While we know that the new Pope is not the most ideal leader for Catholic women, the number of women in the ministry is at all all-time high, and they are not going away.

Newsday had an editorial by Angela Bonavoglia, author of the book, “Good Catholic Girls: How Women Are Leading The Fight to Change the Church”, who discusses one of the Pope’s biggest challenges. As the Church has a steadily declining shortage of Catholic priests, more than 80 percent of the nearly 30,000 U.S. Catholics in lay paid parish ministry are women. This means that Benedict’s has got to get these ladies happy, and soon.

The fact of the matter is that women who work for the Church have their own issues, like low wages, little job security, sexual discrimination, and sexual exploitation by priests. And apparently, the Church has continuously ignored women’s rights, knowing what the consequences would be. “Parishes are closing by the score, testament to a hierarchy that prefers to see the church shrink rather than allow women in its sacramental ranks.”

So Bonavoglia calls for change from Pope Benedict, not only to erase the blatant gender inequality that exists in the Church, but to save the Church from, well, itself. I’m not Catholic, but knowing what I do about this dude, I wouldn’t hold my breathe.