Women Half Of Your Church So Where's Their Pink Smoke?

Excluded from the conclave to elect a new pope on Wednesday – and more broadly from the Church's entire global priesthood – some Catholic women were determined that their voices will be heard.

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Rome - Excluded from the conclave to elect a new pope on Wednesday – and more broadly from the Church's entire global priesthood – some Catholic women were determined that their voices will be heard.

In a park on a hill overlooking the dome of St Peter's and the church's Vatican headquarters, campaigners released pink smoke from flares and demanded that women be allowed to seek ordination.

"We are saying to the cardinals, you cannot keep ignoring 50% of the Catholic population, you cannot go into a locked room and discuss the future of the Church without half of the Church," said Miriam Duignan.

"Whoever they elect needs to be brave enough to properly tackle the question of women's inclusion, because so far it has not been, even by Pope Francis," said Duignan of the Wijngaards Institute in Cambridge.