Women's History Month 2026

Women's History Month 2026 Statement
Oblate James Holzhauer-Chuckas, ObSB, Executive Director

As we celebrate Women’s History Month, United Catholic Youth Ministries pauses in gratitude—and in conviction.
We give thanks for the countless women who have shaped our faith: mothers and abuelas who whispered prayers over their children, catechists who opened Scripture with courage, campus ministers who walked with young people through doubt and discernment, and saints who proclaimed with their lives that the Gospel is not passive—it is powerful.
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From Mary, Mother of Jesus, whose courageous “yes” changed the course of history, to St. Scholastica, who reformed religious life with bold vision, to St. Josephine Bakhita, who transformed suffering into liberation, women have always been theologians of lived experience and prophets of justice. In our own time, women continue to lead movements of mercy, scholarship, accompaniment, and reform within the Church and beyond.
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Yet celebration must also become commitment.

Women in the Church—especially women of color, immigrant women, young women, and women discerning religious or lay ecclesial vocations—continue to navigate systems that do not always recognize the fullness of their gifts. If we truly believe in the outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost, then we must believe that the Spirit continues to speak powerfully through the voices of women today.

At United Catholic Youth Ministries, we are called not only to affirm the dignity of young women—but to invest in their leadership.

That means:

• Creating spaces where girls and young women can preach, teach, facilitate, and lead.
• Mentoring young women who are discerning ministry, theology, social justice, and community leadership.
• Confronting sexism and harmful cultural narratives wherever they appear.
• Amplifying women’s scholarship, pastoral insight, and prophetic witness.
• Ensuring that our programs reflect the lived realities and leadership of Hispanic and multicultural communities, where women so often carry the spiritual heart of the Church.

Young women deserve to see themselves reflected in the future of our Church—not as an afterthought, but as co-builders of the Kingdom.

Women’s History Month is not simply about remembering. It is about recommitting. Recommitting to accompaniment. Recommitting to equity. Recommitting to the belief that when women thrive, the Church flourishes.
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To every young woman discerning her voice, her vocation, her call to lead: the Church needs your courage. The Church needs your intellect. The Church needs your fire for justice. Do not shrink your gifts. The Spirit who came to Mary continues to move in you.

And to our broader community: let us not simply applaud women this month. Let us hire them. Fund them. Mentor them. Defend them. Listen to them. Walk beside them. Affirm their vocation. 

The history of women in the Church is not finished being written. Together—with faith, advocacy, and action—we will help write the next chapter.

In solidarity,