Klara-Antonia Csiszar, Professor of Pastoral Theology at the Catholic Private University of Linz, shared with Catholic media that while there will be no vote on ordaining female deacons, progress towards a more inclusive Church is underway.

Patience, Csiszar noted, is necessary for these changes to unfold.

Csiszar pointed out that the major theological challenge regarding women's ordination revolves around the concept of "representatio Christi" - the representation of Christ in sacramental actions.

Despite unresolved questions, Csiszar believes that separating deacons and deaconesses from the traditional three-tiered (Deacon - Priest - Bishop) ordained ministry could be a viable solution.

Church of the Council

She also suggested that women could already take on leadership roles and decision-making powers, making the Church more synodal. She believes this approach can enhance Church structures and representation.

At the first Synod on Synodality assembly in October 2023, Csiszar witnessed the importance of diverse perspectives and the collaborative spirit, which she believes are crucial for developing improved Church structures.

The second and final part of the 16th General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops will convene in Rome in October 2024, concluding the Synod on Synodality that began in 2021.

In March, Pope Francis established ten study groups to explore various reform topics including women's ordination and the possibility of a female diaconate.

Pope Francis instructed the study groups to submit their findings by the end of June 2025.

Csiszar criticised those who accuse the Synodal Process and Pope Francis of having a superficial reform agenda. She reflected on a lecture by council theologian Karl Rahner in 1965, noting that it may take generations to transition "from a Church that had a council to a Church of the council".

Sources

English Katholisch

Vatican News

CathNews New Zealand

What makes for spiritual growth? In my childhood and adolescence, it was all about going to Sunday Mass, confessing your sins once a month at least, going to Mass through the week or even attending Sunday benediction, an active interest in cultivating a devotional life fostered by the many movements that still thrived till the 1960s. These were the emblems of a thriving Catholic faith.

Mass attendance was four times what it is today, members of pious societies filling the pews at their designated Masses. Clerics in collars and soutanes and, when called on, bishops and 'experts' in particular devotions, fed the faithful with the treasures of these traditions of piety. There was always an 'authority' who could explain the mysteries and put anxious minds and hearts at rest. Authority was a big factor in Church and society. Read more

Sources

• Michael Kelly in Eureka Street

Fr Michael Kelly SJ was founding publisher of Eureka Street and is now executive director of the Bangkok-based UCAN Catholic news agency.

This widely anticipated appointment was greeted by the liberal theological establishment in Germany with howls of "Panzerkardinal!" (as though Müller were so belligerently authoritarian that he would arrive in St. Peter's Square in an armored tank) and by ultra-conservative Catholics with the equivalent of a negative ad campaign calling Müller's orthodoxy into question on the basis of a few passages from his voluminous writings.

To paraphrase a remark that G.K. Chesterton once made about the contradictory accusations leveled at the Catholic Church: Bishop Müller must have done something right!

Biography

Gerhard Ludwig Müller was born in Mainz-Finthen on December 31, 1947, one of four children of a working-class family. He studied philosophy and theology in Mainz, Munich, and Freiburg im Breisgau and in 1977 completed a dissertation on the subject of Dietrich Bonhoeffer's sacramental theology. His doctoral advisor was Professor (now Cardinal) Karl Lehmann, who had earned his own doctorate under Karl Rahner, SJ, an influential expert at Vatican II.

After his ordination in 1978 Müller served as assistant priest in three parishes and taught religious education in the secondary schools. In order to qualify as a professor of theology, he wrote a second doctoral thesis in 1985 (again under Lehmann) on Catholic devotion to the saints. He was appointed Professor of Catholic Dogmatic Theology at the Ludwig-Maximilian University in Munich in 1986, a position that he held for 16 years. Read more

Sources

• The Catholic World Report
• Image: The Guardian