Fr Helmut Schüller said merging independent parishes into vast, impersonal parish associations is "pretty much the most unimaginative thing one can do".

In the long run, the Church will not be able to avoid issues such as women's ordination and who can take over the leadership of priestless communities, Fr Schüller told Austria's Salzburger Nachrichten.

Fr Schüller founded the Austrian Priests' Initiative for church reform in 2006.

The initiative wants to pave the way for a new model of priesthood rather than merging parishes.

In 2011, Fr Schüller initiated a "Call to Disobedience", which pushed for distribution of Communion to all people of good will, without waiting for Church reforms.

Asked about lay leadership of parishes, Fr Schüller replied: "The Catholic Church is standing at a crossroads on this question."

"Either it succeeds in providing its communities with priests or it must begin to develop new forms of community leadership.

"Latin American communities are reacting to the situation very pragmatically.

"As far as we know, that is exactly how early Christian communities reacted. Community leadership was developed simultaneously in different forms."

But despite the crisis in parish leadership, bishops' conferences agendas have hardly changed, the priest said.

They are keeping to their defensive administrative strategy of merging independent parishes into vast, impersonal parish associations.

"I think many bishops are above all determined not to do anything wrong at the present moment because if this Pope does not come out on top, they could expect little good from those in leading positions in Rome," Fr Schüller said.

In a 2013 speaking tour in the United States, Fr Schüller was banned from speaking in Catholic churches in Detroit and Boston.

Sources

• National Catholic Reporter
• The Plain Dealer
• Image: America

"She said, ‘I just don't think this Church is set up for somebody like me,'" Hidalgo recalled in a recent interview. "‘I don't think God would speak to me only through the voice of a priest.'"

The young woman's elders, said Hidalgo, were shocked to realise that despite their own deep Catholic faith, the religion had failed to pass to the new generation, and particularly that, like many young Catholic women, Hildalgo's niece felt the Church had inhibited her from truly experiencing her faith.

Discerning Deacons

Her niece's experience is the kind of story that drove Hidalgo to co-found Discerning Deacons, an organisation that argues for the ordination of women deacons.

The group launched in 2021, spurred in part by the 2019 Synod for the Pan Amazon Region, a meeting in Rome that highlighted the dire need in South America's remotest regions for more contact with clergy.

Deacons can preach at Mass, baptise children and marry couples, though they cannot say Mass, hear confession or anoint the sick.

But Hidalgo's 12 years spent helping with pastoral duties at a Jesuit church in the Latin American immigrant community of Boyle Heights, California, suggested that giving women the responsibilities of the diaconate would also hold out a promise of empowerment and stanch an outflow of women that has become more pronounced in recent years.

A study released in April by the Survey Center on American Life found that women, especially Gen Z women, are now leaving religion at a more rapid rate than men. The same poll found that 65 percent of young women said they don't believe religious institutions treat women and men equally.

The effect seems to be hitting Catholics even harder.

In 2018, a survey of more than 1,500 Catholic women by America Magazine found that only 24 percent attend Mass at least once a week — a lower share than the 27 percent of women of all faiths who attend, as is often cited in a recent study by political scientist Ryan Burge.

Consultation

Pope Francis has opened new opportunities for women to be heard, but compared to the gains made by women elsewhere, the Church's attempts at equality seem feeble.

At the Pan-Amazonian Synod in 2019, bishops voted by a staggering 137-30 tally in favor of female deacons, but the proposal was shelved for further study.

In 2021, Francis invited the Catholic faithful in parishes around the world to gather and speak about their hopes, fears and concerns for the future of the Church.

The massive, three-year consultation, given the underwhelming name of Synod on the theme of Synodality, rattled the hierarchy by showing they had questions about priestly celibacy, welcoming of LGBTQ+ Catholics and even monogamy.

No issue, however, was more urgent to rank-and-file Catholics than the lot of women. The quest to ordain women as deacons, long swept under the rug, reemerged with a newfound energy.

"The Synod process was asking: what's in your heart? What do you think the Holy Spirit is asking of you?" Hidalgo said. "Suddenly, all these women started saying: ‘Oh, if I could discern a call to the diaconate, I would love to do that.'"

After forming Discerning Deacons, which has taught hundreds of women how to lead conversations on the female diaconate in their parishes and on college campuses, Hidalgo said its organisers were convinced that "a growing number of young women are quite discouraged by the limits they see in the Church."

As bishops convened in pre-meetings for the synod, the question of female participation came up again and again.

European Catholics reported "a tension" between a changing society and the Church "practicing a second-class status of women."

In Oceania, "the role and place of women in the Church was a uniform concern," and Latin American and Caribbean bishops asked that attendees of the upcoming summit at the Vatican address the question of "the opening of some ministries to women," according to reports from the bishops' meetings.

The Maronite Church, a Middle Eastern rite in communion with Rome, held its own Synod on Women in 2022, after its bishops suggested that the Church "should begin to reflect seriously on the re-establishment of the diaconate for women," which an earlier pope had allowed the Maronites in 1746.

