Be the Change, Catholic Church, Aotearoa New Zealand chose Sunday - the day before the anniversary of women's suffrage day - to mount their installation where dozens of pairs of shoes were placed so they led to the Catholic cathedrals in central Auckland and Wellington.

Splashes of pink - including among the shoes - coloured the occasion, along with music, singing and speeches.

The shoes signify the largely unpaid work women have done for the Church throughout the ages, organisers say. Their contributions were recorded in accompanying printed vignettes.

Despite women often being in the majority of organisers and participants in any Catholic congregation and liturgical celebration, their role in the church is not equal, organisers point out.

The Catholic Church continues the injustice of refusing to recognise women's worth by denying them equality in leadership roles, Pink Shoes into the Vatican say.

Best wishes came from Steve Lowe, Catholic bishop of Auckland.

Apologising to "Pink Shoes into the Vatican" group for his inability to be with them in person, Lowe wrote a supportive letter.

"While there have been and continue to be a litany of amazing women throughout this history of the Church, your presence and voice today is a reminder that you are the Church and Church's need to change," he said.

"Thank you for your prophetic hikoi to the Cathedral today, which is ultimately a call to respect the dignity that flows from our being created male and female in the image and likeness of our God.

"Your voice today echoes the voice of women throughout the world who, as part of the current synodal process, are calling on the Church to reflect the inherent dignity of women in the leadership of the Church... May we have the courage not to get stuck in structures that are not necessarily of God."

In the absence of the bishop, the Administrator of St Patrick's Cathedral, Chris Denham, received the women's statement and gave them Lowe's letter of support.

"When Fiona and Christina visited me a couple of months ago, they presented me with Kate's pink shoes. They (the shoes) remain in my office and are certainly a talking point. They also remind me I too need to change," Lowe wrote.

Wellington's Coadjutor Archbishop Paul Martin, however, denied the Pink Shoes into the Vatican group publicity for their shoe installation. He also wrote to parishes in the Wellington archdiocese requesting they do the same.

"Since the archbishop's edict to parishes not to advertise this event, one woman has written of her indignation. Others have asked, 'what was he thinking?'" a Wellington organiser Cecily McNeil told the group.

She invited the Archbishop to read the first few paragraphs in the archdiocesan synod synthesis.

With Cardinal Dew in the South Island and Martin in Rome, there was no one to receive the predominantly women's group in Wellington.

Priest, Jim Dooley, spoke at the Wellington gathering saying his fellow priests did not understand equality because, in their priestly formation, they were exposed to a different set of principles.

He said, to applause, that what the women were looking for was a "no brainer."

Dooley equated the church's treatment of women to slavery, a reference to the fact that in most churches, women do much of the work - cleaning and pastoral work as well as liturgical preparation, almost always for no pay.

Source

• Be the Change
• Letter of Bishop Steve Lowe
• Supplied: Be the Change Wellington.

As you know, I belonged to the initial Pontifical Commission for the Study of the Diaconate of Women. We were named in August 2016 and first met in November of that year.

I traveled to Rome several days in advance of the scheduled meeting, so I could recover from jet lag.

As soon as I arrived in Rome, I attended the celebrations honouring the three US bishops—they call bishops "monsignors" in Rome—the three US bishops named cardinals then: Blasé Cupich, Kevin Farrell, and Joseph Tobin.

Arriving in Rome

I resided outside the Vatican at the generalate of the LaSalle Christian Brothers for a few days, and on Thanksgiving Day, 2016, I arrived at the Vatican City gate called Porta Sant'Uffizio, in the Palazzo Sant'Uffizio.

That is the Vatican City gate near the building known in English as The Holy Office, where the business of the Congregation, now Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith takes place.

I presented my passport to the Swiss Guard and was permitted through the gate. I walked past Saint Peter's Basilica on the right and the German cemetery on the left, to the guard booth of the Pontifical Gendarmerie, the Vatican military police.

Again, I presented my passport.

The officer looked at the list of expected guests. He looked at me. He looked again at the list. He looked at me. I asked if there was a problem. No madam, he answered.

But you are listed here as "Monsignor Zagano."

He would not let me take a picture of the list.

I proceeded to Domus Sanctae Marthae, the small guest house where Pope Francis lives, and, as a guest of the Holy Father, was saluted as I entered the building.

The desk clerk greeted me, took my passport, and looked at her list which included "Monsignor Zagano."

She looked at me, looked at her list, looked at me, and we both had a good laugh. She let me get a copy of the list.

That was a Thursday, and my first meal at Domus Sanctae Marthae was Thanksgiving dinner with other guests, including an American Nobel Laureate. This, I thought would be some ride.

My Commission met for the next two days, and again in March 2017, September 2017, and June 2018, for a total of eight days over nearly two years. Of course, there were many, many Zoom meetings and emails during those years.

I suppose you would like to know what we gave to the pope.

So, would I.

I'll get to that.

Women - managers not ministers

The question before us this evening concerns the future of women in the Catholic Church.

Please believe me, the future of women in the Catholic Church is the future of the Catholic Church because the future of the Church depends on women.

Women comprise the largest segment of church-going people in the world, Catholic or not.

In the Catholic Church, women staff the Parish Outreach. Women teach Catechism, Women bring their children to church. Women bring their husbands to Mass, at least on Christmas and Easter.

But women at every level of Church life are restricted to management and cannot perform ministry as it is formally understood.

Let me define the terms.

By "management," I mean all the non-ordained and therefore non-ministerial tasks and duties in Church organisations, from parish centers, to diocesan offices, to episcopal conferences, to the papal Curia.

That includes the parish secretary, the diocesan chancellor, the bishops' conference spokesperson, and every employee of every Vatican dicastery. These, except for the jobs (called "offices") that have legal authority over clerics—over deacons, priests, and bishops—these management positions are jobs that any layperson can have.

I am not saying the people in these jobs (or offices) are not "ministering," for they truly perform "ministry" as the term has been enlarged over the past forty years or so.

Yes, the head of the parish religious education program, the organizer of the diocesan CYO, the employees of the USCCB, and the people in the papal Curia are all "ministering" in a sense. But they are not performing sacramental ministry in the classroom, on the playing field, or behind their desks.

So, by "ministry" I mean sacramental ministry, as performed by ordained deacons, priests, and bishops. You know the differences. Deacons may solemnly baptize and witness marriages.

In addition to these sacraments, priests may anoint the sick (give "last rites"), hear confessions and offer absolution, and celebrate the Eucharist.

Performing confirmations is generally restricted to bishops, who sometimes delegate their authority to confirm to priest-pastors.

All these are "clerics," and as such can legally preach at Masses and serve as single judges in canonical proceedings.

So, "Management" is open to women. "Ministry" is not.

It might be helpful to use the distinctions known in military and business organisations: "management" would be "admin", and "ministry" would be "ops."

That is, "management" handles administrative matters, and "ministry" would be the core operations of the organisation.

The analogy may not be perfect, but the important word here is "admin" or "administration." That is what, in his own words, Pope Francis believes women are capable of.

In November 2022, when the pope met in Domus Sanctae Marta with the editors and writers of America Magazine, the journal's executive editor, Kerry Weber, asked him the following question:

Holy Father, as you know, women have contributed and can contribute much to the life of the church. You have appointed many women at the Vatican, which is great.

Nevertheless, many women feel pain because they cannot be ordained priests. What would you say to a woman who is already serving in the life of the church, but who still feels called to be a priest?

Francis' long and thoughtful answer expanded the notion of "ministry" somewhat.

However, he retained the great divide between the ordained and non-ordained, between those people who are central and those people who are not central to the essential operations of the church, to the ordained tasks and duties of performing sacraments, and (because of their ordained status) of preaching and judging.

That is, Pope Francis clearly distinguished the people who can be ordained—men—from those who cannot be ordained—women.

His comments were based on a theoretical construct presented by the long-dead Swiss priest-theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar (1905-1988), a former Jesuit of whom several prominent theologians are critical.

The Petrine Church and the Marian principle

One theologian central to Vatican doctrine since his appointment to the first iteration of the International Theological Commission (ITC) in 1969, Joseph Ratzinger—the future Benedict XVI- said "[von Balthasar] is right in what he teaches of the faith."

Some of what von Balthasar "taught" is what Francis presented to America Magazine: "the Petrine church" and "the Marian principle.' So, the pope said, "The church is a woman. The church is a spouse."

