Gender Equality
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Church culture problem closer to home than Pope Leo thinks
Despite papal acknowledgment of the problem, dioceses worldwide have made almost no progress on women’s roles in ministry.
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The overlooked contradiction in Vatican II’s baptism rules
Church teaching lets women baptize in emergencies, raising an uncomfortable question about why that logic stops short of the priesthood.
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Priest leaves ministry: there’s a bigger question
One columnist’s account of leaving priesthood and religious life prompts a wider look at how institutions treat those who step away.
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Bizarre religion
The Taliban ban on women praying aloud sparks a harder question about the bizarre rules quietly embedded in every faith, including one’s own.
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Women’s Synod report longer with less to say
Drawing on Acts 10-15 and real testimony, one Synod group offered open questions and discernment rather than closing the door with a pronouncement.
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Church knows women were deacons — will they admit it?
The real question is no longer whether women served as ordained deacons, but whether the church will reconsider what it has already found.
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Tend the flame
Valuing tradition means keeping its living fire alight. A dynamic tradition fosters maturity and freedom.
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Women’s ordained ministry serves baptised unity — do it now
The first witness to the risen Christ was a woman. Bishop Ludger Schepers argues a Church that honours Mary Magdalene liturgically while barring women from the altar is acting in direct contradiction to its own founding narrative and the witness of Apostle Junia.
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The theological emptiness of the Petrocchi report
Phyllis Zagano’s analysis in America and in Flashes dismantles the Petrocchi Commission’s conclusions on women’s diaconate, showing they rest on no historical, theological, or anthropological documentation.
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Ancient ordination rites for women deacons sit in Vatican
Medieval liturgical manuscripts housed in the Vatican’s own library describe women being ordained to the diaconate during Mass, with the laying on of hands, invocation of the Holy Spirit and the placement of the stole by the bishop. Zagano’s research brings these forgotten rites back into focus.
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