The role of women in the Catholic Church remains a divisive issue

CBS News

06-05-2025

The role of women in the Catholic Church is a big issue
The role of women in the Catholic Church is a big issue
The role of women in the Catholic Church is a big issue
With the conclave to select a new Pope beginning on May 7, many are wondering in what direction a new pope will take the Catholic Church.
The role of women in the Church is a big issue, and there are Catholics in the Pittsburgh region hoping women will be able to take bigger roles in the near future.
In an intimate church service, Reverend Gerry Lococo celebrates mass as an ordained Roman Catholic priest in the basement of an Episcopal church in Brighton Heights. The community is called "Sunday's Bread."
Lococo and a few hundred other women have been ordained outside the official church structure, and because the Catholic Church forbids women from becoming priests, Lococo is excommunicated.
Yet she describes herself as a "cradle Catholic."
"I love the sacramental church that we have. We have all these sacraments, yet I cannot receive all of them. Holy Orders is a sacrament. Doesn't that seem a little bit odd for members of a church to not be able to receive all of the sacraments?" Lococo says.
A Pew Research survey in February found 59% of U.S. Catholics say the Church should allow women to become priests; however, the Catholic Church believes only men can be priests, in part because Jesus was a man.
Lococo is married and says she was called to be a priest after decades as a social worker, but the inspiration started as a child.
"I used to play mass with my brothers. We would have the little vanilla wafers or something like that, and I would actually (act out the mass)," Lococo says.
Support for women becoming deacons is even higher than for priests. Sixty-eight percent of U.S. Catholics say women should be allowed to become deacons. Catholic deacons can give sermons and perform some services, like baptisms and funerals. Since the 1960s, married men have been allowed to be deacons.
Dr. Phyllis Zagano is recognized globally as an expert on the diaconate for women. She says there's only one person in scripture with the job title of deacon – Saint Phoebe, and that women were ordained as deacons in the Catholic Church up to the middle of the 12th century.
She says it's time to allow women to be deacons again.
"The church, by ordaining women, would say to the world that half the planet is worthy of respect, is made in the image and likeness of God," Zagano says.
In 2016, Pope Francis appointed Zagano to a papal commission that met at the Vatican to discuss whether women should be allowed to be deacons.
Pope Francis and Vatican leaders did not make any changes to the current practice.
Zagano says many people are hopeful the new pope will allow women to take more leadership in the Church, including as deacons.
"I think if we don't, it will be a problem for the Church and the world because women are pretty much fed up with the Catholic Church. They're leaving, and they're leaving with their husbands and their children and with their checkbooks."
Lococo says she will continue to serve as she feels called and hopes a new pope will recognize her ministry.
"We always have hope. We always have hope. In this season of Easter, I am hopeful. Who knows what the conclave will result in?"
American Catholics are sometimes more open to change and considered more "liberal" than Catholics in other countries. Only 7% of Catholics around the world are from the United States.