But in March 2024, Francis put on the brakes.

Canceling discussion of women in the diaconate at October's second meeting of the synod, Francis instead created a study group to tackle this and other controversial topics, charging them with reporting back in 2025.

The report on the female diaconate would be submitted to the Vatican's Department for the Doctrine of the Faith, a notoriously secretive and historically conservative office.

"The support for women's recognition is getting stronger and stronger.

"I don't know how the leadership inside the Vatican think that they can make it disappear by closing the doors, closing the curtains, and having a secretive study," said Miriam Duignan, executive director of the Wijngaards Institute for Catholic Research and a leader of Women's Ordination Worldwide, an umbrella organisation.

The case for women

Duignan will be among dozens of Catholic women making the case for women deacons on the sidelines of October's synod meeting, in vigils, prayer events and public demonstrations.

"They have opened Pandora's box," she said. "They've encouraged people to speak out, and they're not going to stop speaking out now or ever again."

In his letter to the Romans, in the New Testament, Paul introduces a woman named Phoebe as "deaconess of the Church" and praises her as "a helper of many and of myself as well."

A smattering of women deacons has since been scattered across the history of the Church, especially in the Eastern traditions.

In the 12th century, the Church interrupted the ordination of deacons altogether, and for about 900 years, until the Second Vatican Council, it didn't come up.

But in debates during Vatican II in the 1960s over how to re-energise the Church, the deaconate came to the fore once again.

Eventually the male deaconate was restored, but Pope Paul VI supported further study on the ordination of women. In 1973, he defaulted to commissioning a study that took three years to report that nothing in the Bible barred women from becoming priests.

As the Vatican ordered up further studies in the early 1990s without publishing their findings, the current lines were drawn:

Opponents argued that the biblical and historical female deacons didn't serve the same role as deacons today, or served only females in highly segregated contexts. Advocates claimed that the modern diaconate, mostly seen as a first step toward becoming a priest, is the outlier.

In 1994, now-Saint Pope John Paul II declared, "The Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women," seemingly closing the discussion forever.

Francis has supported John Paul's ruling, shutting down hopes in an interview with CBS News in May for women's ordination of any kind. But he has also kept up the pattern of commissioning studies, with one in 2016 and another in 2020, without revealing their findings.

"I think it's pretty clear that the Vatican is trying to lower expectations of any outcome of this synodal gathering," said Kate McElwee, executive director of the Women's Ordination Conference.

McElwee said that it would constitute a "scandal" if the synod were to fail to recognise the call by thousands of women. She described the October summit as "a tipping point" for many.

Coupled with the decline in the number of priests, a downward trend that started in 2012, the demand for women deacons seems to have gathered an irresistible momentum.

A February study by Pew found that 64 percent of U.S. Catholics support the ordination of women as priests. Another Pew report on Sept. 26 in major Latin American countries found overwhelming support for ordaining women priests, especially among young generations.

"While women may not be in the pews in the same numbers on Sunday, that doesn't mean that they're not watching, organising, praying and working on correcting this injustice," McElwee said.

Some women have lost hope in the synod, and Francis. Citing a misogynistic and suffocating environment, Lucetta Scaraffia quit her job in 2019 as the head of "Women, Church, World," the only Vatican magazine specifically aimed at a female audience.

"We women have never been given anything without fighting for it," said Scaraffia.

"There is this absurd idea that a good pope will come who will give women power. But that has never happened in history or in politics. Women took that power for themselves," she said.

In his Sep. 27 visit to the Louvain Catholic University in Belgium, Francis talked about women in terms of their "fertile" and caregiving nature, the latest example of his frequent tone-deafness on gender.

He recently warned a group of priests that "gossip is for women" and once referred to the women appointed to a prestigious theological commission as "strawberries on the cake."

But Scaraffia said deeper issues of trust in Church leadership have arisen with the rampant abuse of power, including sexual abuse of religious sisters by priests.

In her meetings with nuns, she has heard widespread yet often hidden demands of women religious for greater authority and, in some cases, ordination as an antidote.

Close observers of Francis' leadership note that he has allowed women to head Vatican departments and to become lecturers.

Priests and bishops have become accustomed in this pontificate to brushing shoulders with women in curial offices and seeing them participate more actively at Mass. But more significant reform remains incremental.

The World Union of Catholic Women's Organisations, which represents more than 8 million Catholic women in 50 countries, has shown itself willing to move at the Church's pace, listening to Catholic women from all walks of life.

They tell in the organisation's latest report how women often express feeling invisible and unappreciated for the work they do for the Church.

"The Church cannot go on with only men making all the decisions, when more than half of the Catholic population are women," said Monica Santamarina, president general of WUCWO.

Santamarina said canon law allows women to do many things in the Church. They can sit on pastoral and diocesan councils that advise the parish priest or the bishop.

If women start by occupying those roles and showing other women and men that it's possible, she said, young people will be attracted to the Church as well.

