Winnipegger carries women’s rights message to Catholic synod

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This article was published 27/09/2023 (745 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Most people visit Rome to see the sights — the Colosseum, the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, St. Peter’s Basilica.

Winnipegger Louise Dowhan is going to the Italian city to deliver a message — that it’s time for the Roman Catholic Church to let women be priests and deacons.

“It’s important for women to be recognized and treated equally in all ministry roles in the church,” said the 58-year-old member of St. Alphonsus Parish in East Kildonan.

Dowhan left for Rome on Wednesday as part of a nine-person delegation from the Catholic Network for Women’s Equality, an organization that works for the equal participation of women in the Catholic church.

She will be there for the start of the historic month-long Synod on Synodality called by Pope Francis, a gathering of Catholics from around the world to discuss the future of the church.

What makes this synod unique is that in addition to bishops and other church officials, the gathering will include lay people and women as delegates.

Dowhan and other members of the network will not be part of the official synod, which runs from Oct. 4 to 29 at the Vatican. Instead, they will be meeting and praying with other Catholic women from around the world to be a “visible presence calling for change.”

“I want to use my voice to speak the truth as I see it,” said Dowhan, who joined the organziation three years ago. “I’m hoping the official delegates to the synod will notice this message.”

Dowhan herself has no desire to be a priest or deacon.

“I feel called to support women who feel called,” she said, adding she knows many women “who would make wonderful pastors. … They are being denied a chance to serve in that way, and parishes are being denied a chance to be served by them.”

A mother of two adult children, including a daughter, Dowhan is also concerned about whether younger generations will want to be part of the church “if it continues to discriminate against women.”

Dowhan, who will also take in some of the sights in Rome, is paying her own way to Italy.

“I decided to put my money where my mouth is,” she said. “I want to be there at such a historic moment.”

While in Rome, she and the other network members hope to interact with official Canadian delegates to the synod, which includes bishops and lay people.

Dowhan and the others network members will be supported while in Rome by the likes of Sister Veronica Dunne of the religious order Sisters of Our Lady of the Missions.

Dunne, 78, is part of the St. Kateri Tekakwitha Parish and has belonged to the women’s equality organization since 1999. “I’m committed to creating a world that works for everyone,” she said of her support for Dowhan and the others in going to Rome.

“Women are largely invisible in the church. We need the church to acknowledge the gifts of women. … The truth is, there would be no church without women.”

One way Dunne would like to support the delegation is through a prayer vigil, possibly at the grave of former Canadian cardinal George Flahiff.

Flahiff, who was archbishop of the Archdiocese of Winnipeg from 1961 to ‘82, died in 1989 and is buried in the city. He was an outspoken supporter of women’s involvement in the Roman Catholic church, including as priests.

In 1971 he declared, “No argument should be made to exclude women from any service to the church,” and that rules prohibiting women from full service were the results of “male prejudice, blind adherence to merely human traditions or questionable interpretations of scripture.”

“I want to resurrect his vision,” said Dunne. “He saw long ago what needed to be done.”

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