In response to the Women’s Ordination Conference

I’m a Catholic woman, and I’m tired of the narrative that says I’m ‘excluded’ or ‘less than’ because I’m not a priest. That mindset doesn’t uplift women—it reduces us to carbon copies of men.

Women in the Church have always had powerful, sacred roles—just not the same ones. That’s not oppression. That’s vocation. If you feel called to a life of service, leadership, prayer, and teaching, then religious life is RIGHT THERE. Be a nun. Be a sister. Start a mission. Become a theologian. Start a women’s apostolate. Evangelize. Change the world.

But don’t act like your worth is tied to standing at the altar. Jesus didn’t choose men because women weren’t capable—He did it to reflect something deeper about the Bridegroom and the Bride, about covenant and mystery. The Church’s teaching on priesthood isn’t about power—it’s about sacramental symbolism, not skillset or spirituality.

Trying to erase that doesn’t make the Church more inclusive. It just flattens the beauty of complementarity and replaces it with confusion.

Women don’t need to be priests to be holy, powerful, or fully Catholic. We already are.