About 150 Catholic women in India have delivered a petition to Cardinal Oswald Gracias, asking that he take concrete steps to better include women in decision-making roles in the global church.

The women are partly responding with Gracias, in which the cardinal acknowledged a bias among the members of the Catholic Church’s all-male hierarchy against giving women more leadership roles. In that interview, he also said he and his peers must “shed this prejudice.”

The three-page memorandum praises Gracias’ words in the interview, but asks for “changes in the policies, practices and structures of the Church so that women can participate fully in … leadership.”

Support independent Catholic news. Gracias is the archbishop of Mumbai, president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India and one of six members of Pope Francis’ Council of Cardinals. The petition was partly drafted by Astrid Lobo Gajiwala, a medical doctor and scientist who has served as a consultor to the bishops’ conference and helped draft the organization’s gender policy.

Some of the strongest language in the petition refers to that policy, passed in 2010 and the first of its kind in the global church. The policy said the Indian Church “rejects all types of discrimination against women as being contrary to God’s intent and purpose,” according to the memo.