"I think that what is at stake for us women at the synod is not to take a step backwards," she said. "I think we have to become a little more patient, more careful," she added.

Barbara Dowding, vice president at WUCWO, believes the diaconate is possible for women but doubts it will happen in her lifetime.

"For bishops and priests who are living now and go back a long way, the very notion of having a woman ordained to anything is just so hard for them, you know? Because it's been a male-dominated Church in so many ways," she said.

There will be 54 female voting delegates at the October Synod, commonly referred to as Synod mothers, who will engage with prelates and priests in roundtable discussions.

The youngest is Julia Oseka, 23, a Polish student of physics and theology at St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia, who said she felt awe at the responsibility of representing the hopes of so many women.

"As I sat on that chair, I felt how many women before me contributed so that we might one day be listened to. I also felt inspired by so many women who are, for me, models of leaders in the Church," she said at a webinar organized by WUCWO on Thursday (Sept. 26).

Oseka said that sitting in and voting at the synod "is a gift" and praised the opportunity "to dialogue on the same level with priests, bishops and lay people."

Whether women watch the synod with disappointment or bated breath, Oseka urged that the event should be interpreted as "a sign not to give up on the task of giving visibility to women in the Church."

• Claire Giangravè is a Rome-based reporter for RNS, covering the Catholic Church and the Vatican.
• First published by RNS

According to Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, the General Relator of the Synod, the issue of women's priestly ordination was not included because it was not universally raised.

The Instrumentum laboris published recently reflects this view: "While some local Churches call for women to be admitted to the diaconal ministry, others reiterate their opposition" it says.

As a result, the topic will not be addressed during the Synod, but theological reflection on the matter will continue.

A study group has been established to explore the "necessary participation of women in the life and leadership of the Church". However, details about this group, including its membership, remain unclear.

The Vatican has announced that an official document addressing canon law and theological questions related to women's roles in the Church will be forthcoming. Still, no publication date has been set.

Delays, deferrals and further reflections

However, excluding women's ordination from the Synod's agenda has not silenced the debate.

Advocates like Jutta Mader-Schömer, Chairwoman of the Diaconate of Women Network, insisted "The topic simply cannot be kept under wraps, it must be discussed".

The network has actively contributed to the global Church dialogue. It emphasises that many women already serve in roles akin to deacons and feel called to this ministry.

Reform-oriented theologians, such as English theologian Tina Beattie, have criticised the continued delays and lack of transparency.

"And so, the process goes on - delays, deferrals, further reflections, unpublished reports - while the platitudinous waffle about women's charisms and gifts drones on year after year."

Beattie argues that while consensus on women deacons may be elusive, this should not hinder doctrinal development.

The conversation on women's ordination is not limited to theological circles. German bishops were questioned about the issue during the recent international altar servers' pilgrimage in Rome.

Bishop Michael Gerber called for a thorough theological examination of the arguments for and against women's ordination. However, he acknowledged that it is a highly emotional issue that could risk division within the Church.

Similarly, Bishop Bertram Meier of Augsburg cautioned against expecting immediate changes. He referenced Pope John Paul II's 1994 declaration that the Church is not authorised to ordain women.

Nonetheless, Meier affirmed that Pope Francis remains open to discussions and supports the appointment of more women to leadership roles within the Church.

Sources

Katholisch English

Religion News Service

CathNews New Zealand

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

"I have never heard him speak like that before and have often spoken to him personally about these issues" said the Limburg bishop.

"Let me say: for me, what is doctrinal is not what the Pope says in interviews - but what he decides to do and puts it down in official documents."

In an interview with CBS during Pentecost, Pope Francis was asked if a Catholic girl could ever become a deacon and thus part of the clergy. His response was a clear "No".

He elaborated that women cannot be ordained as deacons but have always taken on diaconal roles without ordination.

"Women are great in their service as women - but not in service with ordination" the Pope said.

Bätzing highlighted that the issue of women's ordination has been a significant topic in discussions during the World Synod.

Pope Francis had set up a working group to explore the matter and had never given the impression that the issue was settled.

However, Bätzing expressed concern that the Pope might avoid a direct resolution by referring such crucial matters to working groups and excluding them from the second phase of the World Synod.

"You cannot just talk abstractly about synodality; it must be addressed with concrete examples" Bätzing said.

Significant reform pressure

Despite this, Bätzing observed that the Synod had developed a dynamic momentum. He stated "The questions are there, and the drive is there, and it cannot be stopped."

He acknowledged there is significant reform pressure within the Church, not only in Germany.

Presenting his book "Rome is Not an Opponent - Why the Church Needs Reforms", Bätzing reiterated his stance on women's ordination. He believes it could fit well within today's cultural context.

He also envisioned the possibility of married priests.

While Bätzing himself embraces celibacy, he questioned whether maintaining such prerequisites might jeopardise essential elements of the Church.

"Is celibacy more important or is the sacramentality of the Church more important?" he asked.

