MUMBAI, Maharashtra (Indian Catholic News) — A global Catholic women’s network is urging the Church to confront abuse, inequality and exclusion while giving women a greater voice in family life and Church decision-making.
The Catholic Women’s Council, an international network of more than 60 Roman Catholic groups, issued the appeal in a report titled Amoris Laetitia: Catholic Women’s Voices, Wounds and Expectations.
“We write this document in the inescapable context of the global rise of misogyny, renewed attacks on women’s and LGBTQ rights, and growing violence against women – a reality that must guide any discernment on family life,” said Virginia Saldanha from India, chairperson for the Catholic Women’s Council.
The October 2026 report was prepared ahead of the 10th anniversary of Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia (The Joy of Love) and Pope Leo XIV’s Oct. 7–14 meeting in Rome with heads of episcopal conferences, leaders of Eastern Churches, families and theological experts.
Experts and leaders from every continent took part in conversations and listening sessions, the council said, producing a synthesis of “global themes and glaring lacunae.”
The report says women’s experiences of family life must be understood against “the global rise of misogyny, renewed attacks on women’s and LGBTQ rights, and growing violence against women.”
“For women, the family is both a place of profound grace and of profound risk,” it says.
Challenging an androcentric framework
The council identifies five urgent realities for women in family life — androcentric frameworks, abuse within Christian families, marriage and canon law, sexual education, and the diversity of families.
It argues that Amoris Laetitia continues an “androcentric, patriarchal framework” in which women’s needs and circumstances are interpreted largely by men.
The report says the exhortation relies on the exclusively male clerical hierarchy as an authority on family life and “speaks about women in a way that structurally excludes them.”
“Too often ‘women’s dignity’ is invoked in place of women’s equality,” it says.
The council calls for “a decisive shift away from these androcentric interpretative patterns” and rejects a theology that defines women primarily through their relationship to men.
It instead calls for “a theological hermeneutic that begins from women’s equal personhood,” with women’s vocation and identity not primarily defined through their relationship to men.
Calling abuse an enduring wound
The report strongly criticises what it describes as insufficient engagement with abuse in Amoris Laetitia.
“Women are dismayed by the lack of serious engagement with abuse in Amoris Laetitia, an enduring wound that scars the whole Church,” it says.
It describes generations of Catholic women and families as having suffered from “a widespread culture of clergy abuse, systematic cover-up and an uneven commitment to survivor justice.”
The report says such a culture can normalize abusive relationships and unhealthy power dynamics, undermining the Church’s credibility when it speaks about family life.
It acknowledges that Amoris Laetitia condemns “the sexual exploitation of children” and calls on families to “detect and report possible situations in which children suffer from violence and even abuse.”
But it says the document does not sufficiently address the abuse of women within Church structures.
The council calls for the Church to acknowledge the harm caused by abuse, reform structures and cultures that enable it, and establish clearer guidelines under canon law for combating abuse of women by priests and parish staff.
Protecting women in marriage
The report also calls for changes in the way marriage and canon law are understood and applied, particularly in cases involving domestic and gender-based violence.
It says some interpretations of Canon 1151’s “right and duty” to preserve conjugal life can be understood as creating an obligation of sexual availability within marriage.
It also criticizes practices that can pressure women to return to violent marriages.
“Such practices contradict women’s inherent dignity and their physical and sexual self-determination and must be rejected on both theological and ethical grounds,” the report says.
The council calls for an explicit recognition that no marital right or duty can justify sexual acts against a spouse’s will.
It also says physical, psychological and sexualized violence should be recognized as serious grounds for separation and, where appropriate, for initiating nullity proceedings.
Those affected by domestic and family violence, coercion and dependency, it says, should have “free, confidential, safe and independent access to qualified canonical and legal advice.”
Rethinking sexual education and family diversity
The report calls for sexual education rooted in “scientific evidence and Christian values,” while emphasising self-determination, consent and bodily integrity.
It challenges the use of concepts such as purity, honour and modesty to restrict women’s sexual self-determination or assign them responsibility for men’s sexual behaviour.
The council also argues that the Church must recognise the diversity of contemporary families.
It highlights the experiences of widows, single women and single mothers, saying that single-parent households should not be viewed as “incomplete, broken, or lacking.”
“Single mothers are complete parents who lead holy, sacrificial, and fully formed Catholic families,” the report says.
The report concludes that women must have a voice and opportunities to make decisions within the Church.
“Synodality must be more than community dialogue,” it says. “Above all, a synodal church requires collective action that accepts all people in the realities of their lives and recognises the equal rights and dignity of all in liturgy, the congregation and society.”
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