Specifically, in response to the question about ordaining women, Francis distinguished the "ministerial dimension, [which] is that of the Petrine church" from "the Marian principle, which is the principle of femininity (femineidad) in the church, of the woman in the church, where the church sees a mirror of herself because she [the church] is a woman and a spouse."

The pope continued, describing the church as female, and then said, "There is a third way: the administrative way….it is something of normal administration. And, in this aspect, I believe we have to give more space to women."

Francis went on to extol the "functioning" of women in management, summing up his comments by saying, "So there are three principles, two theological and one administrative."

To sum up his belief, the "Petrine principle" covers ministry and the "Marian principle" presents the church as "spouse" and these two so-called "theological principles" are complemented by the "administrative principle" to which women are suited.

Francis concluded by asking, "Why can a woman not enter ordained ministry? It is because the Petrine principle has no place for that."

The Executive Editor of America Magazine, Kerry Weber (a woman) did not ask a follow-up question.

We can return to the question of women in ministry, but let us examine women in management more closely, the idea that women exemplify the "administrative principle" that Francis presented that late November day in 2022.

Management

The Church has advanced somewhat in its inclusion of women in management, in administrative positions in local dioceses.

For example, in the United States today, 54 women serve as diocesan chancellor, an important, non-ministerial position. (c.f. The Official Catholic Directory, Athens, GA: NRP Direct, 2023. There are 28.73% Latin Rite and 11.11% Eastern Rite female chancellors. In Latin Rite dioceses, 23, or 12.71% of chancellors are deacons, none in Eastern Rite dioceses.)

The chancellor is the senior administrative officer, the highest-placed office manager of a diocese, but the chancellor—in his or her role—is not performing "ministry" as it is formally defined, and the chancellor has no jurisdictional authority.

In Rome, especially in the Roman Curia, the question of women in managerial or administrative positions gets complicated.

We know women have been appointed to positions in the Curia, but these appointments are not to offices with jurisdiction. It is important to remember that only persons with jurisdiction can make decisions.

The easiest way to understand the situation is to look at the Instrumentum Laboris—the working document-for the coming session of the Synod of Bishops this October (2024):

In a synodal Church, the responsibility of the bishop, the College of bishops and the Roman Pontiff to make decisions is inalienable since it is rooted in the hierarchical structure of the Church established by Christ." (IL #70)

Listen carefully: "the responsibility…to make decisions is inalienable since it is rooted in the hierarchical structure of the Church."

And who makes up the hierarchy? The hierarchy is the ordained men of the Church.

The paragraph asserting the "inalienable" right of the clergy to make decisions underscores the "you discern, we decide" fact of ecclesiastical discipline, of church law.

Its roots are in Canons 129 and 274 of the Code of Canon Law. (Can. 129 §1. Those who have received sacred orders are qualified, according to the norm of the prescripts of the law, for the power of governance, which exists in the Church by divine institution and is also called the power of jurisdiction. §2. Lay members of the Christian faithful can cooperate in the exercise of this same power according to the norm of law. Can. 274 §1. Only clerics can obtain offices for whose exercise the power of orders or the power of ecclesiastical governance is required.)

Canon 129 states that ordained persons are qualified for the powers of governance and jurisdiction, and that lay persons can "cooperate" in this power.

Canon 274 states that only clerics can obtain offices requiring the power of orders or governance (or jurisdiction.)

But this same paragraph in the coming Synod meeting's Instrumentum Laboris later goes on to give ample room to the actual process of synodal discernment and it even throws a lifeline to the non-ordained of the Church.

The paragraph ends by suggesting the Code of Canon Law restricting the non-ordained to a "consultative vote only" (tantum consultivum) should be, in its words, "corrected."

It remains to be seen what correction could be made. As the synodal processes in Australia and Germany, for example, have proven, requests for change meet great resistance, and at least in the case of Germany rebuke, from Rome.

Having said all this, we must acknowledge the fact that there are more women in more responsible managerial roles in the Roman Curia than during prior pontificates.

The Roman Curia comprises the staff offices for Pope Francis, each managing a specific part of the Church's organisational needs, for example, the choosing of bishops, matters involving other clergy and religious, oversight of finances, and the operations of Vatican City State, from managing the library and museums to overseeing the pope's representatives (called papal nuncios) abroad, etc.

In the Roman Curia, there are sixteen curial offices called dicasteries.

There are also the Secretariate of State, three Institutions of Justice (Apostolic Penitentiary, the Supreme Tribunal, the Tribunal of the Roman Rota), four Institutions of Finance (Council for the Economy, Secretariat for the Economy, the Office of the Auditor General, and the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See (A.P.S.A.)).

Of these, only A.P.S.A. has a woman undersecretary, Sister Silvana Piro, F.M.G.B

Curial offices with women as senior officers include:

• the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life (Secretary Sister Simona Brambilla, M.C.; Under Secretary Sister Carmen Ros Nortes, N.S.C.),
• the Dicastery for the Laity, the Family, and Life (Under Secretaries Dr. Linda Ghisoni and Dr. Gabriella Gambino),
• the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development (Secretary, Sister Alessandra Smerilli, FMA). These women hold paid professional appointments.

Other dicasteries of the Roman Curia have women who are termed "members," and who, alongside clerics (usually cardinals and bishops), largely act as trustees for the dicasteries' work and who meet in Rome from time to time.

All dicasteries have female staff who assist with day-to-day operations, as clerks, secretaries, and translators, but clerics retain the overall organisational power in the Vatican.

While women are also members of Councils and Commissions, for the most part, these are not full-time professional appointments. For example, one of Pope Francis' initial endeavors was to regularise Vatican finances, and so within one year of his election, he established the Council for the Economy, as mentioned earlier.

The title of Pope Francis's Apostolic Letter establishing the Council for the Economy as a dicastery of the Roman Curia is Fidelis Dispensator et Prudens, (faithful and wise manager).

The fifteen-member Council for the Economy has consistently maintained a clerical majority and is coordinated by a cardinal. However, its website describes seven members as "experts of various nationalities, with financial expertise and recognised professionalism," and six of those seven are women, each a financial professional.

Its deputy coordinator, Dr Charlotte Kreuter-Kirchhof, is a law professor who is also an advisor to the "Women in Church and Society" sub-commission of the Pastoral Commission of the German Bishops' Conference.

As you move down the Vatican's wire diagram to the groups with a consultative role, more women are present in "titled" roles.

The Secretary for the Pontifical Commission for Latin America is Argentinian Dr Emilce Cuda, and the Adjunct Secretary for the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors is American Dr Teresa Kettelkamp.

The Secretary of the Pontifical Biblical Commission is Spaniard Dr Nuria Calduch-Benages, a well-known biblical scholar and professor at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.

Dr Calduch-Benages is the unpaid Secretary of the Pontifical Biblical Commission. I do not know if Dr Cuda or Dr Kettlekamp is paid.

You see, not every Vatican appointment comes with a salary.

The voluntary nature of participation in certain positions in the Vatican increases as the commissions and institutes that are ad hoc, or adjunct, to one or another dicastery proliferate.

While participation is unpaid, travel expenses are covered, including (if needed) a few nights' lodging in Domus Sanctae Marthae. However, budgetary and language restrictions within the Vatican cause a significant default to choosing participants and members already residing in Rome and its environs.

And it is important to recall that women -whether secular or religious women - have no guarantee of ecclesiastical salaries outside their voluntary Vatican work.

So even if chosen, it is sometimes difficult for a woman to accept a consultative Vatican appointment.

So, yes, there are many women involved in Vatican operations. Those central to actual management functions of the Curia are salaried Italian women, including many religious sisters, and others fluent in Italian.

Those in more consultative roles are from a larger pool of qualified individuals. Those in even more peripheral positions, such as the members of the two Pontifical Commissions for the Study of the Diaconate of Women, include more women.

But even the commission I served on was comprised of members of other, more permanent Vatican commissions, or they were members of university faculties in Rome. Except me. I was the only member of my commission with no Roman or Vatican connection.

Ministry

The Commission I served on was about ministry as the Vatican formally defined it then and how the Vatican realistically defines it to this day. If you ask the folks at Merriam-Webster, "ministry" comprises the office, duties, or functions of a minister.

That is, ministry is about the office, duties, or functions of a member of the clergy.

As I noted earlier, Pope Francis seems to depend on categories invented by Hans Urs von Balthasar, categories the pope calls "theological."

He said the ministerial dimension is that of the Petrine church and the Marian principle is the principle of femininity in the Church. That appears to eliminate women.