Sources

Katholisch

CathNews New Zealand

In an interview with kath.ch, the Luxembourg archbishop stressed "If you attack too much, you won't achieve much. You have to be cautious, take one step at a time, and then you might be able to go very far".

As the General Relator in the synodal process of the universal Church, Hollerich highlighted that the synod focuses on listening rather than politicising.

The Jesuit commented that the issue of the ordination of women is not an infallible doctrinal decision. "It can be changed. It needs arguments and time."

Hollerich said he would be delighted if women felt fully equal in the church. "Whether that happens through the priesthood or not is something that time will tell."

What is important now is "that women are given more responsibility".

Addressing the criteria for ordination, Hollerich noted that vocation alone is not sufficient. He acknowledged that while men's vocations are scrutinised, women's are not, which can appear as structural discrimination - especially from a European perspective.

The Catholic Church will fall apart

He pointed out that the Church must consider global perspectives, where community often takes precedence over individualism.

The cardinal explained that the objection that appointed women should take a back seat is "based on a typically European principle of the individual. Many societies don't think like that at all - the community comes before the individual".

Hollerich warned against imposing European individualistic principles on the global Church, which could be seen as neo-colonialist and provoke a backlash.

According to Hollerich, the global church must consider different mentalities. "We have to have these discussions with the whole church, otherwise we will have huge problems later. Then the Catholic Church will fall apart."

Cardinal Hollerich concluded: "It's not the evil Vatican that insists on these positions and doesn't want to change anything." There would be "a storm in other continents if it were to introduce the female priesthood tomorrow" and the Vatican would have to back down.

This has already been experienced with the comparatively "small matter" that same-sex couples can now be blessed in church.

Sources

English Katholisch

The Pillar

CathNews New Zealand

Sr Linda Pocher, speaking to Europa Press, clarified that the Catholic Church is not considering women's priestly ordination, yet the pope actively supports the idea of female deacons.

Participating in the Pope's Council of Cardinals (C9) meetings, Pocher - alongside other female theologians - provided insights into women's roles in the Church.

The discussions are integral to the ongoing Synod of Bishops on Synodality, scheduled to end this October.

Pocher, a Salesian theologian, along with Lucia Vantini and Father Luca Castiglioni, addressed the council highlighting key issues regarding the role of women in the Church.

The session included Anglican Bishop Jo Bailey Wells who shared insights into the ordination of women in the Anglican Church.

"The pope asked me to organise this meeting of reflection on the world of women in the Church and, to me, it seemed interesting to compare the experience of the Anglican Church" Pocher said.

Pocher asked Wells to explain the process in the Anglican Church that led to their decision to ordain women and how this decision "changed life in her Church."

Role of women in the Church debated

Pocher emphasised the pope's evolving perspective on the distinction between ordained ministry and baptismal priesthood, exemplified by allowing women to vote in synods, a change heralding broader participation in Church matters.

"The diaconate was also discussed. We know that the pope is very much in favour of the female diaconate, but he is still trying to understand how to put it into practice" she said.

Although the discussions at the C9 were receptive, Pocher noted varying degrees of openness among cardinals influenced by cultural contexts.

The topic of women deacons gained prominence in 2016 when Pope Francis initiated a commission to study the issue. Despite two commissions, a definitive conclusion remains elusive.

In 2019, the Synod of Bishops on the Amazon witnessed widespread support for the female diaconate. However conclusive action is pending.

During last October's Synod of Bishops on Synodality, the topics of women priests, the women's diaconate and the role of women in the Church were among the most debated and contested issues.

Sources

Katholisch

Crux Now

National Catholic Register

CathNews New Zealand

Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, has written an official note to the German Bishops' Conference secretary general, Beate Gilles to clarify the Vatican's stance on the German Synodal Path reform proposals.

Non-negotiable issues

Some issues are "non-negotiable", Parolin told Gilles, who shared Parolin'sofficial note with the German diocesan bishops.

These issues include the German Synodal Path project and its debates about the ordination of women and homosexuality.

The Vatican is not considering negotiating the Church's teaching on homosexuality, Parolin wrote.

Nor is it open to debating the letter"Ordinatio Sacerdotalis". That's the letter Pope John Paul II reaffirmed that women were excluded from ordination to the priesthood.

The 23 October letter also reminded the bishops of potential disciplinary consequences for anyone defying Church teaching.

Visit to Rome

In July, German bishops went to Rome to discuss the Synodayl Path with the heads of several Vatican dicasteries.

They tried again after October's Rome-based Synod on Synodality. Among them were German bishops' conference, president Bishop Georg Bätzing and Gilles.

Talks they began with several heads of dicasteries will be continued in 2024, the bishops conference says.

News reports say the heads of the dicasteries for doctrine, ecumenical relations, bishops, liturgy and sacraments, and for legal texts want to meet representatives of the German bishops next January, April and June.

During those meetings, they will discuss what can and cannot be changed in regard to Church doctrine and discipline.

