We are women; we are priests in Iowa. We hope Catholic leaders hear our call for equality.

As three priests who minister to unique communities across the state of Iowa, we have watched with great hope as the global Roman Catholic Church has undertaken an exciting, inclusive, and historic process over the past two years known as the “Synod on Synodality.”

This synod process, convened by Pope Francis, began in 2021 with listening sessions that heard from all kinds of people in parishes and Catholic communities. Participants from Iowa to India were invited to share their experience of Catholicism: the good, the bad, and the challenging. Catholic leaders were invited to hear from Catholics, former Catholics, and non-Catholics alike in a spirit of active listening. This honest feedback was recorded, synthesized, and shared with leaders at the highest levels of our church.

Now, from Oct. 4 to Oct. 29, a diverse group of synod participants are carrying those beautiful and heartbreaking Catholic stories to a meeting at the Vatican. At that meeting, 363 voting participants (including, for the first time, women and non-ordained people) will discuss new paths forward for our beloved church. As we enter this new stage, Francis called earlier this month for open conversations about blessing same-gender couples and studying the question of women in the priesthood.

However, even as these courageous conversations take place in an official meeting hall at the Vatican, the three of us believe that there are equally courageous calls for justice and equality taking place outside the synod’s doors.

All throughout October, advocates for gender equality, reproductive justice, and LGBTQ+ inclusion from many church reform groups are rallying at the Vatican and around the world, calling on the Roman Catholic Church to expand its welcome to the most marginalized of its flock. One of these groups, our friends at the Women’s Ordination Conference, held global “Walks with Women” in Rome and across the world on Oct. 6 to encourage the church to walk with women as equals.

That call to walk with women is one that we want to echo here in Iowa, because we know what it means to have religious leaders who don’t walk with us. Although we are validly ordained Catholic priests, we are not recognized as such by the Catholic bishops of Iowa or any of the other all-male leaders in the institutional church. That refusal to recognize our priesthood comes from one simple fact: we are women, and the institutional Roman Catholic Church still restricts the priesthood to cisgender men. But our ordinations through the Roman Catholic Womenpriests movement are a witness: women and people of all genders are called to the priesthood, and we live out that priesthood in many ways.

Unfortunately, those who follow their call to priesthood with groups like ours face punishment up to and including excommunication from the church, a penalty everyone in the RCWP movement has faced. In Iowa and around the country, groups that support RCWP have faced harsh and unjust sanctions simply for supporting women’s ordination or allowing a woman to say Mass.

As women priests in Iowa, we want to encourage the Catholic bishops of Iowa and the United States to walk alongside women, in the halls of Rome and beyond. Dialogue openly with groups like the Women’s Ordination Conference and Roman Catholic Womenpriests. Speak boldly the Spirit’s truth: people of all genders are called to the priesthood. Follow the example of our Catholic siblings in Germany, who recently voted to bless same-gender couples, honor transgender and intersex Catholics, and recognize that the Holy Spirit calls people of all genders to the priesthood.

In Francis’ opening remarks to the Synod assembly, he called on participants to “express themselves freely,” remembering that “the protagonist of the synod isn’t us, but the Holy Spirit.” We hope that Catholic leaders in Iowa will join Catholics who support ordination justice and allow those of us who have been locked out of leadership by unjust laws to express ourselves freely. We hope that everyday Catholics in the pews and public life will speak up for gender justice in the church and the world. We hope most of all that the men in Rome will listen to the Holy Spirit and then act in this synod process to bring forward a new day of equality.

The Rev. Amy Bruner, RCWP, is with Des Moines Catholic Worker in Des Moines. The Rev. Mary Kay Kusner, RCWP, is with Full Circle Catholic Community in Iowa City. Bishop Martha Sherman of Washington, Iowa, is RCWP bishop of the Midwest Region.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Catholic synod can respond to calls for justice and equality