As grating as these categories are, it is important at this point to recall how Pope Francis has referred to women from the very beginning of his pontificate.

In May 2013, during his first address to the International Union of Superiors General, Francis recommended that the sisters be mothers, not old maids.

His repeated "jokes" and other comments about women have fallen flat time after time.

Who can forget his calling women theologians the "strawberries on the cake"? That was ten years ago, but it signaled one way Francis saw women professionals then.

What about now?

Francis has repeated his feminine analogies about the Church.

Just last March, in an address to participants in a conference entitled "Women in the Church: Builders of Humanity," the pope said, "The Church is herself a woman: a daughter, a bride and a mother."

While the qualities he attributes to women are laudable for everyone, he emphasises two aspects of "women's vocation": style and education. He notes that "style" includes the ability "to bring love where love is lacking, and humanity where human beings are searching to find their true identity."

He speaks directly to the conference participants about "education," expressing his hope that "educational settings, in addition to being places of study, research and learning, places of ‘information,' will also be places of ‘formation,' where minds and hearts are opened to the promptings of the Holy Spirit."

Without digressing to the 1967 Land O'Lakes Statement and its controversy or Pope John Paul II's Apostolic Constitution Ex Corde Ecclesiae on Catholic universities, I must note here the distinction between theology and apologetics, as well as the tasks and duties of the diaconate.

As for Catholic education, the fact of the formative influence of Catholic education cannot be disparaged nor denied, but theology is not apologetics.

As for the diaconate, the deacon is ordained to the ministries of the Word, the liturgy, and charity. If we consider the historical position of the deacon as the principal coordinator of the charity of the Church, then the duty of the deacon to proclaim and preach the Word in the liturgy becomes evident.

If we apply the pope's words to the diaconal ministry of women throughout the centuries, in the West up through the mid-12th century, we can see that it was women deacons who brought love where love was lacking and who provided formation to women and children.

We know women were ordained in Lucca, Italy in the mid-1100s, but realistically in the 12th century, no person who was not destined for priestly ordination could be ordained deacon.

Since by that time, most women deacons were monastics, with few serving as what might be termed "social service" deacons, and because the diaconate as exercised by men had become mostly ceremonial and generally moribund, the sacramental ordination of women to the diaconate ceased in the West.

I spoke at length about women in management. But what about women in ministry?

It is impossible to ignore Pope Francis' emphatic "no" when he was asked in a CBS television interview about the sacramental ordination of women as deacons.

He seemed to support his "no" with his opinion that the "deaconesses" in the early church—and "deaconess" is the word he used—that the "deaconesses" in the early church served diaconal "functions" without being sacramentally ordained.

That understanding is not supported by scholarship.

A little recent history

Since 1971, the Church has, at various times and various levels, directly discussed the ordination of women as deacons.

In 1971, the second meeting of the Synod of Bishops included substantial discussion about women in ordained ministry.

By 1973, Pope Paul VI established a Commission on the Role of Women in Church and in Society, which met intermittently over a period of two years. In that Commission, the question of women priests was immediately off the table.

But at its first meeting, one of the commission's fourteen women members asked to discuss women deacons.

The Commission's president, an Italian archbishop, immediately closed the discussion.

He said the diaconate was a stage of orders directly connected to the priesthood—this argument would soon be termed the "unicity of orders" -and therefore women deacons could not be considered.

Even so, he augmented the commission's final two-page report with a seven-page private memorandum to Pope Paul VI, which was much more positive about women deacons.

Meanwhile, in 1969 the International Theological Commission had been created to address questions of doctrine.

The world's foremost (male) theologians gathered in Rome on occasion to discuss pressing issues for the Church.

Women in ministry soon became one of those pressing issues, and the Secretary of the International Theological Commission, perhaps at the suggestion of the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, named a small sub-group of theologians to study the female diaconate.

Their discussion was quite positive—even Yves Congar thought the ordination of women as deacons was possible—but despite some members urging a positive vote on the question, none was taken, the question was tabled, and the ITC proceeded to write a document that opined women could not be ordained as priests.

The official commentary to that document stated that the question of women deacons would be left for "further study."

Academic debate continued, and there remained no consensus as to whether the women deacons of history were sacramentally ordained.

However, to say the women of history were not sacramentally ordained would be to dispute the intent of the ordaining bishops, who used the same ritual for women deacons as for men deacons.

The formal rituals used to ordain women were performed within the Mass, where the persons to be ordained as deacons—whether male or female—were ordained by the bishop inside the sanctuary, through the laying on of hands with the epiclesis (or calling down of the Holy Spirit); they were invested with a stole, self-communicated from the chalice, and the bishop called them deacons.

That is, both male and female candidates were ordained in identical ceremonies and were called deacons, or, in some languages, the women deacons were called "deaconesses."

So, why could women not be ordained today?

Several reasons are given, all of which fall to either logic, history, or both. They are,

• Women deacons were blessed but not "ordained";
• "Deaconess" always means the wife of a deacon;
• Male and female deacons had different functions;
• The unicity of orders limits ordination to men (cursus honorum);
• Women cannot image Christ (iconic argument);
• Women are not valid subjects for ordination;
• Women are "unclean" and restricted from the sanctuary.

Since the 17th century, scholars have argued over the history of women deacons, one or another questioning whether the women deacons of history were sacramentally ordained.

In the 17th century, one scholar, Jean Morin, studied all the existing liturgies in Latin, Greek, and the languages of Syria and Babylonia.

He determined that the liturgies met the criteria for sacramental ordination set forth by the Council of Trent.

A century later, another writer disagreed.

When we arrive at the 1970s, the question of women in the church, especially the question of women priests, was in the air.

Nothing came of the work of the ITC sub-commission, except one member, Cipriano Vagaggini published a long and dense article stating his positive view.

Vagaggini was so well thought of, that the 1987 Synod of Bishops asked his opinion on women deacons, which he freely shared.

After reminding the assembled bishops that in 1736, when Pope Benedict XIV approved ordained women deacons in the Catholic Maronite tradition, he permitted them to administer the sacrament of extreme unction within their monasteries, Vagaggini continued:

If that is the case, one senses the legitimacy and urgency for competent authorities to admit women to the sacrament of order of the diaconate and to grant them all the functions, even the liturgical functions that, in the present historical moment of the church, are considered necessary for the greater benefit of believers, not excluding—as I personally maintain—if it is judged pastorally appropriate, equality between the liturgical functions of men deacons and women deacons. (- Cipriano Vagaggini, "The Deaconess in the Byzantine Tradition" in Women Deacons? Essays with Answers, Phyllis Zagano, ed. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2016, 96-99, at 99.)

His recommendation went nowhere, and around that time I was told in Rome by the highest placed women in the Curia that "they can't say ‘no'; they just don't want to say ‘yes'".

The discussion continued and was picked up by the 1992-1997 ITC, which again formed a subcommittee and again found in favor of restoring women to the ordained diaconate.

Their 17-page document was printed, numbered, and voted on, but not promulgated. The ITC president objected. He was then the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. He was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger.

So, the question went to yet another ITC subcommittee, which in 2002 published a paper stating that the question was "up to the Magisterium" to decide.

Nothing happened.

Until, in 2016, the International Union of Superiors General (UISG) asked Pope Francis to form another Commission. And so I went to Rome that following November in 2016.

There was another pontifical commission, which met twice for one week each, in September of 2021 and July of 2022.

The Synod on Synodality

The first session of the current Synod on Synodality asked for the reports of each Commission because in synodal discussion some felt ordaining women as deacons would restore a tradition, while others disagreed.

The Synod stated that questions about women were "urgent," and so, one of the ten "study groups" charged by the pope and the Synod office to provide detailed reports to Synod members was charged with the question of women deacons.

Meanwhile, as I mentioned, in his televised interview with CBS-TV's Norah O'Donnell, the pope said "no" to women deacons.

Specifically, he denied the possibility to Norah O'Donnell, who asked him:

Norah O'Donnell (23:05): I understand you have said no women as priests, but you are studying the idea of women as deacons. Is that something you are open to?

Translator (23:15): No. If it is deacons with holy orders, no. But women have always had, I would say the function of deaconesses without being deacons, right? Women are of great service as women, not as ministers. As ministers in this regard. Within the Holy Orders.

That could be the end of it, or not. I am attempting to get the Spanish recording or the Spanish transcript.

What did the pope understand?

Was he being asked about the diaconate as a preliminary step to the priesthood?

