DignityUSA has been an active participant in Synod activities since the process began in 2021. From our earliest listening sessions, the issue of women’s lack of equality in our church has been a consistent concern. Therefore, we submitted comments and awaited with interest and hope the report of Working Group 5, the team charged with addressing this issue.

Many of the major issues addressed by this group had been previewed well in advance. A Vatican commission on ordaining women as deacons rejected that possibility in December 2025, while acknowledging that the question could be open to additional study. Ordination of women to the priesthood was not even within the purview of the Synod. These stances remain a profound disappointment to members of DignityUSA, who declared in 2015:

"DignityUSA and its members call on the leaders and members of our Roman Catholic Church to ensure that all of the sacraments of our Church be administered regardless of the gender identity, sexual orientation, or relational status of the person(s) seeking the sacrament."

Given the Study Group's significant limitations, DignityUSA finds several positive and counteracting aspects in the final report. There is an unflinching acknowledgement of concerns voiced by Catholics around the world about the lack of equality for women and girls, and recognition that clericalism and machismo are damaging forces within our church and in many societies. The Study Group’s recommendation that more administrative and ministerial roles within our church be opened to women worldwide could broaden women’s impact if implemented, monitored, and enforced globally.

Serious concerns remain, however. The continued insistence that fundamental differences between male and female persons represent the Divine plan for humanity, and that gender is fixed and determinative, is unquestioned. This ecclesial anthropology continues to be the primary rationale for the exclusion of women from Holy Orders, as well as the basis for teachings on sexual orientation, gender identity, and family life. The ongoing failure of our church to recognize modern scientific, sociological, and experiential findings on the issue of gender not only forces many people to the margins of church and society but also impedes the ongoing development of Catholic teaching and theology in their full potential richness.

The demand by Catholics around the globe to listen fully and carefully to the testimony of women is also undermined by the Study Group’s unwillingness to accept the testimony of hundreds, if not thousands, of women who claim a deep, persistent, and God-given call to the diaconate or the priesthood. Nowhere in the report is this testimony acknowledged. This silence is, at best, irresponsible, and at worst, a sin of omission.

DignityUSA is also troubled by the way women’s service in the Amazonian region, where many communities have not been visited by a priest “in decades,” is addressed in the report. While women’s pastoral leadership in forming and sustaining ecclesial communities is recognized, the report fails to acknowledge that the refusal to even consider opening ordination to women with the skills and vocation to offer pastoral service is denying our church’s sacraments to many. This is an inequity perpetuated by adherence to traditions rooted in an outdated and unsupported understanding of gender, which no longer serve God’s people.

Despite the severe shortcomings in the Synod Study Group report on women in the Roman Catholic Church, DignityUSA will continue to work with energy and commitment for the equality of women within our church and society. To that end, we hope that these comments will help to continue to move our church towards a true discipleship of equals that welcomes and celebrates the gifts and contributions of all its members.

DignityUSA is the world’s oldest organization of Catholics working for justice, equality and full inclusion of LGBTQIA+ people in our church and society. Founded in 1969, it has members across the United States and beyond.

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