What Pope Leo XIV Can Learn from Roman Catholic Women Priests

Bridget Mary Meehan, ARCWP

Mary Eileen Collingwood, ARCWP

May 15, 2025

If Pope Leo XIV met with Roman Catholic Women Priests and listened to our experiences in inclusive Catholic communities and ministries, here’s what he could learn about continuing and deepening Pope Francis’ vision of a “Church for Everyone”:

1. Radical Welcome Must Be Embodied, Not Just Preached

    In faith communities guided by ordained women, all are welcomed — not

    conditionally, not partially, but fully:

• LGBTQ+ persons are not just tolerated but celebrated.

• Divorced and remarried Catholics are fully integrated without hurdles.

• People of all races, genders, and backgrounds are treated as equals at the table.

Lesson for Pope Leo:

Radical welcome cannot be only pastoral language — it must be built into structures, sacraments, and leadership. Pope Francis spoke often about a “field hospital Church;” women priests show how that field hospital actually operates.

2. Inclusive Leadership Heals Wounds

    In inclusive Catholic communities guided by women priests, leadership is

    shared and non-hierarchical:

• Decisions are made collectively.

• Ministries are shaped by listening and discernment circles.

• Titles matter less than relationships.

Lesson for Pope Leo:

A Church truly “for everyone” must model leadership as service and co-responsibility, not clerical control. This means that renewed priestly ministries are relational, connected and empowered in a community of equals.

3. Sacramental Life Belongs to the People, Not to a Clerical Class

    Women priests in inclusive ministries often emphasize open sacraments:

• Eucharist is celebrated with a deep sense that it belongs to all people who desire to share in the communal presence of Christ.

• No one is denied Communion based on baptismal or marital status, sexuality, or “worthiness.”

Lesson for the Pope:

Pope Francis’ dream of a Church as a “Mother with open doors” (Evangelii Gaudium, §47) comes alive when sacraments are truly open to all who seek Christ.

4. The Margins are the Center

    In many communities guided by ordained women, the needs of the most

    marginalized shape the liturgy, outreach, and preaching:

• Immigrant justice, racial and gender equity, LGBTQ+ rights, and ecological care are woven into the Gospel proclamation.

Lesson for Pope Leo:

A Church for everyone must make those on the margins the heartbeat of the Church, not an afterthought. Liberation theologian Gustavo Gutiérrez said: “So you say you love the poor — name them!” Women priests show what that looks like in practice.

5. The Spirit Speaks Through Those Long Silenced

    Women priests are living signs that the Spirit moves beyond the official

    structures:

• Despite excommunication, ridicule, or invisibility, women priests are bearing Gospel fruit.

Lesson for Pope Leo:

Listening to women called to priesthood could teach Pope Leo that the Spirit’s voice often comes through those whom the institutional Church has dismissed. As Pope Francis wrote in a footnote in the document on pastoral care of divorced and remarried Catholics: “No one can be condemned forever.  Because that is not the logic of the Gospel! Here I am not speaking only of the divorced and remarried, but of everyone in whatever situation they find themselves. God is not afraid of new things.”

In Conclusion

Roman Catholic Women Priests in inclusive Catholic communities and ministries embody what Pope Francis dreamed about: a synodal, humble, welcoming Church. Women priests are not a threat to unity in the Church; we are a prophetic sign of the inclusive Church in which God’s Spirit is birthing something new!  We pray that more women will hear the call to guide the People of God through ordination as prophetic witnesses to Gospel truth.

From The Irish Independent: Girl Power – Vatican hid art that showed female priests.

Let us pray:

Come, Holy Spirit, Breath of the Living God,

Fall afresh upon Pope Leo XIV

as he embraces the sacred call to lead your global Church

in a time of deep yearning for healing and renewal.

Spirit of Pentecost,

You who speak in every language,

You who lift up the lowly and challenge unjust power,

anoint Pope Leo with the fire of compassion,

the clarity of vision,

and the strength to build bridges among all God's people.

May he draw near to the People of God,

especially to those at the margins —

the excluded, the silenced, the overlooked.

May he recognize in our women-led communities

the Spirit of Jesus alive in the joyful proclamation of the Gospel,

the celebration of sacraments,

and the honoring of the radical equality of the baptized.

We pray that Pope Leo XIV

will be open to the lived wisdom of grassroots communities,

where ministry flows from mutual discernment,

where leadership is shared,

and where all are welcomed at the table of Christ’s love —

without exception.

O Spirit of Justice and Mercy,

guide our new pope to walk humbly with all your people.

May he lead with a servant's heart,

blessing what has long been silenced,

and opening doors long shut.

We entrust Pope Leo XIV to You, Spirit of Divine Love.

Make him a courageous witness to the Gospel,

a healer of wounds,

and a prophet of transformation

for a Church becoming ever more whole.

Amen.