On the face of it, his response is wholly incorrect.

There was no distinction between women deacons and deaconesses throughout history. It is a fact that some, if not all, were sacramentally ordained.

What the Church has done the Church can do again.

And the Church has done it.

On May 2, the Greek Orthodox Church of Zimbabwe ordained a woman deacon—they prefer the term "deaconess"—using the liturgy it uses for ordaining men as deacons.

The ordaining prelate, Metropolitan Seraphim, just changed the pronouns.

We know that Synod reports from every corner of the world ask the Church to recognise the baptismal equality of all people.

While women are increasingly added to church management, the only response to requests for women deacons has been Pope Francis' televised "no."

We sit and wonder what the future holds.

I cannot tell you what my Commission did.

Despite my three requests to the Commission president, then-Archbishop Luis Ladaria, twice in writing and once in person, I have not seen what he gave Pope Francis in the name of the Commission I served on.

I can tell you one thing, however.

After our first meeting formally closed, I asked to say just one more thing, to the group and to the Commission president.

I said: "When I arrived at the Vatican, I was listed on the guest list as ‘Monsignor Zagano.'"

One member asked: "If she's a monsignor, what are we doing here?"

Exactly.

• Phyllis Zagano, Ph.D. is senior research associate-in-residence and adjunct professor of religion at Hofstra University, Hempstead, New York.
• Transcript from Rita Cassella Jones Lecture at Fordham of September 17, 2024.

It is the women who predominantly do the heavy lifting of Catholic life; they educate, research, facilitate, spiritually nourish and sustain the regular rhythms of Catholic religious practice.

And, yet, the hierarchy of the Curch needs to justify and validate their presence and gifts by writing documents about their irreplaceable charisms or feminine genius, their mystery and mystique, their call to complementarity.

The Church leadership does this because it sees the clamouring for the inclusion of women in its sacramental ministry as both a rupture with theological tradition and as a threat to its universal unity.

So when the issue of women in the diaconate surfaced at last year's first session of the Synod on Synodality, it was not a surprise nor particularly welcomed. But it wasn't banned either.

There was a genuine expectation among many that the subject would resurface during the second session - currently unfolding in Rome. But Pope Francis, fearing its contentiousness would detract from the larger agenda of the synod, sought to defang the matter.

He set up a study group to look at the issue and placed oversight in the hands of fellow Argentine and trusted theologian Victor Manuel "Tucho" Fernandez.

Understandably, many concluded that the Pope was shelving an issue that remains for many Catholics a subject of urgency. But that interpretation, in my view, misreads Francis's intention.

This unique synod constitutes the high point of his papacy; it is establishing a new way of functioning as a Church built on the pillars of deep listening, respectful dialogue and openness to others, a model of social behaviour and governance that could be the Church's gift to a fractious world.

Allowing debates around women and holy orders would compromise what Francis wants the synod to accomplish.

Still, the issue isn't going away. It needs to be addressed fully, transparently and with integrity. Francis's narrative about women and their place in the Church is a potent blend of the platitudinous and the pious. And it is unpersuasive.

So where do we go?

In the 19th century, when the doctrine of papal infallibility was in the process of being formally declared as dogma at the First Vatican Council, there were bishops and thinkers who, though not technically dissenting from the teachings, felt for various reasons that the Council wasn't the right place to handle the matter.

They were called the Inopportunists.

Well, I am an opportunist in that I think the role of women in ordained ministries - deacon and priest - is not best served or aired in the current synod. We need to do some serious institutional scouring beforehand.

The primary concern must remain the scourge of clericalism and how we practically and methodically establish structures that confirm its erasure. Clericalism is a perversion of the priesthood resulting not in a selfless ministry of service but in entitlement. It is an abuse of power. Read more

• Michael W. Higgins is the Basilian Distinguished Fellow of Contemporary Catholic Thought at the University of Toronto's St. Michael's College. His latest book is The Jesuit Disruptor: A Personal Portrait of Pope Francis.

Beattie criticised the lack of progress in an article published on Thursday by Sacred Heart University in the US.

Beattie's comments follow the release of a new working paper by the Vatican on the second session of the Synod on Synodality.

The document "Instrumentum laboris" highlighted that the topic of the diaconate for women remains contentious globally. This has led to its exclusion from the Synod's discussions.

Instead, the discussion on women's roles in church leadership will be "continued in an appropriate timeframe and in an appropriate manner".

However Beattie argued that requiring an all-church consensus for doctrinal changes is impractical.

"Some African bishops are entrenched in patriarchal cultures and values, but others have vocally supported the struggle of African women against patriarchy" she explained.

Women leaders in Africa

Beattie offered positive insights into the progress of women in Africa.

"My work with African women theologians has led me to believe that the church in some parts of sub-Saharan Africa offers many more opportunities for women's leadership and participation than their Western counterparts."

Beattie argued that, as women become more educated and assertive about their rights within secular contexts, it becomes increasingly intolerable for the Catholic hierarchy to maintain outdated attitudes towards women.

She expressed dissatisfaction with the Vatican's platitudinous waffle and romantic stereotypes, labelling them patronising and out of touch.

Despite her criticisms, Beattie affirmed her commitment to her Catholic faith. "But I no longer have the slightest interest in the claptrap of a celibate male hierarchy when it comes to women."

She is no longer interested in the Vatican, its synods and papers. "Maybe it's a kind of desperation, but it allows me to keep both my sanity and my faith."

Sources

Katholisch

CathNews New Zealand

That is, unless they radically reform to give equal standing to women.

Dr Middleton, author of Jesus and Women, tells The London Economic (TLE) digital newspaper why the Church's future is important, and why it must be in female hands.

Why the Church is important

TLE: In an increasingly secular society, why do you think the Church is still important?

Middleton: A strong argument can be made that the gaining of female rights and freedoms in the West has its roots in Christianity.

It is also generally accepted that democracy could only have emerged in a culture grounded in the Christian belief that we are all equal in the eyes of God.

It was successive movements engendered by Christianity - both lay and religious - that gradually transformed the West into the society and culture that it now is.

Interestingly, Martin Luther's emphasis in the Reformation - which was initiated by him - was on the importance of individual religious and moral autonomy.

That is considered to have been a significant factor in the emergence of liberal democracy along with the separation of Church and state and emphasis on individual rights and freedoms.

It's a mistake to perceive the Reformation and the Enlightenment as events that happened in opposition to the Church.

Rather, the Church, in its upholding of and teaching of Christianity, generated these events due to the supremely high ethical standards it has always preached and the calibre of the education it provided.

The internal dialectic within the Church reflects Jesus' battle with the religious establishment of the biblical era and his efforts to reform Jewish legalism.

In such a context we can postulate that the establishment of Christianity in the Empire was the second move in this battle.

It took 1,800 years to reach the Enlightenment and 2,000 years to the first gaining of female rights.

The current falloff in church attendance can be defined as an important initiation of the next move, which has the potential to so furtherly progress the Christian West and to resolve Church schisms.

By doing the latter it will finish or change the role of the Roman Empire in the Church.

Overall falloff in attendance

TLE: While the major Christian branches in the UK, the Church of England and Catholic Church, have seen big falloffs in their congregations, there are many other smaller Christian sects. Are they in the same precarious situation and facing extinction?

Middleton: Overall, due to the increasing proportion of the young who claim they have no religion, in the UK church membership is forecast to decline to just over four per cent of the population by 2025.

Interestingly, the smaller Christian sects are closely related to the reformed tradition because they don't have hierarchies, and in many the congregations are autonomous.

It's reported, however, that in most there is still a falloff in church attendance - though not as high as in the largest UK churches, Anglican and Catholic.

There is one new Christian denomination that is said to be increasing both in the UK and throughout the world: the Pentecostal Church, says Middleton.

This denomination focuses on individual spirituality thanks, it says, to the love and action of the Holy Spirit.

There are, however, large falloffs in Methodist, Presbyterian, and Baptist denominations.

The reasons for the decline of Methodism are considered by its leaders to include the increased secularisation in the West and the intellectual changes in British culture with the rise of science.

This is a serious concern as the renewal of Christianity is necessary for the full possible progress and survival of our world.

Hierarchical inequality

TLE: How did gender and social inequality manage to seep into the Church hierarchy?

Middleton: Evolutionary biologists have discovered and described how religion and politics evolved in tandem with one another as a means for creating male patriarchal power structures to support male domination of the world and of women.

As a result, religions are forces for social control, especially of women.

