After private meetings with prefects of Vatican congregations and presidents of pontifical councils in late October, six Catholic women philanthropists came away hopeful and encouraged, because they felt an openness to including more women in advisory and other roles in the Catholic Church.

Kerry Robinson, executive director of the National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management, said she and five other women, whose families have developed relationships with curial officials over three generations, held candid discussions at the Vatican about the participation of talented women in Church ministries across the globe.

It was their third round of meetings since 2007 to advocate for women in the Church.

“We love the church and think the church can be a more effective advocate of the Gospel if women are active participants,” Robinson said Nov. 7 at the Manhattan headquarters of the Jesuit weekly magazine, America.

Robinson said young Catholic women, especially in the west, know they can reach high levels of leadership in a secular sector or industry but face limited leadership opportunities if they discern a vocation of service to the Church. As a result, they turn their talent and attention to where they can “excel, be promoted, be appreciated, lead and serve fully.” They drift away, and the Church becomes less relevant to them and, by extension, their children, she said.

“Without these highly talented, accomplished, faith-filled, generous women, the whole church is impoverished,” Robinson said.

Robinson said cardinals they met in the past were receptive to the women and their message of the benefits of mutual understanding, but there was “a change in atmosphere” in the recent meetings and an openness to pursue practical action. She said they discussed “what obstacles exist to prevent women from being included” and detailed possible solutions.