Pope: Women fundamentally important to Catholic Church

Pope Francis stressed the fundamental importance of women in the Catholic Church yesterday, a message hailed as a significant shift from the position of his predecessor Benedict.

Supporters of liberal reform of the Church have called on it to give a greater voice to women and recognise their importance to the largest religious denomination in the world, and some groups call for women to be ordained as priests.

The head of the Women’s Ordination Conference, which calls for women to be treated equally in the Church and to be allowed to become priests and bishops, said Francis’s words were the most encouraging she had heard in her lifetime, but did not go far enough.