For this reason, the distinction between religion as a phenomenon and the forms individual religions take while under the control of their founders must be kept in mind.

In the early Church, women and men were equally involved in Church ministries.

With its change of status into the state religion of the Roman Empire, however, it became highly patriarchal.

It was shaped by Roman political structures for several centuries and still remains under the influence of its imperial past.

The Vatican is a political state and the papacy itself is an absolute monarchy. Popes are supported by a hierarchical power structure of its ordained males that equates to an aristocracy.

As I discuss in detail in Jesus and Women, the revolutionary attitude of Jesus towards women is in stark contrast to that of the institutional Church, transcending time and place to such a degree that it provides further evidence of his divinity.

Women are vital

TLE: Your latest book, Jesus and Women, argues that women are vital to the survival of the Church in the 21st. century. What led you to this conclusion?

Middleton: Women were always the main supporters of Church attendance and in the early Church - as well as in Jesus' ministry - overall, the most drawn to his preaching and teaching.

The beginning of a large falloff in Church attendance in the mid-20th century was partly due to male and female disillusionment with hierarchical political and religious institutions stemming from the Second World War.

However, second-wave feminism was the main cause of church attendance falloff for women - due to the sexism of institutional Christianity.

There are female campaigns now for the achievement of equal female ministries in the Church, and also great female theology to guide it.

Due to Jesus' lovingly egalitarian treatment of women, the Church must eliminate its sexism by granting women equal authority.

If it does, there will not only be a massive renewal of church attendance, but a modern version of the ideal Pauline church whose communities were totally equal, regardless of social class or gender.

Such a reform will pave the Church into a much more spiritual and loving version of Christianity.

A version that will also impact on the public sphere to gain social justice for all and will be as lovingly liberating for males as for females. Read more

• Timothy Arden is a writer for the London Economic

Veer Dusauchoit, 62, claims her exclusion from the programme is solely because she is a woman.

"I want to train as a deacon because it interests me and I think that I will then have more tools to do what is expected of me here in the church. And I can't do that because I'm a woman so, yes, I am indeed angry, but I'm also determined" Dusauchoit told Belgian broadcaster RTBF.

Dusauchoit has served her parish in Herent, near Leuven, for 30 years. There is no longer a priest there, so she works with other volunteers to lead celebrations of the word of God and funerals.

And so she decided to enrol in a four-year diaconate course.

However, the Belgian woman said her application was rejected once her gender was revealed during a phone call.

Unlawful and legally wrong

Supported by her congregation, Dusauchoit sees this as unlawful gender-based discrimination.

"My community understands my frustration" she told Radio2 in April. "This is unlawful and legally wrong."

Without the commitment of women, "the church in Flanders would simply collapse," Dusauchoit claimed.

The Archdiocese of Mechelen-Brussels has not commented on the ongoing legal proceedings. However, it reiterated the Church's stance that only men can become deacons.

The diaconate is one of the three ordained functions within the Catholic Church, alongside the priesthood and the episcopate. Currently, only men can receive ordination.

Belgian bishops support including women in the diaconate but emphasise that this decision lies with the universal Church. The matter is expected to be discussed at the Synod on Synodality in the autumn.

The Mechelen civil court has one month to decide on Dusauchoit's case.

Sources

English Katholisch

RTL info

CathNews New Zealand

Before the 1970s, head coverings were required for women during Mass, just as men were required to remove their hats out of reverence for Christ.

I grew up with the long veil," says Mary Kossey, 68. "I'd always known that. That was our tradition."

However, following the Second Vatican Council, Kossey remembers changes to the types of head coverings and the mass itself.

More than 50 years later, most female heads in the pews remain uncovered. But the practice of veiling is far from obsolete, as women of all ages are electing to wear them — with many reasons of their own. Read more

Flores, who led the US bishops' national consultation process for the synod, says the bishop delegates spoke out when they were in Rome.

They wanted to show the synod that they recognised "how the Church has not, in her leadership or in the way it works ... appreciated the sacrifice and that in so many parts of the world what continues to make the Church viable is the work of women."

Considering how to make the Church "a more perfect communion where we do work more cohesively in a mutual recognition of gifts" was a particular synod aim, he says.

The delegates hoped the synod would enable us to "model to the world, imperfect as we are, that there is a way to relate to each other that's not all about power and all about control".

The synod's "final document" however reports that action on the possibility of ordaining women as deacons is being postponed.

The interim "final document"

The October synod's concluding document is an interim report pending further investigation, Flores explains.

It is not the final word on the synod's decision, he added. The synod assembly delegates see the agreed final text as "an interim document".

"We need some time to go more deeply into what's marked there."

Between now and the second synod assembly planned for October 2024, "we need to think more about this [text], but we need to think about it together and also think about it in context of our local communities.

"I think there's some theological thinking that has to go on, at least initially, during this year to help us frame the questions" he says.

Source

• NCR Online

"A synodal Church is a listening Church… but it needs to go a step further: a synodal Church is an accountable Church and an accountable Church needs to be synodal," said Myriam Wijlens, (pictured) a canon law professor at the University of Erfurt, Germany.

The synodality and accountability in Catholic Church are deeply interconnected, Wijlens, a member of the Coordinating Commission of the Synod on Synodality, said during a wide-ranging interview with Polish Catholic quarterly Wiez.

The first phase of the 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops started in the Vatican on 4 October and is scheduled to end on 29 October.

The second phase will be held next October.

The bishops' synod is part of the ongoing global Synod on Synodality which was started by Pope Francis on Oct. 10, 2021.

The synod in the Vatican "is a meeting within the larger Synod. It is a special moment within the Synod of the Church," Wijlens said.

Pope Francis's suggestion to bishops' conferences to reflect on the accountability aspect of its members in 2019 was due to the inefficient response from bishops towards abuse allegations, she said.

"The Church became aware that there was the abuse of minors by clergy, but there was also a severe problem in that those in leadership had not acted in accordance with the responsibility flowing from their office as bishop," Wijlens said.

The "Instrumentum laboris" - the guiding document for the synod had questions that discussed the accountability of bishops and the role of women in it, she pointed out.

The document has questions such as "How can bishops be more accountable?" and a separate section on women which asks, "How women [can] assist the Church in being more accountable?"

Wijlens said that the priority was to "complete the work of making accountability well seated in theory, in theology and canon law."

In 2020, Pope Francis through a motu proprio, a papal document personally signed by the pope, titled "Vos estis lux mundi" (You Are the Light of the World) ordered bishops worldwide to report cases of clergy sex crimes to the police even when not legally bound to do so.

The Vatican's manual for bishops and religious superiors details the process for conducting in-house investigations into allegations of priests who rape and molest minors and vulnerable adults.

Wijlens suggested that independent judges who take a neutral approach toward the evaluation of abuse cases are better suited than local bishops as there is a possibility of bias when they may have to investigate each other.

"We need independent judges not only because the bishops might need to investigate each other and that would not help the issue of credibility.

"We also see that those who conduct these investigations need to have expertise in collecting evidence, weighing it, etc," she said.

She recommended the engaging of laity or "judges in civil courts who have special training," to investigate abuse cases.

She also pointed out that the implementation of any changes related to accountability or women's participation in the Catholic Church cannot be achieved at a uniform scale globally.

"A challenge is certainly that not all places go with the same speed and that thus not all are at the same point in implementing being an accountable Church," Wijlens said.

Based on her experience in the Synodal consultations in Europe, Wijlens said that a desire for transparency was exhibited by the Church leadership.

She referred to the synodal meeting in Prague which was open to journalists.

"Their presence gave expression to the desire to be transparent. That too had an impact on the meeting," she said.

Wijlens pointed out that the meeting had 49 women as participants in contrast to only 42 bishops among the total 200 participants, showing increased participation of women in Church reforms.

She also called for the need to develop various structures of accountability based on the "context of where people live."

"We should strengthen diocesan pastoral councils, parish pastoral councils and search for ways how this participation may be better developed," Wijlens said.

She pointed out that one of the key needs is to create an awareness among the Catholic clergy "to bring the laity as the center of the Church."

"We first need a change of mentality. Because we may have rules and procedures for everything, but it will not stop people from not implementing them. Internal awareness is absolutely crucial," she said.

"This change will not happen overnight, but things are developing already. A synodal process is a journey in this direction. The train has begun to ride, and we won't be able to stop it," she added.

