Despite growing calls for inclusion, the recent Synod ruled out allowing women to serve as deacons, a role that permits officiating baptisms, marriages, and funerals.
This decision followed Pope Francis’ earlier statement dismissing the idea, a decision that left many activists disappointed.
In recent weeks, feminist groups have launched various initiatives to influence the ongoing Synod.
In a quiet, symbolic ceremony on Rome’s River Tiber, six women were ordained on a river barge, a short distance from the Vatican.
This ordination, held in secret, was performed despite the Catholic Church's prohibition against women becoming deacons or priests.
Loan Rocher, a 68-year-old Frenchwoman who identifies as transgender, took part in the ordination, acknowledging that the Vatican did not authorise her ceremony.
Rocher told AFP: “They've repeated the same message for 2,000 years—that women are inferior, subordinate, invisible. It's okay. We’ve waited long enough.”
The service, conducted in front of about 50 people, mirrored the structure of a traditional Catholic Mass, complete with Bible readings, hymns, and Communion.
However, the Church considers the ordination illegal, and canon law states that participants could face excommunication.
US "bishop" Bridget Mary Meehan led the ceremony and belongs to the group organising these ordinations, which has ordained 270 women across 14 countries since 2002.
Meehan explained that the group strives for a more inclusive church, welcoming LGBTQ members, divorced and remarried individuals, and anyone who seeks to join.
Adeline Fermanian from the French feminist group Comite de la Jupe criticised the Synod’s approach, describing it as authoritarian and out of touch with the summit’s original goal of engaging voices from across the Church, including women.
Fermanian told the outlet that the Church's stance marginalises women, assigning them to support roles without opportunities for ministry, a reality that feminist advocates consider outdated.
The Vatican has made some steps to involve women, with Pope Francis appointing women to high-ranking positions within the Holy See. However, some activists still feel that the Church’s praise of women’s virtues without offering ministerial roles sidelines their potential.