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By Emma Cieslik | Leo XIV, born in Southside Chicago, was elected as the first American pope last week by a conclave of 133 cardinal electors. After three rounds of inconclusive votes marked by black smoke, white smoke arose in St. Peter’s Square, signaling the election of the 267th pope in the history of the Catholic Church. Chaotic excitement erupted in the square, complete with a gay couple kissing as a camera panned across the crowd—a subtle protest to the church’s continued homophobic stance.
But before black and white smoke rose from the fated Vatican chimney, a group from the Women’s Ordination Conference released pink smoke before the start of another male-only conclave on Wednesday. It was a symbolic act of protest, accompanied by song and prayer. Women sent out what they called a “distress signal” for women’s equality in the church—a Church that continues to restrict women for positions of spiritual leadership and deny reproductive justice, despite 68 percent of U.S. Catholic adults opposing the reversal of Roe v. Wade.
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