MANILA (PHILIPPINES)
Union of Catholic Asian News (UCA News) [Hong Kong]
May 25, 2026
By Paterno R. Esmaquel II
The bigger questions are about the kind of work the network would support for women and the resources available
The Catholic bishops in the Philippines have established offices to create a network of women in dioceses nationwide, aiming to ensure greater participation of women in the Church.
The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) Office on Women launched this network in the conference’s Manila headquarters on May 22.
Bishop Isabelo Abarquez, who heads the conference’s Office on Women, said they established this network because many dioceses lack women’s offices or have limited coordination with the conference.
Of the 84 dioceses in the country, only 14 have fully or partially established women’s offices, according to data the Office on Women shared with UCA News on May 25.
In other dioceses, similar ministries “are newly set up as separate offices or are temporarily included in other ministries also dealing with women,” an official of the office said.
Women “have always carried a unique and indispensable role” in the Church and society, Abarquez said during the May 22 mass that launched the network. But they face “painful realities” such as poverty, violence, and discrimination, he added.
“The future of our evangelization requires the full participation of women,” the 69-year-old bishop emphasized.
The Catholic-majority nation is the highest-ranked Asian country in the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Index 2025. It is ranked 20 globally, well ahead of Singapore (rank 47), Mongolia (rank 65), and Thailand (rank 66).
Still, the status of Catholic women in the Philippines “is a mixed bag,” Stephanie Ann Puen, a lay theologian from the Jesuit-run Ateneo de Manila University, told UCA News on May 25.
“In some pockets, women are treated quite well,” and “it’s just really, really bad” in others, she said.
Many cases of discrimination are “often very subtle” and “so ingrained,” she said.
She said some spaces in the Church are often perceived as “just spaces for women,” and those spaces are often “seen as lower than other spaces in the Church,” she added.
Puen said building the diocesan network for women “is a good approach.”
However, the bigger questions concerned the kinds of women’s roles the network would support and the resources allocated for the initiative.
Rafaela David, president of the activist group Akbayan, which pushes for women’s empowerment, welcomed the initiative, saying it recognizes “women’s crucial contribution to the Church.”
“It also sends a strong message to all Filipinos that women’s voices must be heard and valued in all spaces and that empowering women is integral to the Church’s mission of liberation,” David noted.