March news from CWO

Welcome to CWO news March 2025

Why am I receiving this?

CWO member Julia Dance witnessed alone for Catholic Women's Strike. Please let us know if you've been engaging with the Strike.

We urgently request people to get in touch about taking part in our Vocation Sunday vigil. Vocation Sunday action, either in your parish or at Southwark Cathedral is really important.

Heads up for our Annual Gathering, online this year, on Saturday 4 October. Miriam Duignan will be speaking about Hans Wijngaards. More details to follow but please note the date

Please forward this newsletter to anyone you know who you think might be interested. Spread the word!
Please reply to this email with any comments about items included.

The next news will be in April. If you have any items for this, please send by 10 April

CWO member Julia Dance outside Bexhill's Masses on 9 March. She reports, "There were some great exchanges and nothing unsupportive.

"A Keralan priest did ask me what inequality? While I was momentarily struck dumb, a retired Anglican Cannon, now Catholic whom I have known for many years, waded in to save me with, 'You know women in the priesthood and all the other things they are excluded from.' Aah! said the Keralan priest and turned away. I was careful to keep my spade head on the ground and my feet on the public pavement."

She carries a spade because the only service she now gives is the digging and then finishing of holes for the burial of ashes in the parish memorial garden she built 25 years ago.

Julia talks about this in an interview about the strike on BBC Radio 4's Sunday, 16 March. Regina Franken-Wendelstorf from Catholic Women's Council and Kate McAlwee from WOC were also interviewed. Listen here. The item starts at 15.30 minutes

Crowds protest in Dublin calling for Catholic church to allow women to be ordained as priests
Read the article in The Irish Independent

The Gospels were about equality so why are women still oppressed?

Just got this in time for the newsletter.

Congratulations to Soline Vatinel for her interview in the Irish daily Mail

Vocation Sunday 11 May

This is a really important day of witness for our movement. Vocation Sunday is when those called can feel most excluded. Please let us know if you would like to take part in a Vocation Sunday vigil, either in your own parish or at Southwark in London. We will provide materials nearer the date which you can use or adapt as you like.

Reply to this email for more information

The Parable of the Prodigal Son. Lk 15:11-32. Have you ever thought about the Parable of the Prodigal Daughter? This is from Morag Liebert RCWP
The Parable of the Prodigal Daughter

Blessed are women.

I’m sorry to startle you my name is Gabrielle.
I have news for you that I’ve been sent to tell.
The selfish greed and mindless warring
Have sent this planet into mourning.
Where power games and constant friction
Have set a course for mass extinction.
Cries have been heard from the bowels of creation,
I’m here to deliver a new annunciation.
No mortal acts defeat eternal power.
Now you must leave your ivory tower
To spread the message from the Trinity,
That the future now lies in femininity.
Blessed are women chosen to bring to birth
New life and hope upon this broken earth.
Just give me a minute for I need some time to ponder.
I’m baffled by your presence and beginning to wonder
How I can possibly make these things right
In a world gone mad, with no need for the Light.
I’m a nobody and getting on in years,
Unable to fix the world or take away the fears.
I’m unknown and a woman without a voice
Someone with power would be a better choice!
You won’t be alone are you willing to try?
Are you ready to answer I need your reply?
Yes, let Your way be mine and let me bring to birth
A new respect for living, and peace upon the earth.
And the vision left her.

Mary, mother of Jesus, who trusted God through all uncertainty - Pray for us.
Mary, mother of Jesus, whose courageous response to the Spirit’s call changed the world - Pray for us

Tessa Gallagher 7 December 2024.

Jesus calls women to lead. Someday the church will, too.
This jubilee year, don’t lose hope that change in the church will come. Article in U. S. Catholic

CWO in The Tablet

On 1 March, They published Penelope Middelboe's article entitled "Why I left" and her letter about Hans Wijngaards' funeral.
The following week, 8 March, Morag Liebert had a letter about the Catholic Women's Strike published (continued next page).

These are all worth a look but I can't reproduce them here for copyright reasons. The links will only work for you if you're a subscriber.

Here's a small quote from Penelope's article:-
“Even in the darkest moments, my faith is in Jesus and not an institution. And being Catholic now meant I couldn’t do what he was calling me to do or be who he was calling me to be.”

CWO BOOK

Awakening by Sr Myra Poole and Pippa Bonner £10 but negotiable - we'd rather people have it than it sits in a box!

This book tells the history of our movement in CWO. If you're relatively new to the campaign it is a must read

Please let me know if you would like a copy and I'll let you know postage - probably around £4.

We continue to request prayers for Myra Poole. Her video was the first in the opening videos for Root and Branch Synod entitled "Setting the Synod in Context". [you will have to dodge youtube ads and her bit starts about 12 minutes in]. She is an amazing inspirational force.

She will be 92 on 31 March!

A list of CWO saints - people who we have lost and wish to commemorate. They were people known to us who supported our campaign to end institutional misogyny in the Roman Catholic Church.

Please let me know of anyone else who you would like to be added by replying to this email

CWO Saints

Mary MacKillop
Ruth Norton
John Hatfield
Celia Greenwood
Michael O’Gara
Sheila Houlihan
Mary Daly
Estelle White
Pat McCarron
Marcella Althaus-Reid
Astrid Klemz
Jean Palmer
Elizabeth Rendall
Maureen Brown
Tissa Balasuriya
Jack Sutcliffe
Pat Regini
Mary Ann Schoettly
Pam Skelton
Robert Kaggwa
Mike Ward
Anne Hepburn
Eileen Sikorska
Peter Nelson
Barbara Blaine
Stanley Baxter
David Konstant
Kevin Kelly
Claire Shelton-Jones
Catherine Houlihan
Stephen Bonner
Veronica Seddon
Ianthe Pratt
Jackie Clackson
Rosemary Radford Ruether
Barry Salmon
Paul Teece
Dr Anton Joseph
Elizabeth Brennan
Julia Salmon
Shuhada' Sadaqat/Sinéad O'Connor
Gabriel Daly
Sheila Birtchnell
Pat Pinsent
Tom Gumbleton
Jim Leavy
Mary O'Regan
Sr Theresa Kane
Bishop Patricia Fresen
Jean Wright
Fr James Callan
Jimmy Carter
Hans Wijngaards

Pray for us

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The CWO Prayer

Moved by a compulsion of the Holy Spirit,
we cannot remain ignorant of this injustice in our midst.
We long for all humanity to be acknowledged as equal,
particularly among your community of the church,
so we pray, grieving for the lost gifts of so many women.
We ask you, God of all peoples, to bring insight and humility to all those in positions of dominance,
and an understanding that the ascended Lord called us all to act doing Christ's work here and now.
We ask this of you,
God our Creator, Jesus our Redeemer, Spirit our Sustainer