The themes up for discussion include ecclesiology, anthropology, moral teaching and liturgy and the relevant texts of the Synodal Path.

Global reform underway

Although meetings between the German bishops and the Vatican have been arranged, Parolin's letter points out that a global synodal process is underway.

"It is therefore necessary to respect this path of the Universal Church and to avoid the impression that parallel initiatives are underway that are indifferent to the endeavor to 'journey together,'" Parolin wrote.

The Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK) says there had been pre-Synod movement on reform in the Vatican - within the curia and also between the curia and the pope.

ZdK President Irme Stetter-Karp notes, for example, that Cardinal Parolin had said it was impossible to give women voting rights in the synod because that would contradict canon law.

"And what did our pope do? Suddenly it was legal and was put into practice," she says.

Pope Francis recently expressed his concern about concrete initiatives some German dioceses and the Catholic Church in Germany as a whole are taking.

These include establishing a German synodal council, which Francis said threatens to steer the Catholic Church in Germany away from the universal church.

Source

• Katholisch.de
• CNA
• UCA News

The synthesis report summarises synodal discussions about how a synodal Church's ministries and structures can give a wider role for laity which is more in line with the vision of Vatican II.

Big issues discussed at the synod were identified in its two-year lead-up, and besides reporting on the past month, the report also lays the foundation for the second part of the Synod scheduled for October 2024.

At the time of CathNews publication, the report was only available in Italian!

• Note: The report is now available in English as a PDF document.

The synthesis report

The synthesis report outlines key proposals discussed between some 450 participants from around the world.

It covers off areas of convergence, matters for consideration and proposals that are expected to set the stage for further debate throughout the year ahead of next year's assembly.

For the first time ever at a Synod of Bishops, voting members included lay women, laymen and other non-bishops.

Voting on the document was taken paragraph by paragraph on Saturday.

A two-thirds majority vote threshold was set for passing each paragraph.

Although the report makes 81 proposals, many are open-ended or general.

Further theological or canonical study, evaluation or consideration is called for at least 20 times.

Yes and No votes

More than 80 proposals were approved in the synod vote.

These include establishing a new "baptismal ministry of listening and accompaniment," initiating discernment processes for decentralising the Church and giving lectors a preaching ministry.

The most 'no' votes - accounting for about a fifth of the delegates - were given to two primary paragraphs addressing the possibility of women deacons.

One passed by a vote of 277-69; the other by 279-67.

"That means that the resistance [to women's leadership] is not so great as people have thought" the Vatican's Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich said.

A paragraph addressing the question of clerical celibacy also received substantial No votes, but passed at 291-55.

Women

The synthesis report does not call immediately for the ordination of women as deacons. Nor does it mention calls for priestly ordination for women.

It does include however, a "clear request" from the assembly that women's contributions "would be recognised and valued, and that their pastoral leadership increased in all areas."

The synthesis report also questions how the Church can include more women in existing ministries.

"If new ministries are required, who should discern these, at what levels and in what ways?" it asks.

The Church must address employment injustices and unfair remuneration for women in the church "especially for women in consecrated life."

Liturgical text and church document reviews will ensure language is considerate to both men and women and draws more widely on women's experience.

Archbishop Paul Martin and Fr James Martin SJ in their Synod group.

LGBTQ Catholics

The report seemed to largely glosses over the tensions that emerged over how the Church should respond to LGBTQ Catholics.

Jesuit Fr James Martin, editor of the LGBTQ Catholic publication Outreach, says he was "disappointed but not surprised" by the result for LGBTQ Catholics.

"There were widely diverging views on the topic," says Martin, who was a synod voting member.

"I wish however that some of those discussions, which were frank and open, had been captured in the final synthesis."

It is a point emphasised by Cardinal Blaise Cupich in a conversation with America Magazine.

No one should feel excluded and we have to get to know people, Cupich said.

However he admitted that while trying to pick up on what people said perhaps the document could have expressed the nuances a little better.

Cupich said there was explicit reference to LGBTQ issues in the groups he was in and the lack of explicit reference does not mean we're not going to return to it again next year.

He said there was greater discussion about LGBTQ issues than there was about polygamy, yet polygamy was named in the document.

Cardinal Mario Grech says the assembly felt a need to "respect everyone's pace" regarding LGBTQ questions.

"It doesn't mean if your voice is stronger it will prevail."

Clergy abuse

The synthesis report proposes creating further structures to prevent abuse.

These include the possibility of establishing a new body to review abuse cases that does not rely on bishops.

"The appropriateness of assigning the judicial task to another body, to be specified canonically, should be explored."

The report also recommends women receive formation "to enable them to be judges in all canonical processes."

