Reformist groups urge Synod to repeal canon barring women from ordination

Seven international organizations advocating for reforms in the Catholic Church have requested that Cardinal Mario Grech, Secretary General of the Synod of Bishops, repeal three canons of the Code of Canon Law, including canon 1024, which states that “only a baptized male validly receives sacred ordination.” The petition seeks to extend the scope of synodal reforms to an issue directly related to Catholic doctrine on the sacrament of Holy Orders.

The request is contained in a letter addressed to Cardinal Grech, dated October 22, 2026, in response to the report *Toward a Synodal Church*, prepared by the Synod’s canonical commission. The signatories consider the proposed modifications insufficient and call for a deeper transformation of ecclesiastical governance structures.

The initiative is supported by We Are Church International, Root & Branch, Council of Australasian Catholics, Spirit Unbounded, Catholic Church Reform International, International Church Reform Network, and Association of Catholic Priests, organizations linked to movements promoting changes in the Church’s doctrine, discipline, and governance.

The most significant request appears on the second page of the letter, where the signatories question the restrictions established by canons 129 §1 and 274 §1 and their connection to canon 1024. The organizations argue that these provisions maintain a governance structure reserved primarily to clerics and that, by linking certain ecclesiastical responsibilities to the reception of the sacrament of Holy Orders, they exclude women from leadership and ministry roles.

In this context, they explicitly request “the review of canons 129 §1, 274 §1, and 1024 with a view to their repeal,” a demand they reiterate in the final section of the document. Canon 1024 of the Code of Canon Law states that “only a baptized male validly receives sacred ordination.” It is therefore not merely an administrative provision, but a norm that establishes a necessary condition for the validity of the sacrament of Holy Orders.

Canon 129 §1, for its part, establishes that those who have received sacred orders are capable subjects for the exercise of the power of governance, while canon 274 §1 reserves to clerics those offices whose exercise requires the power of order or ecclesiastical governance.

The signatories acknowledge that this issue was outside the scope of the Synod’s canonical commission, but maintain that it cannot remain outside a broader synodal reform. Although the letter focuses its argument on the participation of women in governance and ecclesial ministries, the request to repeal canon 1024 directly concerns the norm regulating who may validly receive ordination.

Source: Read the original report