“Striving to be beacons of hope, we commit to…walk with women as we claim our voice and work toward an inclusive church and society…”
Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, 2019 Acts of Chapter
Every six years, delegates from each location in our congregation gather for a congregational chapter. During this meeting, they agree on priorities and directions for the life of the congregation for the following six years. In 2019, one of those priorities was to “walk with women as we claim our voice and work toward an inclusive church and society.”
Here are three of the ways our congregation has support women in the past few years.
Womanly Novena
The worldwide Catholic Church held a Synod on Synodality, which sought input from Catholics around the globe “to provide an opportunity for the entire People of God to discern together how to move forward on the path towards being a more synodal Church in the long-term.”
As the church prepared for the second stage of the synod, we invited everyone to pray with us a womanly novena, each month for nine months, for a more inclusive church. Each month, we shared:
- A quote from the synod document, entitled, “‘Enlarge the space of your tent’ (Is 54:2) Working Document for the Continental Stage of the Synod,” specifically paragraphs 60-65 on “Rethinking women’s participation.”
- A brief biography of a woman in the church who inspires us
- A prayer for our church and society
Discerning Deacons
Discerning Deacons, a group founded in 2020 to support women discerning their vocation to the diaconate in the Catholic Church, asked us to affirm a statement published by the International Union of Superiors General (UISG) and the men’s Union of Superiors General. The following statement comes from their joint contribution to the Synod on Synodality in which they made 13 proposals for increasing women’s ability to contribute to the life and mission of the Church.
The international superiors requested that the Church:
“Allow women to discern and respond to the call of serving as permanent deacons. This proposal was supported by many. A more limited number of respondents proposed also ordination to priesthood.”
Our congregation supported this request, pledging that we would make our support known to our congregation, to Discerning Deacons and to any synod delegates we can contact. We agreed that:
- We affirm that now is the appropriate time to allow women to discern this call, to have access to the necessary formation and to be ordained as deacons;
- We commit ourselves as a congregation to partner with the global and local Church in implementing the synod processes that would allow women to discern and respond to this call;
- We will pray that this discernment continues in a synodal manner, trusting in the movement and guidance of the Holy Spirit.
The decision to support this statement and to promote the vocation of women to the ordained ministry was unanimous. We encourage every sister and charism partner to act on this commitment in whatever ways possible and welcome them to invite any others who are willing to promote this dimension of increasing women’s contribution to the life of the Catholic Church.
Supporting the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment in the U.S. Constitution
As one response to our 2019 Chapter directive to work toward an inclusive society, we are supporting the full implementation of the Equal Rights Amendment for the United States.
A bit of history: the needed 38 states have ratified the Equal Rights Amendment, and the required two-year waiting period following the last state’s ratification was fulfilled on January 27, 2022. The only thing preventing the full implementation of that ratification is a procedural issue. On the original item, Congress indicated a date by which the amendment should be ratified, but the Constitution demands no specific time period for ratification. That impediment can be overcome if the National Archivist publishes the legally approved amendment.
We have been following the lead of the Equal Rights Amendment Coalition in advocating for ratification of the amendment. President Biden declared it the law of the land shortly before leaving office. Though this will surely be challenged in court, we are hopeful it will be added to the constitution.
An Ongoing Effort
As individuals and as a congregation, we have sought to lift up the voices of women. The above list of actions does not catalogue every effort we have made, and there is much deeper and farther to go in our walk with women as we claim our voice and work toward an inclusive church and society. Boldness, creativity, and collaboration will be the hallmarks of our future actions.