FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Suzanne Thiel, President

ROMAN CATHOLIC WOMENPRIESTS-USA

(503) 784-3330

August 10, 2012

Response to Statement of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious  

[Portland, OR] Roman Catholic Womenpriests-USA (RCWP) commends the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) for their decision to engage in “open and honest dialogue” with Archbishop Sartain, who was appointed to oversee a mandate for reform of the organization issued by the Vatican earlier this year. 

Sister Pat Farrell, current president of the LCWR, said that a dialogue “may lead not only to increasing understanding between the church leadership and women religious, but also to creating more possibilities for the laity and, particularly for women, to have a voice in the church.”

RCWP believes that justice for women in the church, and indeed, justice for every oppressed group in the world today, will only come about when women and men courageously, yet respectfully, speak out and take action in order to change the structures that maintain and promote injustice. LCWR has given us a fine model to do so.

We are enormously proud to stand in solidarity with our sisters and will continue to pray with and for them as they move forward.

Roman Catholic Womenpriests (RCWP) is an international movement within the Roman Catholic Church. The mission of Roman Catholic Womenpriests-USA is primarily to spiritually prepare, ordain in Apostolic Succession, and support women who are called by the Holy Spirit and their communities to a renewed priestly ministry rooted in justice and faithfulness to the Gospel. Website: romancatholicwomenpriests.org