Synod on Synodality

Posted on March 4

On January 29th, 2025, a Zoom conversation and prayer was held with special guests Elizabeth Davis RSM, PhD and Phyllis Zagano PhD, who shared their experience knowledge, wisdom and hope so generously.

Posted on November 21, 2024 

We Are Church International created a video parody  titled VATICANELLE and performed it in Rome on October 12, 2024. The parody was features seven Women bishops and Pope Sister Martha in a Synod that discusses if men can be ordained.

Posted on November 3, 2024 by Susan K. Roll

We are pleased to present this YouTube video courtesy of WOC, and featuring CNWE members Susan K. Roll and Rosemary Ganley at the Rome Synod on October 2, 2024.
 

Posted on October 17, 2024 by Susan K. Roll

Susan wrote the post below on October 15, in response to a friend who remarked that she must be “very disappointed” in the results of her and Rosemary Ganley’s presence and activity in Rome, along with many other international Catholics. Susan’s reflection on her 2024 Synod experience in Rome seems a beautiful epilogue to her earlier posts.
 

Posted on October 13, 2024 by Susan K. Roll

First, let me try your patience by sharing Notes from a Cranky Liturgist Who Just Attended Mass in Polish, the Only Language Out of the Eight in the Booklet that She Doesn’t Understand. In 2011 a new English version of the Mass in English was promulgated from Rome with the rationale that it was a more accurate translation.  This is False.  

Posted on October 13, 2024 

From the Winnipeg Free Press:

Catholic women gathered for a prayer service Friday, beneath the towering archway doors of the façade of the historic Saint Boniface Cathedral, to call for greater inclusion of women in the church.

Posted on October 13, 2024 

On Friday, October 11, 2024, at St. Boniface Cathedral in Winnipeg, all were welcome to gather and pray for the October 2024 Synod in Rome. We who were present prayed that this Synod would be a transformative experience of God’s gracious presence and action among us. 

Posted on October 11, 2024 

It’s now Friday morning Oct 11th, and on the way back from breakfast I ended up unexpectedly learning a good deal about the history and life of the Resurrectionist community where we’re staying.  I had never heard of the Resurrectionists before our trip to Rome last year.  Their history is documented in a video and a three-room museum on the ground floor.

Posted on October 11, 2024 

Jeanie McKibbon gave a spectacular interview on the CBC  “Calgary Eyeopener” this morning. The interview is in the first segment at the site “Women and the Synod”.  Jeannie’s responses are so candid and clear. 

Posted on October 8, 2024 by Susan K. Roll

This morning, I set my alarm, got up and out at 8 am to attend Sunday mass.  In Polish.
 
The Resurrectionist house is managed by two Polish priests and cared for by three Polish women religious in habit.  At the moment there’s a good crowd of Polish pilgrims staying here.  And, considering what the readings were this Sunday, I didn’t mind hearing them in a language of which I know only some 30 words, 25 of them about food.

Posted on October 5, 2024 by Rosemary Ganley

We two (Susan Roll and me) representing CNWE are here in Rome.  It’s a full agenda of actions always in a prayer context, and often with a sense of humour.

For example, this morning started with a noisy “Kick the can down the street action”, complete with empty soup cans, in reference to our perception that this Vatican prefers to avoid contentious issues such as ordination of women to priesthood by just referring it to more secret study.

Posted on October 5, 2024 by Susan K. Roll

Thursday morning and afternoon I spent almost nine hours straight at my desk in front of the laptop screen, with WhatsApp off to the side.  I sat in on the We Are Church press conference in the early afternoon, then drafted and polished the press conference report that I sent you as well as drafting the report on our Tuesday and Wednesday.  I reviewed what was coming out from church reform organizations and the media so far and caught up on correspondence, more or less.
 

Posted on October 3, 2024 

As the second of two Synodal Assemblies gets underway this month at the Vatican, CNWE returns to Rome to join in prayer and action for women’s equality in the Catholic Church, together with reform movements from around the world.

Posted on October 3, 2024 by Susan K. Roll

Here is a summary report on the Zoom press conference organized by We Are Church International, and moderated by Colm Holmes of WOW and WAC-Ireland. Six invited panelists presented perspectives on the Synod and the situation of Catholics today in their home countries. 

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.  

Posted on September 20, 2024 by Mary-Ellen Morgenstern

As a lifelong feminist and member of the Catholic Network for Women’s Equality (CNWE), the workings of recent papacies and the Vatican have often been a source of anger and pain. For decades, I have witnessed the systemic dysfunction of the hierarchy regarding the global clergy sex abuse crisis, the legacy of Catholic Indian residential schools, the exclusion of women from ministry and leadership, and the church’s resistance to living into the vision of Vatican II.

Posted on May 17, 2024

After meeting on Zoom with CNWE delegates in Rome for the start of the Vatican Synod on Synodality in October 2023, Sr. Elizabeth Davis (RSM) has graciously invited continuous conversation with Canadian Catholics. She shares her experience of the Synod while also listening to the hopes and yearnings for a synodal church.

Posted on January 25, 2024

Sr. Elizabeth Davis (RSM), was one of 54 women voting members at the historic “Synod on Synodality” at the Vatican from October 4-29, 2023.  In this recording, she speaks of her experience of being a Synod member, the implications of being “a synodal church in mission”, and the importance of Catholics engaging the process more deeply.

Posted on February 26, 2024

In 2021, Pope Francis initiated a process to seek global input from Catholics about how we could become a more synodal church. “Synodality” (walking together) requires the participation of all to discern what the Spirit is calling the Catholic Church to be in our time.

Posted on February 12, 2024

On the afternoon of Sunday March 3, reform-minded Catholics are invited to join CNWE and CLC for a conversation about the Synod on Synodality in relation to the work for women’s equality in the Catholic Church. Please plan to join the conversation for an early celebration of International Women’s Day!

Posted on October 24, 2023

CNWE members in Canada participated in the Synod in Rome, through prayer, intention and action.  Members were encouraged to take a photo of themselves in solidarity, and Sr. Giang Pham, rndm put those photos and reflections together, into this 7 minute video on YouTube.

Posted on October 22, 2023 by Susan K. Roll

Thursday I was the guest speaker at a luncheon organized by the Centre for Women’s Studies in Theology at the Faculty of Theology, Catholic University of Leuven (Louvain) Belgium.   While I was asked to speak to several questions, I did manage to describe what our CNWE team did in Rome, our rationale, and how we did our legwork with the media.  

Posted on October 17, 2023 by Veronica Dunne

Here is a 20 minute video of our October 4 prayer at Cardinal Flahiff’s grave, that was put together by one of our Sisters, Giang Pham.  The day was cold, grey, wet and windy.  You can hear the wind blowing in the recording.  (“fill the earth, bring it to birth, and blow where you will” – as Miriam Therese Winters sings.)

Posted on October 17, 2023 by Susan K. Roll

On Friday evening October 13, I was invited to join a group of German women to tell the story of what we nine CNWE folks did in Rome the other week. The occasion was a weekend pilgrimage in the footsteps of Hildegard of Bingen, directed by Annette Esser of the Scivias Institute in Bad Kreuznach, Germany.

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Header Image:
Vatican march of women calling for ordination to the priesthood.

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