Limerick bishop refuses to say if he would ordain women priests despite strong support
Bishop Brendan Leahy said he has huge respect for women, but was unwilling to say if they should be priests.
The Bishop of Limerick has refused to say if he would ordain a woman priest and said it is not necessarily a solution to the issues affecting the Catholic Church.
Bishop Brendan Leahy's comments come as a church survey showed the majority of practising Catholics in Ireland support the ordination of women as priests as well as a call for more respect for LGBTQ+ people.
According to the research, 96% of Irish Catholics consulted favoured the ordination of women as either deacons or priests.
Bishop Leahy said he has huge respect for women, but was unwilling to say if they should be priests.
“Anyone who knows me knows I have greatly been influenced by major significant women in the life of the Church,” he told
“That is something that for me which has always been important. Whatever the Church understands and moves ahead with, for instance, we do know that Pope Francis at the moment has a commission on the whole question of the ordination of deacons.
“So whatever comes out of that I would go along with.”
He added: “[Former Pope] John Paul has already indicated in a directive [that women should not be ordained], so that’s something I take as a directive from John Paul.
“But that does not exclude much greater study of the whole visibility, role, place of women, not just in decision making but in the presence of the life of the Church.”
Bishop Leahy added: "It is a serious challenge for us that we have no priests.
"Now that's, however, also true in other churches that have women ministers, we can't simply say it will be a solution and I don't think in fairness to women that it should be seen simply as a solution issue."
Catholics worldwide were given an opportunity to give their thoughts and views about the church, as part of the Global Synodal process, launched by Pope Francis in October of last year.
The key issues of concern that have emerged are around equality for women, the inclusion of LGBTQ+ people in the Catholic Church and reform of church structures.
According to the research, 85% expressed support for LGBTQ+ people and were concerned about church exclusion, attitudes and language.
The survey also showed that 70% want greater lay involvement in church decision-making, including greater roles for divorced and remarried people or couples and single parents.
About 85% of Irish Catholics who responded said they believed that priests should be allowed to marry, while 86% agreed that church teaching should be changed to include people of all sexual orientations, and marital or family statuses.
The survey also highlights a call for better-prepared, shorter sermons, and the removal of Old Testament and other readings at Masses.
The survey was carried out across the 26 dioceses in Ireland and, according to the Irish Times, will be considered by a 160-strong national assembly in Athlone this weekend in preparation for a synod in Rome next year.
Sr Natalie Becquart, the undersecretary of the Synod of Bishops in Rome, said Pope Francis considered the diocesan phase the most important phase of the process because it draws on input from the "grassroots".
She said the Pope asks of everybody to give their voice to the process "regardless of their background and experience" of the Church.
The contribution from Irish Catholics is part of a worldwide initiative ahead of the Synod on Synodality called by Pope Francis for the Vatican in October 2023.
Bishop Paul Dempsey of Achonry said he was surprised by a number of the concerns people raised in the survey.
"I was expecting some of as we might call them, the red button issues to come in, in relation to LGBTQ, women's ordination and various issues like that," he said.
"Other issues that came up that I wasn't expecting was certainly maybe the language around the liturgy, something maybe I take for granted.
"The introduction of the revised missal back about 10 years ago, probably hasn't worked for people and people were saying to us ... that the language of the liturgy is not speaking to people.
"That's very significant. That's something that I think we need to take very seriously," he added.
Bishop Dempsey also said the idea of leadership positions in the church took him by surprise as well.
"I was amazed at the amount of people were talking about maybe they felt that they didn't have a role of leadership in their parish in and around a parish, pastoral council, our liturgy groups and various aspects of parish life like that."
Sarah McDevitt, a mother of three and LGBTQ+ activist, said she was not surprised to see that Catholics in wider Irish society is supportive of more inclusion of women and LGBTQ+ people.
“Irish society has moved on a lot,” she explained to .
“And one of the things traditionally I think that would have been around this in general was the fear of the unknown.
“And I think the marriage equality referendum [and] public conversations around things like this have removed fear and people know more about each other and there’s more acceptance there.”
However, Ms McDevitt says the Catholic Church has not been a welcoming place for her community.
“One of my earliest memories of exclusion before I would even have identified as understanding my own sexuality was understanding that I couldn’t be an altar girl.
“Because that’s not something girls were. The local parish priest was absolutely not [in favour]. ‘No girls are going to be altar servers.’”
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