Urging Justice for Women, WOW Welcomes Pope Leo

Women’s Ordination Worldwide congratulates Pope Leo on his election as pope.

We take hope in that like his successor Pope Francis, Leo expresses solidarity with the poor and marginalized. We welcome his call for bridge building, and peace in the Church and the world. His message brings to memory the wisdom of Pope Paul VI who taught that without justice there can be no peace.

We express concern for the emergence of a possible abuse cover up or inaction. This is now a familiar story for Catholics and we hope that the claims can be fully investigated.

In the Synod on Synodality, clear and unequivocal cries from every corner of the earth were made pleading for justice for women in the Church.

We hope that Leo’s solidarity with the marginalised will include more than half the world’s Catholics – women – who continue to be unjustly excluded from Church leadership and sacramental ministry.

In his conviction for peace, we hope that his leadership will include work for justice for women in both the Church and the world. This will mean more than extending charitable hands of compassion to women.

Justice will involve dialogue, encounter, listening, bridge building, courage, and removing boulders of discrimination that continue to block the way for inclusion of women as full, unquestioned equals and protagonists in their own right in all realms of the Church. It is the same baptism, the same Spirit, and the same God who calls for us all. Justice in the Church will mean ending centuries old indefensible discrimination against women in both sacrament and leadership. Justice for women in the world will include many things not the least of which will be the acknowledgement that the Church’s male domination signals to the world endorsement of women’s second class status all over the world whether they are Catholic or not.

If our Church follows Christ, it is both a sin and a scandal that discrimination against women persists. We pray for Pope Leo. And we pray that his leadership will be a beacon for peace and justice for women in the Church and around the world.

Habemus papam!

Women’s Ordination Worldwide

MAY 8, 2025

FutureChurch joins Catholics around the world in a spirit of solidarity and hope in praying for Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, now known as Pope Leo XIV, and our entire global community.

In his inaugural address to those gathered at St. Peter’s Square, Pope Leo XIV declared: “We must seek together how to be a missionary Church, a Church that builds bridges, dialogue, always open to receive like this square with open arms.” These words resonate deeply with our mission and are an invitation for all Catholics to continue building a synodal Church together.

At FutureChurch, we remain steadfast in our commitment to advocating for the full and equal participation of all people in the life, ministry, and leadership of the Church. We pray that Pope Leo XIV will be an ally in this ongoing work and that his papacy will carry forward and deepen the vision of a listening, inclusive, loving, and missionary Church. His concluding words at the Vatican echo this hope: “To all of you, [people] of Rome, of Italy, of the whole world, we want to be a synodal Church, a Church that walks together, a Church that always seeks peace, that always seeks charity, that always tries to be close especially to those who suffer.”

A Chicago native, Pope Leo XIV’s journey as a member of the Order of St. Augustine, a missionary bishop in Peru, and as Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops and fluency in multiple languages demonstrates a commitment to global outreach and service. His election is a hopeful sign that the Church will remain committed to centering the most vulnerable among us and addressing the urgent needs of our world today . We pray that his leadership will reflect the radical love of Jesus — inclusive, compassionate, and courageous.

As Pope Leo XIV begins his papacy, FutureChurch looks forward to continuing our important work and collaborating with this pontificate towards a more just Church and world.

Contact: Russ Petrus, Executive Director
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"ACCCR adds our welcome to Cardinal Robert Prevost as our new pope, Pope Leo XIV.

We welcome his emphasis on peace in the world and synodality within the Church as a priority. We pray that, with his guiding spirit, the Church will hear the voices of the many suffering, vulnerable and marginalised of the world.

Our prayers are with him as he takes the opportunities and burdens of leadership on his shoulders. We stand with him as he begins his stewardship at a time when the world is calling for justice and an end to all forms of inequality and exclusion.

We, women and men of Australia and New Zealand, join with his call,

"Peace be with you".

We Are Church International congratulate Pope Leo XlV on his election as successor to Pope Francis!

We hope and wish that the elected bishop of Rome, Pope Leo XlV will continue on the path of renewal of the Church begun by Pope Francis, and we appeal to him to do so vigorously in the synodal Spirit.

The future of the Christian Church must be shaped by all the faithful under the spiritual leadership of the Pope. It is not only the mission of the Vatican, cardinals and bishops but all members of the Church, each at their place, to translate Jesus' message of love and equality of all people into our time. We must preserve the common faith and at the same time take account of differences in cultures and living conditions. Unity in diversity, not uniformity are the signs of the times!

We are Church International and its national members worldwide are willing to support Pope Leo XlV in prayer and in action on this path.

Press contacts:

Colm Holmes, Chair We are Church International  
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Phone: +353 86606 3636

Dr Martha Heizer,  Vice-Chair We are Church International
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
 Phone: +43 650 4168500

Translation from the German

Obituaries for the deceased often lapse into exaggerated pathos - both in the private and public political sphere. On the occasion of Pope Francis' death, for example, we heard politicians of all colours movingly eulogise the deceased. In particular, his advocacy for a fairer society, for the poor and refugees and for a peaceful world based on solidarity took centre stage. All of this is true in itself and characterises the profile of this Pope.

However, some commentators rightly criticised the fact that and how a politician in this country, who in many ways represents exactly the opposite of this Pope, indulges in such praise: according to ORF, Herbert Kickl is ‘deeply saddened’ because with Bergoglio, the world is losing an ‘outstanding moral authority of our time’, who has ‘stood up for social justice’ and always found ‘clear words against exclusion, poverty and environmental destruction’. This really is a bombshell, coming from someone who is always a stranger to morality when he spreads generalised hatred against migrants and abuses them as an election issue; someone who denies one of Francis' main concerns, the care of the planet, and discredits climate change as the imagination of more or less criminal environmentalists; and who wants people of other gender orientations to be marginalised. His adulation therefore appears to be an embarrassing pandering to a globally popular personality and therefore ultimately - pardon me - populist ‘body snatching’.

However, the justified indignation at this mendacity should not make us forget that the representatives of other political parties at home and abroad have now suddenly discovered an appreciation for the humanity, the unconditional option for the poor and the peace efforts of this pope, even though their policies look quite different in practice: where, for example, is the unconditional devotion of the conservative and ‘Christian’ parties to the poor and socially weakest? Who is sparing the richest in the reorganisation of the state budget and shifting the burden of debt onto the general public and the poorest? Who is acting under the impression of right-wing electoral successes with increasingly restrictive migration policies - in stark contrast to Francis' position? Who is responsible for what can be described as shameful poverty in the wealthiest countries in the world - including in Austria? Who effusively praises the Pope's appeals for peace and at the same time invests more than ever in armaments with the aim of making the country ‘war-ready’?

This double standard is probably the result of a self-critical implementation of neoliberal political-economic logic (an ‘economy that kills’ according to Francis) and something like a ‘habitual humanity’ of these parties that remains without consequences. Especially for parties that see themselves as Christian, self-criticism is urgently needed here. Ultimately, only a radical ‘conversion’ or at least a gradual approach to the guiding principles of socially committed (Christian) humanity, which Francis stood for, would help. Kickl's falsehood, on the other hand, shows what worries many critical Christians today: that the right, and with it fundamentalist groups, are trying to gain more social legitimisation within the framework of religion and the church by ingratiating themselves. These beginnings should also be resisted.  

Prof. Dr Josef Christian Aigner

Innsbruck