Other key proposals

In a move signalling shift within the Catholic Church, the synod's final document outlines several key proposals aimed at fostering inclusivity and unity among its diverse communities. Among the recommendations:

• The development of "new paradigms" for pastoral engagement with Indigenous communities, emphasizing a collaborative journey rather than actions imposed upon them
• The formation of a "permanent council" comprising leaders from Eastern Rite Catholic Churches, tasked with advising the pope on challenges facing these communities
• An expanded invitation to delegates from other Christian denominations for the October 2024 assembly, in a bid to foster ecumenical dialogue
• A strong expression of desire from the assembly for the Catholic Church and other Christian denominations to establish a common date for the celebration of Easter

Source

• NCR Online
• Catholic News Agency
• America Magazine

While there's a consensus that women's roles need to be promoted, participants remain divided on how to achieve that goal.

The Vatican's synod, which started on Oct. 4 and goes until Oct. 29, is the result of a two-year-long process engaging Catholics at every level, from faithful at the local parish to continental leaders.

Now, the 364 lay and religious participants present at the synod are poised to address questions ranging from sexual abuse to LGBTQ welcoming to hierarcichal structures.

Few topics have captured the attention of attendants more than the question of women's roles in the church.

Participants were encouraged to maintain the confidentiality of the small working group discussions taking place at the synod.

But speaking to Religion News Service, attendants said the question of the ordination of women remains fairly evenly split, with some bishops leaning against and religious sisters leading the charge in favor.

In many ways, this synod has seen many firsts for women. For the first time a woman, Sr. Nathalie Becquart, is undersecretary of the synod office at the Vatican.

Sister Maria de los Dolores Valencia Gomez, a sister of St. Joseph of Lyon, is the first woman to preside over a synod.

In the months leading up to the summit, the resources of the Women's Ordination Worldwide advocacy group were made available for the first time on the synod website.

A record 54 women are participating, and voting, during the synod. In the past, synod events were exclusively attended by bishops and a few priests who acted as secretaries and writers.

Synod discussions so far have addressed the topics of women's ordination to the priesthood, the female diaconate and the creation of alternative ministries that would allow women to have an equal representation in the traditionally male dominated institution.

Whereas the pope has shut the door to the female priesthood in the past, Francis recently opened an unprecedented opportunity for debate on the topic.

Answering a series of questions, or dubia, sent by conservative prelates regarding the synodal discussions, Francis said there is no "clear and authoritative doctrine" on the question of ordination, and it can be "a subject of study."

Pope Francis created two commissions to study the possibility of the female diaconate, which would allow women to preach at Mass and perform marriages and baptisms but not celebrate the Eucharist or hear confessions.

Opponents fear allowing women to the diaconate would open the door to women being ordained as priests.

Some participants at the synod, and Catholics looking in from the outside, have voiced the possibility of finding alternative roles and ministries for women in the church.

They argue that if the church is going to defeat clericalism, a term used to describe the special status held by Catholic clergy, then the solution is not to ordain more people.

While synod officers, and the pope, have encouraged synod participants to be creative in the search for solutions to the church's woes, there have so far been few inspired solutions to the much-needed promotion of women's roles.

For some synod participants, the solution is already there: allowing women to become priests or deacons. A significant push toward this solution came from the religious sisters within the synod.

A "cohort" of nuns favoring female ordination, and especially women deacons, has formed at the synod, said participants.

The women, mainly from Latin America and some from Europe, are said to have initially bonded because they could all speak Spanish.

Nuns from Italy to India have come forward in recent years to denounce unfair treatment by male clergy who, they claim, often regard them as nothing more than free labour.

Cases of nuns being sexually abused by priests or bishops have also emerged in recent books and reports.

Liberal-minded nuns at the synod have embraced the cause for a women's diaconate with gusto, participants said, with some pushing the envelope further by asking for the elimination of titles reserved for clergy, such as "your eminence" or "your excellency," which promote clericalism.

But to some, the idea of women being allowed to become priests remains beyond the pale.

One synod participant said he felt "violated" by the idea of women priests, while another Eastern Orthodox attendant voiced surprise at the Western "obsession" with female clergy.

The argument that the ordination of women would fill the emptying seminaries of Europe was shot down by representatives from Africa and Asia who take pride in their growing number of priests.

At the tail end of the synod, the question of whether female ordination will make it in the final document remains uncertain, participants said.

The goal of this synod is not to come up with solutions, after all, but to pose questions and foster a feeling of communion.

Attendants will likely vote on an amorphous or scaled-down version of the vibrant debates on women's ordinations that have filled the Vatican halls this month.

For advocates for female ordination who have looked at this event with hope, the result of this first consultation might be disappointing.

For conservatives, the final document might be the latest sign of how this pontificate has exposed the church to an unbridled liberal shift.

Debates are likely to evolve ahead of the second part of the synod, when participants will meet again in October of 2024.

In the end, it will be Pope Francis who will make the final decision on the matter when he publishes the apostolic exhortation born from the synodal discussions.

Francis has so far avoided tackling the complexities of dogma directly, opting for his signature pastoral approach instead.

If gestures speak louder than words under Francis, then his meeting with Sr. Jeannine Gramick (pictured) on Oct. 17 at the Vatican made a clear statement.

