How to give shape to protest and solidarity I want to conclude by giving some concrete examples of how opposition to Church leaders and solidarity with women can be given expression. This is an impressive document that expresses solidarity and concern about the future of the Church. Admission of women to the ministerial priesthood. This kind of plea helps to stimulate awareness in the Church. At times male candidates for ordination express, either during or after the ordination rite, that they disagree with the exclusion of women from the priesthood.
Every parish can find symbolical and imaginative expressions of protest and solidarity.
In the parish I mentioned earlier, parishioners sent, on the day of the ordination, flowers and letters of condolence to their woman pastoral assistant. During the ordination ceremony itself the community can express in various ways that it needs both men and women in the priestly ministry. For instance, one could give a striking role of prayer or witness to a woman preacher from a sister church during the celebration itself. The one thing we must not do is to remain silent, to share by complicity in the unwarranted exclusion of women from the ordained ministries. Rome's prohibition of further debate on the ordination of women has given rise to a flood of theological publications.