CNWE women in Rome with members of Women’s Ordination Conference (WOC) - Same baptism, same spirit, same calling!

Posted on October 2, 2024 by Susan K. Roll

The second session of the Synod on Synodality begins today, October 2, in Rome.  Two CNWE women, Rosemary Ganley and myself (Susan Roll), joined the WOC group.  
Rosemary Ganley (third from left, rear row) and Susan K. Roll (third from right, front row) pictured with members of WOC
Greetings from Rome!
 
I arrived Monday evening by train, and almost immediately was taken up into a gathering at Kate McElwee’s place on the Via Germanico.  Pat Brown, who’s staying at the Resurrectionist residence and I, met with the WOW Steering Committee reps present, and together had a great dinner at “L’Insalata ricca” (“The Rich Salad!”) restaurant — ten of us from WOW and three from Futurechurch.  It set a tone of optimism and good energy for this year’s gathering, although with a sense that we’re in more of an uphill climb this year than we thought we were at this time last year.
 
Tuesday’s Vigil liturgy at the Basilica of Sta. Prassede was beautifully put together by Katie Lacz of WOC.  It flowed well and gave us an appropriate start, though with fewer in attendance this year, barely half.  Rosemary joined us at the Resurrectionists just in time for the taxi to the Basilica.  The fourth member of our company at the house, Rhiannon Parry Thompson, joined in the vigil onsite.  Her husband arrived yesterday, so that makes five of us here in the house.  Pat and Rhiannon are representatives of CWO, Catholic Women’s Ordination in the U.K., to the Steering Committee.  After the service we ended up at a Brazilian restaurant nearby.
 
Yesterday WOW people were out early for the Castello Sant’Angelo and WOW’s “Don’t Kick the Can Down the Road” action.  The theme came up several months ago as a casual remark in a meeting of the Rome Action Committee, and it soon took on a life of its own.   The idea was that the Vatican is simply “kicking the can down the road” on women’s ordination, but since then of course, the admission of women to all church ministries has taken on a darker colouration on the part of the gentlemen who claim power in the church.  Nonetheless we carried on! 
 
You can see in the early photos what we did on the banks of the Tiber.  Posters with a replica of a Campbell’s Soup can were lined up to spell “Ordain Women,” and we kicked and rattled empty tin cans on strings to make a clatter on the street.  We were photographed with St. Peter’s in the background, even though this year there was street construction at the bridge that partly blocked the view … a conspiracy theorist might say, maybe the authorities thought we’d be back after last year … and we *were.*
 
The “dress code” for Tuesday’s Vigil was purple, the international colour of the women’s ordination movement, and yesterday it was red and white — the signature colours of Campbell’s Soup!  I wore our red and white lanyard from last year with “CNWE Canada” visible on the tag, and Michael Higgins, who was present, came right up to us.  Rosemary and I are meeting him for a meal next week.
 
Yesterday afternoon several of our people were stopped by the police and their passports taken and copied.  They had simply said hello to Miriam Duignan as she presented the petition for women deacons from the Wijngaards Institute to a few members of the Synod.  And the police, we heard later, had taken photographs at the morning action. 
 
Later we regathered at the Goose restaurant for dinner.
 
Today there’s an online press conference as well as events sponsored by Catholic Women’s Council and Futurechurch.  Catholics for a Free Choice were able to spread out their banner early this morning near the Castello.  Pat describes the event as “beautiful and very moving.”
 
For tomorrow we finally obtained a police permit for the afternoon walk, but only after considerable time dealing with the authorities.
 
It’s raining on and off today, but the view from the rooftop terrace where our nine-person CNWE contingent last year gathered, is still magnificent.  And a lovely bell is ringing twelve noon.