The Philadelphia-born nun has called for women to become cardinals and is the founder of New Ways Ministries, a Catholic network promoting the welcome and inclusion of LGBTQ Catholics.

In 1999, she was banned from pastoral work by the Vatican's doctrinal office.

The meeting signaled that the pope is welcoming "not just LGBT people but those who have been shunned by society and the church," Gramick said in an interview with National Catholic Reporter shortly after the audience.

"I think Pope Francis is trying to get us to move forward, to open our eyes and look to the future and to the changes in the world," she added.

• Claire Giangravé is an author at Religion News Service.
• First published in Religion News Service

The Vatican has drawn the faithful from across the globe, including bishops and cardinals, for the month-long synod.

The synod, arising from a comprehensive global consultation of Catholics, addresses pressing issues within the Church including women's ordination and the inclusion of LGBTQ individuals.

The working document guiding discussions at the synod, Instrumentum Laboris, acknowledges the appeals for the female diaconate.

This proposal would permit women to oversee Mass but not administer sacraments such as the Mass and Confession.

"When we received the Instrumentum Laboris we were very hopeful," said Kate McElwee, the executive director of Women's Ordination Worldwide (WOW).

However, women's ordination advocates worry that limiting the discussion to the diaconate, without any mention of the words "ordination" or "ministry," was a way of "constraining the Holy Spirit."

Despite this concern, McElwee believes the event could be "a synod of surprises."

In the lead-up to the synod, the US Bishops' Conference invited McElwee to speak about female ordination to US delegates.

"Invitations from the institutional church are new to our movement and signal a novelty," McElwee said. She added that the synod "not only looks different, but feels different."

During the vigil titled "Let Her Voice Carry," several women shared their deep emotional struggles within the Church. Patrizia Morgante, a member of the Italian group Donne per la Chiesa ("Women for the Church") questioned how Church limitations affected her and other women.

Morgante highlighted a sense of incomplete acceptance and a perception that being a woman was seen as an obstacle to full participation in the Church's life.

"I still believe in the Church," Morgante said in her testimony. "I hope and dream of [a] Church that is a safe space for women and men to express their full vocation as [witnesses] of Jesus."

Sources

Religion News Service

National Catholic Reporter

CathNews New Zealand

Be not ordained
Priesthood is for men only
Don't follow me, for they will give you grief.

We laughed then, but decades later, it is not very funny. In fact, it is rather tragic.

What is tragic is that women and some supportive men, non-binary people too, have had to put enormous energy into something about which the institutional Roman Catholic Church is so recalcitrant.

Imagine if those energies were unleashed to attend to the everyday needs of people who look to ministers for support and guidance, or if human and financial resources were trained on climate change, anti-racism, reproductive justice and reproductive justice and LGBTQI+ rights.

I am not suggesting that the work to make ordination inclusive is unimportant.

To the contrary, it is crucial and appreciated.

But that it must be done, and redone, and done some more for almost 50 years, is something to lament.

Anecdotal evidence and several studies show that the institutional Roman Catholic Church's continued refusal to ordain women is a major reason why American Catholics (among others) have left it in droves.

Let's be clear, the bald ask is to allow women to be part of the clerical system and the decision-making apparatus of the institution, and even that is rejected.

Proposals for new models of ministry in a renewed church are not even entertained.

In a sense, I am delighted by the exodus.

Why participate in and support something in which most people are second-class citizens by design?

Women are the majority of Catholics. The contradiction is so blatant as to be beyond discussion.

Airy-fairy notions that a Petrine principle and a Marian principle determine such matters is hocus pocus, not theology.

Ditto for the newly minted notion of an "administrative way" that Pope Francis thinks women are more gifted in, for example, being a secretary or manager.

Talk about a Hail Mary pass.

Nuptial imagery of Jesus as the "bridegroom" and the church as the "bride" is theo-babble that no serious theologian would attempt to argue today.

Decades ago, the great theologian Rosemary Radford Ruether listened to some poor clerical chap try to explain that women could not be ordained because women do not bear a natural resemblance to Jesus in the Eucharist.

She is reported to have asked the priest to show his natural resemblance.

Audience laugher ensued and that should have been the end of that. Alas, it was not.

Most people have no idea what these allegedly theological things mean.

But they do know that women and nonbinary persons are as much "fit matter" for ordination as people with male genitalia.

The skills, commitment and training necessary to minister have absolutely nothing to do with anatomy, symbolically or otherwise. Period. Biblical and theological scholars settled these questions a generation ago.

Still, some people trot them out as if for the first time.

Be not deceived. Continue reading

• Mary E. Hunt is a feminist theologian who is cofounder and codirector of the Women's Alliance for Theology, Ethics and Ritual (WATER) in Silver Spring, Maryland.

This change to the church's legal code means that women can now be permanently installed as lectors or acolytes - essentially, readers, distributors of Communion and assistants at Mass and the sacraments.

Although not a radical change - women have been carrying out these duties for decades - the decision was welcomed by the international Women's Ordination Conference.

It is seen by some as progress.

