Women’s ordination activists in the Catholic Church protested with pink smoke rods in a place near the Vatican on Wednesday (7). The action occurred a few hours before the beginning of the conclave, and aimed to criticize the electoral process to elect a new pontiff, composed exclusively by men.
Shouting phrases such as “end with sexism,” members of the conference for women’s ordination (Woc) have released clouds of smoke to emphasize that the church needs to change the posture regarding the ordering of women.
The executive director of the Wijngaards Institute for Catholic Research and Women’s Ordination Worldwide told Reuters that the protest had to occur before the cardinals were confined to the Sistine Chapel without contact with the outside world.
“We are sending the pink smoke on the Vatican before the beginning of the conclave, even today. We are doing this because we know we have a small window of time before the cardinals are confined to the Sistine Chapel, without access to their social and cellular networks,” he says Miriam Duignan.
She added: “They will see pink smoke on the Vatican and will know that women are sending a clear sign that they cannot enter 133 men deciding the future of the Catholic Church without half of that same Catholic church. They will talk about all kinds of issues, but they will not talk about women’s ordination, women’s women, and women’s equality.”
Pope Francis put women in a prominent position at the Vatican
A survey conducted by Vatican News in 2023 revealed that the number of employees working in the Santa See and the Vatican City Administration had a leap from 846 to 1165 in the first 10 years of the Pontificate of Francisco.
At the time of the promotion of the survey, the Holy See employed 3,114 people, including 812 women. In practice, this means that one in four employees was a woman.
Throughout the pontificate of Francis, women have earned unpublished appointments for positions in the Vatican and the right to vote in global bishops. In January of this year, for example, he appointed the first woman for leadership of an important Vatican department.
The 59 -year -old sister Simona Brambilla directs the Vatican’s dickering to the Consecrated Institutes of Life and Apostolic Life societies, which supervises the world’s Catholic religious orders. She replaces Cardinal João Braz de Aviz, a Brazilian prelate who led the office since 2011.
However, there is a limit that the Pope did not exceed: the ordination of women as priests, not even to become diaconis.
The deacon is a position, occupied by men, dedicated to service in the church and the Catholic hierarchy, is a degree below a priest. He cannot celebrate masses, hear confessions or anoint the sick.
This content was originally published in “Pink Smoke”: activists protest in favor of women priests in Rome on the CNN Brazil website.
Source: CNN Brasil
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