tired of hearing this phrase: ‘The role of women is a central concern of our Church.’

In recent decades, this phrase has become a rhetorical sedative, whilst in reality, hardly anything has changed in the rigid power structures.

I stand before you today as a bishop at this Catholic Day because I sense the deep alienation that pervades our halls here, our Church, our society.

We must stop pretending that we need even more working groups or theological reports. We do not have a problem with understanding. We have a problem of implementation.

When we speak today of women’s rights in the Church, we are speaking of the viability of Catholicism in a free society. Anyone who denies women full participation in ministries, ordination and decision-making undermines the sacramental credibility of the Church at its very roots.

Official documents as an exclusion

Let us take an unbiased look at our documents. The Second Vatican Council gave us in Gaudium et Spes (Art. 29) a clear task: All discrimination based on sex must be overcome as “contrary to God’s plan.” This has been stated there since 1965.

But let us look at current canon law: The Codex Iuris Canonici still functions as a bulwark of clerical privileges.

The Monopoly of Power: As long as the “final decision-making power” (can. 129 §1) remains exclusively tied to male ordination, any promotion of women in the Church is merely “participation on demand.”

The Statistics Trap: The latest figures from the German Bishops’ Conference (March 2025) do show an increase in women in leadership positions to 32.5%. But as a member of the Women’s Commission, I tell you: statistics are not justice.

A woman who heads a diocese but has no sacramentally secured vote in theological or disciplinary decisions remains structurally inferior.

We are legally cementing a “doctrine of inequality” that we can no longer afford theologically.

God became human

The theological resistance to women’s ordination often rests on an argument that the dogmatic theologian Julia Knop aptly describes as “sacramental biologism.” It is claimed that the priest must be a man to make the “masculinity of Jesus” visible.

To this I say: This is a dangerous oversimplification of the event of salvation.

Anthropology of Wholeness: If we claim that only the male body can represent Christ, we are de facto declaring women incapable of fully reflecting the image of God.

This contradicts the biblical truth of Genesis 1:27. Women are not “less capable of Christ.” God became human, not merely male.

Sin Against the Spirit: The theologian Johanna Rahner speaks of a systemic “forgetfulness of the Spirit.” When women feel an authentic calling, and we reject them uncritically because of their gender, we as an institution claim to know better than the Holy Spirit. This is a form of hubris that we can no longer afford.

The Apostle to the Apostles: Mary Magdalene was not a silent helper. She was the first proclaimer of the Resurrection.

A Church that celebrates Mary Magdalene but forbids her female successors from speaking at the altar is acting against its own founding story (Apostle Junia).

The price of exclusion

From a sociological perspective, the Church is currently undergoing a kind of “identity retreat.”

The exodus of women who carry meaning: The latest data from the Church Membership Survey (CMS) is a warning sign. We are currently losing women under 50 on a massive scale. These are the women who used to provide religious socialization within families.

When they leave, the social foundation of our Church collapses.

They are not leaving because they no longer believe, but because they can no longer maintain their integrity within a discriminatory structure.

Abuse of power and homogeneity: The MHG study and its successors have demonstrated that purely male, celibate power circles are susceptible to abuse of power and cover-ups.

The full integration of women into leadership positions is not a matter of courtesy, but a vital measure for the separation of powers.

We need correction by women as equal decision-makers with their own right to vote — not as “maternal accessories.”

The hour of truth

This Catholic Congress is marked by a new beginning. But a new beginning means conversion — metanoia.

I am not calling for adaptation to a fleeting spirit of the age. We are calling for a return to the radical nature of the Gospel, which knows no privilege.

As a bishop, I say to you: The Catholic Church will only have a future if it stops sorting God’s gifts according to gender.

We must liberate the ordained ministry from male exclusivity in order to reclaim it as a service to the unity of all the baptized.

Justice is not a topic for the next synodal report.

Justice is the litmus test for the seriousness of our faith.

Let us stand up together — for a Church that finally becomes what it is meant to be: A community of brothers and sisters of equals. Now.

• Ludger Schepers is a German prelate of the Catholic Church who has been an auxiliary bishop of Essen since 2008.
• Address delivered at Catholic Days, Würzburg, Germany May 2026. Republished with permission.

• The above is a translated and edited version of a speech delivered by Auxiliary Bishop Ludger Schepers of the Diocese of Essen, Germany, at the 104th German Catholic (May 13-17) in Würzburg, one of the largest Catholic lay gatherings in Europe and a major event in the German Catholic Church that brings together worship, theological reflection, civic debate, and cultural programs.
• Jointly organized by the national bishops’ conference and the Zentralkomitee der deutschen Katholiken (ZdK—the central committee of Catholic laity), the representative body of German laity, the latest gathering returned to Würzburg a century later. Würzburg hosted earlier Catholic congresses in 1864, 1877, 1893, and 1907.
• Bishop Schepers, 73, who was named Auxiliary Bishop at 55 in 2008, has been a member of the German Bishops’ Conference (DBK).  Since 2008 served as the conference’s official representative for LGBTQ+ pastoral care in Germany, overseeing ministry and pastoral outreach to people whose gender identities or sexual orientations fall outside traditional binary and heterosexual norms.