• Professor Myriam Wijlens is a Dutch theologian and professor of canon law at the University of Erfurt (Germany), a clerical sexual abuse expert in civilian courts regarding Church liability, a canonical delegate for penal investigations and a policy writer.
• Republished from UCANews.com

The question is resounding more loudly as the summit of bishops and lay Catholics known as the Synod on Synodality, scheduled for October, draws near.

Participants and observers alike recognize that any conversation about reforming church hierarchy or promoting lay involvement, Francis' twin goals for the synod, has to include honest exchanges about the role of women.

"It's not just one issue among others that you can tease out," said Casey Stanton, co-director of Discerning Deacons, a group committed to promoting dialogue about the female diaconate in the Church.

"It's actually kind of at the heart of the synod and we need to take a step forward that is meaningful, and that people can see and feel in their communities."

Stanton believes that opening the door for women to become deacons — allowing them to oversee some aspects of the Mass but not consecrate the Eucharist or perform other duties reserved for priests such as anointing the sick — could send an important signal to Catholics that the Vatican is listening to their concerns.

The upcoming synod already gives a greater role to women, who will be allowed to vote for the first time in any such meeting.

Of the 364 voting participants, mostly bishops, more than 50 will be women.

But women were never the intended focus of the synod, a project Francis hoped would inspire discussion of a "new way of being church," which was interpreted to mean a focus on church power structures and rethinking the privilege enjoyed by clergy.

But by the end of the last phase of the synod, when gatherings of bishops divided by continents examined the topics brought up at the grassroots level, it was clear that the question of women had taken center stage.

The document that emerged from those discussions, with the telling title "Enlarge Your Tent," spoke to the "almost unanimous affirmation" to raise the role of women in the church.

The document described the peripheral role played by women in the church as a growing issue that impacted the function of the clergy and how power is exercised in the historically male-led institution.

While it made no mention of female ordination to the priesthood, it did suggest that the diaconate might answer a need to recognize the ministry already offered by women all over the world.

"It's remarkable the shared cry that came through in ‘Enlarge the Space of Your Tent' around the deep connection between creating a new synodal path in the church and a church that more fully receives the gifts that women bring," Stanton said.

When, in June, the Vatican issued its "instrumentum laboris," or working document that will guide the discussion at the synod, it explicitly asked:

"Most of the Continental Assemblies and the syntheses of several Episcopal Conferences call for the question of women's inclusion in the diaconate to be considered. Is it possible to envisage this, and in what way?"

Attributing the question to the continental assemblies and avoiding the words "ministry" and "ordination" in asking it, said Miriam Duignan, co-director of Women's Ordination Worldwide, constituted a "preemptive strike" against open discussion of priestly ordination.

This avoids a direct challenge to the Vatican, which has shut down the possibility of women's ordination many times.

In 1976, the Pontifical Biblical Commission established that Scripture did not prevent the ordination of women and voted that female priests did not contradict Christ's vision for the church.

But soon after, the Vatican's doctrinal watchdog, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, intervened to state that the church was not authorized to ordain women.

Pope John Paul II had the final word on the issue when he definitively stated that "the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women," in his 1994 apostolic letter "Ordinatio Sacerdotalis" ("Priestly Ordination").

Francis and synod organizers have emphasized that the synod has no intention of opening that door.

"For the Catholic Church at this moment, from an official point of view, it's not an open question," said Nathalie Becquart, undersecretary at the Vatican's synod office, in an interview.

The question of the female diaconate, however, remained open.

Pope Benedict XVI changed canon law in 2009 to clarify the distinction between priests and bishops, who act as representatives of Christ, and deacons, who "serve the People of God in the diaconates of the liturgy, of the Word and of charity."

"Benedict predicted that the call for women priests and ministry was going to get stronger and stronger," Duignan told Religion News Service on Tuesday (July 25) in a phone interview.

The demand for women deacons was an underlying topic during Francis' previous synods on young people, the family and the Amazonian region. Francis created a commission to study the possibility of women deacons in 2016, and when no clear results emerged, he instituted another in April 2020.

According to Duignan, the commissions were "set up to fail," since a decision on the matter required a unanimous vote.

While it's undeniable that women deacons existed in the early and pre-medieval Church, theologians and historians remain divided on whether women were ordained deacons or if they occupied the role in a more informal way.

"There were women deacons in the past. We could do it again," Stanton said. "Let's just settle that."

The division on the question means that Francis will likely have to decide.

"Our prediction is that there is going to be a bit of a stalemate between those bishops who fear a diaconate role for women, and those who say now it's the time, let's give them the diaconate," Duignan said.

Advocates for female deacons hope the pope will finally welcome the demand felt by many Catholic women. "For many young people it has become untenable," Stanton said, "an obstacle to feeling the gospel."

The pope could leave the decision to individual bishops, which would create a patchwork of policies.

Stanton, who has witnessed many experiments for new ministries for women, said that while one bishop may open new opportunities for women, the issue will "wither on the vine" if another bishop doesn't see it as a priority.

In the end, she added, "it's one cleric getting to determine the scope of a woman's vocation and ministries."

Historically, the path to priestly ordination follows the steps of lector, acolyte and deacon. In January 2021, Francis allowed women to become lectors and acolytes; a decision in favor of female deacons could signal a cautious opening for the cause of women priests.

"The glacial pace for change in the modern Catholic Church means we have to accept any steps forward as progress," Duignan said.

The female diaconate would in her opinion offer some recognition for the women who catechize, evangelize and assist faithful all over the world.

"Once they start seeing women at the altar in an official role and seems to be leading the Mass there will be more calls for women priests," she added.

Advocacy groups such as Women's Ordination Worldwide will be in Rome in October to make their demands known through vigils, marches and conferences.

The Synod on Synodality will draw the attention not just of Catholics but women everywhere, putting the question of female leadership in the church and beyond in the spotlight.

"The women are coming," Duignan said. What remains unknown is whether the Vatican is prepared.

• Claire Giangravé is an author at Religion News Service.
• First published by Religion News Service. Republished with permission.

Speaking at the Conciliar Seminary in Mexico City under the title "Joyful Servants of the Gospel," the prefect emeritus of the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments stressed that no individual can invent a female priesthood.

"No council, no synod, no ecclesiastical authority has the power to invent a female priesthood ... without seriously damaging the perennial physiognomy of the priest, his sacramental identity, within the renewed ecclesiological vision of the Church, mystery, communion and mission," emphasised Sarah.

In his address, Cardinal Sarah highlighted the priesthood as a divine gift that cannot be reduced to cultural or environmental factors.

Emphasising the universality of the priesthood, Cardinal Sarah expressed that the sacrament of Holy Orders, instituted by Christ, is a singular entity that transcends geographical and cultural boundaries.

"For Jesus, there is no African, German, Amazonia or European priesthood. The priesthood is unique, it is identical for the universal Church."

Priesthood a great gift

During his discourse, Sarah also delved into the profound nature of the priesthood and stressed that "the priesthood is a great, great mystery, so great a gift that it would be a sin to waste it."

He underscored the importance of receiving, understanding and living out this divine vocation, highlighting the priest's role as an alter Christus—an embodiment of Christ himself—and a mediator between God and humanity.

Cardinal Sarah emphasised the essential role of prayer in the life of a priest. He stressed that prayer is the primary duty of a priest, who starts the day with the Office of Readings and ends it with the Evening Prayer.

"A priest who does not pray is about to die. A Church that does not pray is a dead Church," he warned.

Sources

Catholic News Agency

CathNews New Zealand

But when 99% of Catholic churches have a male preacher this Sunday in a world where 50% of the Catholic population are women, it's time for our daughters and granddaughters — and sons and grandsons — to see us naming out loud a problem we've endured quietly in our hearts.

What seemed normalised to my devout Catholic Cuban grandmothers, and became uncomfortable for my mother and has become unacceptable for me, is now unbearable for my nieces and many of our daughters.

This will have untold consequences for the future of Catholic ministries.

According to a report by the Pew Research Center, as of 2022, 43% of Hispanic adults identify as Catholic, down from 67% in 2010.

In my work listening to older Hispanic/Latino Catholics in Miami, Los Angeles, New York and elsewhere, I often hear how their children and grandchildren have become disengaged from their families' long-standing, multigenerational Catholic faith.

The loss of family unity feels enormous.

I co-direct Discerning Deacons, a project inviting Catholics to consider women's inclusion in the permanent diaconate — an order that already includes married men ordained to serve in the life of the church.

We launched our effort because young Catholics have only ever lived in a church reckoning with the clergy sex-abuse crisis.

