Welcoming the Catholic Pope's move towards a new digital arena of Twitter on December 12, Hindus have urged Pope Benedict XVI and the Vatican to introduce real change by reconsidering the ordination of women priests in the Roman Catholic Church. Distinguished Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement from Nevada (USA), said that Pope's embracing of new media initiative “showed that the age-old institution was trying to catch up with 21st century and it was thus highly appropriate time for the Holy See to hold a referendum among its congregations worldwide to learn about the feelings of Catholics on the subject of ordination of women.” Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, stated that women “could disseminate God's message as skillfully as men and deserved equal and full participation and access in religion.” Zed further said that as women were equal partners in the society, “so they should be equal partners in the religion also.” He urged the Vatican to be more kind to women as the exclusion of women from religious services, just because they were female, “was very unfair and ungodly.” Quoting Hindu scriptures, Zed said: “Where women are honored, there the gods are pleased. Men and women are equal in the eyes of God and religions should respect that, Zed stresses and adds that time has now come for the women priests and bishops.” He suggested that theologians and Canonists of the Church needed to address the female ordination issue urgently; “re-evaluate Church doctrine, theology, male hierarchy and history; and give women a chance. Women should be ordained to priesthood and should perform the same functions as male priests. Treating women as not equal to men was clearly a case of discrimination promoting gender inequality.” Church's Cannon Law 1024 says that only a baptized man validly receives sacred ordination. Zed noted that there had been, however, some positive signs regarding status of women in Roman Catholic Church as the Vatican invited women to participate in the Synod of Bishops in 2010 and 2008 and girls outnumbered boys for the first time at altar servers gathering in Vatican in 2010, where about 60 percent of young pilgrims were reportedly female. The Pope reportedly appointed record 29 women to participate in October Synod of Bishops on Evangelization. “The Holy See being the largest religious organization in the world should show exemplary leadership in women equality to the rest of the planet,” Zed continued. Zed argued that “reprimanding of the US Catholic nuns' group, Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR), founded in 1956, by Vatican for reportedly raising the subject of ordination of women and other issues was unfortunate. Mission of LCWR, an association of the leaders of congregations of Catholic women religious in USA, included “fostering dialogue and collaboration among religious congregations", “developing models for initiating and strengthening relationships with groups concerned with the needs of society", etc.”
