They’re barred from the priesthood and most major decision making in the Catholic Church. But in the latest wave of crises in the Catholic Church, women are taking the lead in a new era of church reform.

Catholic women today are calling for major changes in the Church, from ordination of women to acceptance of homosexuals to re-thinking the Church’s ban on birth-control.

In a culture notorious for changing at rate similar to tectonic plates, can the women of the Catholic Church bring about real, lasting reform?

This hour, On Point: Women lead the charge for a new Catholic reform movement.

Guests:

Angela Bonavoglia, freelance journalist and author of “The Church’s Tug of War” in this week’s issue of “The Nation,” contributing editor to Ms. and frequent contributor to the Chicago Tribune

Sister Joan Chittister, OSB, a Benedictine nun and church activist who defied a Vatican order last year forbidding her to speak at an international conference on the ordination of women

Father Richard McBrien, Professor of Theology at University of Notre Dame and author of Catholicism: New Study

Jack Beatty, On Point News Analyst and Senior Editor at the Atlantic Monthly