They see other professional fields taking steps to recognize women in visible leadership roles — athletics, government, academics, medicine, business — and wonder why their religious institutions will not.

These challenges have not escaped my own family.

After my niece Carolina was confirmed as a teenager, she begged her parents not to obligate her to keep going to Mass.

My niece found it increasingly painful and unbearable to walk into a church where only men preached.

"I can't find God in church when I'm feeling so angry and rejected," Carolina told her mother.

"They haven't set up a space to welcome me the way I believe God would welcome me."

The family was faced with rethinking Sundays.

Ultimately, they agreed that Carolina would choose a spiritual book that interested her to keep nurturing her soul, which was important to her parents, and on the way to Mass, they would drop her off at Starbucks.

After they picked her up, they would engage in a faith conversation.

Today, Carolina is living out her faith by building a community that is more inclusive and welcoming — much like what Jesus did. Continue reading

• Ellie Hidalgo is a parishioner at Our Lady of Divine Providence Church in Miami, Florida and is co-director of Discerning Deacons, a project that engages Catholics in the active discernment of our Church about women and the diaconate.

I have always been a rule follower: I liked wearing uniforms at my all-girls Catholic schools, and I get annoyed when the priest goes off-book saying some of the prayers during Mass.

I even enjoy the Latin Mass, at least during the few times I have attended.

So this realisation, which I had soon after I started working at America, surprised me: The church needs (more) women in the hierarchy of the Vatican and its decision-making processes.

Again, I usually do not call for big changes or support radical ideas.

If the church has worked this way for 2,000 years, I used to think, who are we to change it now?

But then I ended up working in an organisation that is mostly male, and I realised that for the first time, I was a minority. (America Media has more women and lay staff than it did a decade ago. But there are still more men than women.)

Up until a few months ago, every religious space I had ever been in was mostly or all female.

The religious authorities I knew (outside of my parish priest) were all women, and from what I saw, they never felt the need to have their decisions validated by men.

I went to a small all-girls Catholic school from fourth to eighth grade, then I attended a slightly larger all-girls Catholic high school.

My university's student body skewed mostly female (nearly 60 percent), and the Catholic studies program I was in had an even more pronounced majority of women.

Thus, almost every religious conversation I had with leaders or peers or family, was initiated by women who were not afraid to speak their minds on church teaching or anything else.

I never really considered the role of women at the Vatican.

In my mind, the authority that Sister Mary Thomas, or my lay teachers, had behind school gates extended to the wider church. Who would dare to tell Sister Mary Thomas that her opinion is not welcome on church governance?

Now as a woman, I am part of a minority at America, and yet I am working in a religious space that is otherwise familiar to me. I find it strange, though it is probably normal for working women in the rest of the world, to have life experiences that are different than, and perhaps not fully understood by, my male colleagues.

Some examples: I would avoid going to the halal cart outside my apartment alone after about 9 p.m. (the man who works there is a little too friendly with the women in my building).

I would not think to go on a walk when it's dark out, nor would I be comfortable sending a friend home late at night by herself. Some of these could be attributed to my self-ascribed status as "mom friend": the person who acts in a quintessential "mom" way, slightly overprotective and responsible for others.

But the fact is that as a woman, I react to personal safety issues in a different way than men do.

What does this have to do with running the church? Continue reading

Luxembourg Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, a leading organiser of the Vatican's ongoing synod process, also said that the church's language of describing LGBT persons as "intrinsically disordered" is "dubious."

While emphasising Francis is not in favour of the ordination of women, Cardinal Hollerich said that it remains an open conversation among some Catholics and that he would like to see women given greater pastoral responsibilities.

"Pope Francis does not want the ordination of women, and I am completely obedient to that," Hollerich said in a wide-ranging interview with the Croatian Catholic weekly, Glas Koncila, published on March 27.

"I am a promoter of giving women more pastoral responsibility. And if we achieve that, then we can perhaps see if there still is a desire among women for ordination," he added.

The Jesuit cardinal, the relator, or chairperson of the 2023 and 2024 Synod of Bishops, said that should the church ever reconsider the question, it should do so in consultation and unity with the Orthodox Church.

"We could never do that if it would jeopardise our fraternity with the Orthodox or if it would polarise the unity of our church," he said. "Love is not something abstract; it is the love for our sisters and brothers that prevents us from doing things that would alienate them."

Ordinatio Sacerdotalis not infallible

When asked if a future pope could rule against John Paul II's 1994 apostolic letter Ordinatio Sacerdotalis, which said that the Catholic Church does not have the authority to ordain women, Hollerich said it was possible.

But he denied that the teaching of Ordinatio Sacerdotalis is infallible and said, "I think there could be room for the doctrine to be expanded."

He went on to offer a comparison to Pope Pius IX's 1864 "Syllabus of Errors," which was considered infallible and condemned religious freedom and interfaith dialogue. Such practices, the cardinal said, are now common in the church.

Nonetheless, the cardinal returned to his position that the decision of the current Pontiff would guide him. "But at this moment, if Pope Francis tells me it's not an option, it's not an option."

"It is very difficult to be Catholic without obedience to the pope. Some very conservative people always preached obedience to the pope, as long as the pope said the things they wanted to hear," said the cardinal.

"The pope says things that are difficult for me too, but I see them as a chance for conversion, for becoming a more faithful and happier Christian," he added.

Sources

National Catholic Reporter

Catholic Culture

Pope Francis made the comment in an interview with the Argentinean newspaper La Nacion.

Francis stressed that including diverse voices in the synod is an ongoing process but that everyone who participates in the synod, regardless of gender, has the right to vote.

This marks a significant change from the previous policy, which limited voting to bishops and a select group of priests and religious brothers.

La Nacion asked Francis about the importance of the Synod of Bishops on synodality.

During the 2019 Synod of Bishops for the Amazon, he said "the question was asked: Why can't women vote? Are they second-class Christians?"

The Vatican's answer always had been that while the input of many was essential to a synod, it was the role of bishops to discern and vote.

Traditionally, 10 priests were elected by the men's Union of Superiors General of religious orders as full voting members of the synod alongside bishops.

However, In February 2021, Francis named Xavière Missionary Sr Nathalie Becquart as one of the undersecretaries of the synod general secretariat, a post that would make her an automatic voting member of the assembly.

So, La Nacion asked the pope if only one woman would have a vote at the next synod assembly.

"Everyone who participates in the synod will vote. Those who are guests or observers will not vote," he said, but whoever participates in a synod as a member "has the right to vote. Whether male or female. Everyone, everyone. That word everyone for me is key."

Sources

NCR

US Conference of Catholic Bishops

In an interview with America Magazine, Francis responded to a question posed by Kerry Webber, executive editor of the magazine published by the Jesuits of the United States:

"Many women feel pain because they cannot be ordained priests. What would you say to a woman who is already serving in the life of the Church but who still feels called to be a priest?"

The Holy Father was unequivocal in his response:

"And why can a woman not enter ordained ministry? It is because the Petrine principle has no place for that," the pope said.

"The ministerial dimension, we can say, is that of the Petrine church. I am using a category of theologians. The Petrine principle is that of ministry," the Holy Father said.

A theology of the ‘Marian principle'

The pope explained that there is another "theological" way in which women play a vital role in Church life.

The dignity of women, he said, reflected the spousal nature of the Church, which he called the "Marian principle".

"The way is not only [ordained] ministry. The Church is woman. The Church is a spouse. We have not developed a theology of women that reflects this," Pope Francis said.

"The Petrine principle is that of ministry.

"But there is another principle that is still more important, about which we do not speak, that is the Marian principle, which is the principle of femininity in the Church, of the woman in the Church, where the Church sees a mirror of herself because she is a woman and a spouse.

"A church with only the Petrine principle would be a church that one would think is reduced to its ministerial dimension, nothing else. But the Church is more than a ministry.

"It is the whole people of God.

"The Church is woman. The Church is a spouse. Therefore, the dignity of women is mirrored in this way," the pope said.

"Therefore, that the woman does not enter into the ministerial life is not a deprivation.

"No. Your place is that which is much more important and which we have yet to develop, the catechesis about women in the way of the Marian principle," he said.

"There is a third way: the administrative way.

"The ministerial way, the ecclesial way, let us say, Marian, and the administrative way, which is not a theological thing, it is something of normal administration. And, in this aspect, I believe we have to give more space to women," Pope Francis said.

