In the shadow of the Vatican, alternative Catholic groups push for change 

This week in St. Peter's Square, as men in long robes shuffled in solemn processions, with corals and canticles blending with church bells, small groups of Catholic protesters gathered half-a-kilometre away, at the far end of the wide avenue leading up to the Vatican square.

At the end of Via della Conciliazione, or Reconciliation Avenue, ceremonies marked the start of the "synod on synodality" — essentially church-speak for a global summit on the future of the Catholic Church, with an emphasis on listening.

Cardinals, bishops, some clergy and ordinary Catholics from around the world are spending the better part of this month seated across from one another to talk about some of the most pressing issues facing Catholicism and the world — including climate change, LGBTQ inclusion and female leadership.

At the opposite end of the avenue, in the shadow of the massive Castel Sant'Angelo, a fortress where a pope once sought refuge during the sack of Rome, an alternative meeting unfolds. In small, almost-daily gatherings, people hold up black-and-white portraits of sex abuse survivors and unfurl purple banners that read "Ordain Women."

These people will not take part in the Vatican synod, but are rather those who, for years, have been showing up at church summits, doggedly reminding its hierarchy who it has shut out. 

An informal coalition of groups is amassing on the sidelines of the synod, which began Wednesday and runs for three weeks, to push for reform in the hopes of bringing the Catholic Church into the 21st century.

"When we go to mass, we never see a woman presiding over it, never a woman preaching, never a woman going in with the College of Cardinals to pick the next pope," said Mary Ellen Chown, a longtime member of Catholic Network for Women's Equality (CNWE), a group that formed in 1981 to advocate for the ordination of women.

Chown, from Oakville, Ont., arrived in Rome this week, along with eight other Canadian women who are part of CNWE.

On Friday, they'll be joining others from around the world for a march on the Vatican to push for opening all ordained ministries to all genders and for a less hierarchical model of the Catholic ministry.

"I think it is in crisis," Chown said of the Catholic Church. "And if it wants to be relevant to the generation of my children, it needs to be a listening church — and that will involve structural change. 

"It's not just about female ordination, but the bigger picture of how women participate in the church."

Church leaders have hailed this synod as a massive listening session, one that comes after a two-year consultation process with parishioners the world over — about one per cent of Catholics in all taking part and identifying what issues matter to them most. 

Those issues were used to set the agenda for this month's meeting, with topics ranging from women in governance, to the rights of LGBTQ Catholics, to priestly celibacy. A total of 365 people hold voting rights, including 54 women for the first time ever — a move that comes after years of campaigning.

"Despite the many filters that were put in place with the final questions put in the hands of ordained men, the issue of women's participation and ordination rang out," said Kate McElwee, executive director of the Women's Ordination Conference, another group rallying outside the synod for gender equity in the Catholic Church.