Theologians must explore and venture

At a recent meeting with members of the International Theological Commission, Pope Francis told the Commission that it is the vocation of the theologian is always to risk going further because they are seeking and they are trying to make theology clearer.

"The theologian dares to go further, and it will be the magisterium that will stop them," the pope said.

Theologians must explore and "venture" out further to help enrich doctrine while catechists must stick to established, "solid" doctrine, never anything new, Pope Francis told theologians.

The pope singled out the women members on the Theological Commission, saying women bring a different intellectual perspective to theology, which can make it "more profound and more ‘flavourful'."

Francis suggested that the prestigious ITC could consider including more women in their group.

In September, women's role in the Catholic Church was the focus of a New Zealand group working for gender equality in Church leadership.

A media release from a group called "Be the Change, Catholic Church, Aotearoa" notes New Zealand women's suffrage was granted on 19 September 1893, and the September anniversary shows the Catholic Church is 129 years behind New Zealand in recognising the leadership skills of women.

To mark women's suffrage and highlight God's call for the Church to allow women to exercise their gifts, on 18 September, Catholic women in Auckland and Wellington mounted an installation of women's shoes at their respective cathedrals.

Sources

• Catholic News Agency
• CathNews New Zealand
• CathNews New Zealand
• CathNews New Zealand

In Germany's industrial Ruhr area, the Diocese of Essen is the first diocese in the country to appoint a group of women to administer the sacrament, reported CAN Deutsch.

Church law stipulates that only an ordained minister—a priest or deacon—is the ordinary minister for Baptism. However, the bishop can authorise another person to perform the ceremony if a priest is not available and, in an emergency, anyone can baptise.

Theresa Kohlmeyer, head of the department of faith, liturgy, and culture in the diocese, said that the step was necessary because there were "fewer priests than in the past.

"Time and again, the Church has reacted to external circumstances over the past 2,000 years," added Kohlmeyer.

Bishop Franz-Josef Overbeck of Essen explained that the decision to commission lay people — 17 women and one man — is a temporary measure and will initially last for three years.

Overbeck said the action allowing women to perform baptisms was a response to "a pastorally difficult situation."

Canon 861 of the Code of Canon Law says that "the ordinary minister of baptism is a bishop, a presbyter, or a deacon."

It adds that "when an ordinary minister is absent or impeded, a catechist or another person designated for this function by the local ordinary, or in a case of necessity any person with the right intention, confers baptism licitly."

Bishop Gebhard Fürst of Rottenburg-Stuttgart announced in March 2021 that he would look into the possibility of baptism by lay pastoral workers, establishing a working group.

More than 2.5 million people live in the Essen diocese, 724,047 of whom are Catholic. It is the smallest diocese in Germany in terms of area.

Sources

Catholic News Agency

AP News

Unless it revokes the doctrine, the Church will struggle to attract new followers and will become ‘extinct' in Britain and Ireland by 2050, Dr Niamh Middleton of Dublin City University predicts.

The Vatican's ongoing refusal to recognise women as spiritual equals will reduce congregations to "elderly, pious men and no one else" within two decades, says Middleton, the author of new book ‘Jesus and Women: Beyond Feminism'.

Dr Middleton, herself a practising Catholic, said: "Women have been leaving the Catholic Church for decades as a direct result of its antiquated and discriminatory views, and because of repeated sex abuse and financial scandals involving its male leaders.

"Catholic women object strongly to having a celibate male priesthood marked by such scandals dictating their sexual behaviour to them, especially concerning contraception.

"By preventing women from joining its priesthood the Church has cemented its position as an old-fashioned institution that is out of touch with the modern world.

"Based on my estimates, I would say the Catholic Church has 30 years of life left in it, and will be 'women-free' within 20 years."

According to the Vatican, women cannot be ordained because Jesus willingly chose only men as his apostles.

Whilst they have recently been given more powers during Mass, Pope Francis has ruled out women from ever joining the priesthood.

Any Catholic priest who ignores the ban and ordains a woman will be sacked and excommunicated.

Dr Middleton says only radical restructuring of the Church's leadership will repair its credibility, arrest the dramatic decline in parishioners, and persuade more women and families to return to worship.

Not only must the Vatican revoke its position on female priests, but it should also install more women than men in positions of authority, says Dr Middleton.

Middleton says there is a "tsunami" of support toward integrating more women priests, and subsequently bishops. She also claims many senior male leaders would back such reforms.

Dr Middleton is urging the Pope to establish an international panel of female theologians to produce a clear roadmap for the Church's future.

Her recommendations are set out in ‘Jesus and Women: Beyond Feminism', a new book that examines Jesus' pro-views of women and includes insights from religion, evolutionary biology, and the #MeToo movement.

Sources

The London Economic

Catholic Grapevine

"The wave that has formed will not subside again," a press release from French network All Women Apostles says.

Last year the network proposed seven female candidates for key male only ecclesial posts.

The group (some of whom are in the image above) timed its press release for 22 July - the Feast of St. Mary Magdalene, "Apostle to the Apostles".

Network members hand-delivered a letter to the Episcopal Conference of France (CEF) headquarters formally asking the bishops to establish an independent commission.

This is the second time the network has tried to engage with CEF. Its attempts last year were rebuffed.

Last year the CEF told Le Figaro newspaper that All Women Apostles! members "were not representative of the thousands of women committed to serving the Church who are happy and fulfilled in their mission".

That response has not impressed member Alix Bayle. "If the bishops maintain that women in the Church are happy, then let's dare to ask for figures!" she says.

The independent commission the network would like the bishops to establish would be similar to one they set up on sexual abuse in the Church.

The All Women Apostles! want the commission to focus on how much women who work for the Church get paid, how many of them have full-time permanent contracts and how satisfied the women employees (and their fellow parishioners) are with the current situation.

"Bishops often respond by citing two or three examples where things are going well, but we have gathered many testimonies that show us a completely different reality about the place reserved for women in the Church in France," Bayle says.

Sylvaine Landrivon (pictured far right), a theologian who was one of the women who put herself forward last year and again this year to be considered a candidate for bishop, is frustrated with women in the Church who censor themselves.

"Essentially, the bishops only listen to the women who say they are happy because the others censor themselves," she says.

The "All Women Apostles!" network has been organizing throughout the past year.

"Because change will not happen in one generation, we know that to last in the long term, we must first decide how to move forward together, decide on our values and working methods," Bayle says.

This had led the network joining forces with other like-minded international organisations.

The letter from All Apostles! denounces discrimination among the baptized.

"There is a big gap between the message of the Gospel and the androcentric interpretation that is made today," Landrivon says.

She condemned what she calls a "magisterial teaching that continues to make women invisible, while in the Gospel all the essential messages are carried by women: the Virgin Mary, the Samaritan woman, Martha and Mary Magdalene".

Despite its aims, the "All Women Apostles!" network says it is not trying to "confiscate" the voice of men.

The bishops' conference says it will consider the letter and take time to reflect on its response.

Source

• La Croix
• Image: Actu.fr

The reenactment depicts militant feminists beating Christ, who had fallen to the ground.

The ceremony was organized and broadcast on Facebook by Life Online Oficial.

Life Online Oficial is an evangelization platform with ties to Saint Joseph's parish in Ciudad Pemex, Mexico.

Members of Life Online Oficial members describe themselves as "young Catholics". They say they are interested in "talking about many topics that help us to be better and to grow in our faith, duly informing us about topics of interest in the light of the Church's magisterium."

The Way of the Cross reenactment was broadcast and presented by Fr. Tomás Raymundo Rodríguez, who is the pastor of Saint Joseph's parish.

In the portrayal of the Eighth Station, the narrator in the reenactment says: "2021 years ago, the Savior encountered a group of women in the streets of Jerusalem weeping for Him.

"Today, 2021 years later, the Lord returns to meet very different women than those he consoled.

"Women, trapped in a group that is irrational, demanding rights based on insults, destroying everything in their path, fighting for feminism and the dignity of women, when they don't even conduct themselves in a dignified manner," the narration continues.

"Violent women, leaving a trail of vandalism. Women who enter the churches to desecrate the Eucharist, to mock the Virgin Mary."

The portrayal alludes to the frequent incidents in Latin America of radical feminists tagging churches with pro-abortion graffiti.

Some Mexican media outlets criticized the Diocese of Tabasco and its major seminary for the controversial reenactment.

However, Bishop Gerardo de Jesús Rojas López of Tabasco say neither the seminary nor the diocese were responsible for the service.

Source

• CNA
• Image: National Catholic Reporter