However, it remains the case that married and single men can be ordained deacons in the Catholic Church. Women cannot.

In 2016 Francis established a commission to examine whether women could or should be ordained deacons. The commission's report in 2019 has not been published. Stating that the outcome was inconclusive, Francis established another commission in 2020.

At least four such studies have taken place since the 1970s. None have recommended against women deacons.

Theologian Phyllis Zagano, whose research on the history and theology of women deacons is extensive and incontrovertible, was a member of the original commission but is not a member of this second commission.

This does not bode well for a recommendation by it for ordination of women deacons.

To date, calls for restoration of the diaconate to women have fallen on deaf ears in Rome. Calls for reform of ministry and the reinstatement of women deacons and ordination of women to the priesthood come from many parts of the Catholic world.

The Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazon region in 2019 begged the pope to permit women deacons and married priests; it is not on its own. The newly consecrated Archbishop of Dublin Dermot Farrell, in an Irish Times interview on January 2nd, also stated that he would like to see women deacons, as did the Association of Catholic Priests of Ireland in 2014.

Attitude

In Germany, two bishops are on the record recently as calling for change in the church's attitude to the ministry of women. Leading this group is Bishop Georg Bätzing of Limburg, elected president of the German bishops' conference in 2020.

He went further, stating that it is increasingly difficult to justify the ban on ordaining women. Bishop Gebhard Fürst of Rottenburg-Stuttgart said in 2017 that women deaconesses are a "sign of the times".

Restoration of women's diaconate should not be seen as a solution to the declining numbers of men joining the priesthood, but rather as a means of accommodating the diversity of gifts, talents and decision-making that women would bring to ministry and leadership, thereby enriching the whole community. Continue reading

Denis Theurillat, who was the auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of Basel cited "the increasing burdens of his office" as his reason for resigning five years before the customary retirement age for bishops.

"I realized [after having an accident last year] that the time had come to step down and think about a new chapter in my life," he said.

Pope Francis has accepted Theurillat's resignation.

Although his concerns about a possible schism were not mentioned, it is just months since Theurillat told the Swiss Catholic Church's website kath.ch that he would like to participate in a council on women priests.

His wish for such a council goes against Pope St John Paul IIs 1994 apostolic letter "Ordinatio sacerdotalis" in which he declared:

"... the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that this judgment is to be definitively held by all the Church's faithful."

His wish for the Church to discuss the matter of women priests is also out of sync with the current pope's views.

In 2016 Francis told journalists during an in-flight press conference: "the final word [about ordaining women] is clear, it was said by St. John Paul II and this remains."

However, in calling for the council on women priests, Theurillat's concern focused more on unity in the Church and a potential schism than on a view either way.

What he did say, was: "The facts are on the table, the time is ripe. All the bishops of the world should come together and decide: yes or no."

The question should not be decided by Pope Francis alone, "otherwise we will experience a schism," he said.

The interview was published as Theurillat celebrated his 70th birthday.

The Swiss bishops' conference says it is surprised to hear of Theurillat's resignation.

During his 20 years of service, Theurillat showed himself to be a "man of dialogue," the Conference reported.

His ministry included traveling to World Youth Day four times with a Swiss youth delegation. He also organised an encounter between 20,000 young people and John Paul II during the Polish pope's visit to Switzerland in 2004.

Source

• CNA
• Image:Nau

Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich SJ, recently admitted that he is "open" to the idea of ordaining women to the Catholic priesthood.

"I am not saying that women have to become priests; I just don't know. But I'm open to it," he said in an interview published by the German Catholic news agency.

Hollerich, who is Luxembourg's archbishop, is one of the world's most influential cardinals due to his position as president of the Commission of the Episcopal Conferences of the European Union.

Several German bishops - including German episcopal conference president Bishop Georg Bätzing - have also called for open discussion on ordaining women to the priesthood.

So far, none of them has been treated like Tony Flannery (pictured), a priest suspended from publicly practising their priesthood.

Flannery - an Irish Redemptorist priest - was suspended in 2012, for supporting women's ordination and his views on same-sex marriage and homosexuality.

In February the Redemptorists' Superior General in Rome wrote to the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) about Flannery's return to public ministry.

In response, the CDF said:

"After reflecting carefully upon your request, the Congregation has decided that Fr Flannery should not return to public ministry prior to submitting a signed statement regarding his positions on homosexuality, civil unions between persons of the same sex, and the admission of women to the priesthood."

Flannery says the CDF sent him a series of doctrinal proposals in July via his superior general, to which he would have to "submit" as a first step towards "a gradual readmission" to public ministry.

He must submit to the statement that "a baptized male alone receives sacred ordination validly", as the price for "a gradual readmission" to the public ministry.

He must also submit to three other doctrinal formulae, affirming:

• homosexual practices are contrary to the natural law
• unions other than marriage between a man and a woman do not correspond to God's plan for marriage and family
• gender theory is not accepted by Catholic teaching.

Flannery says he's never expressed any views on so-called "gender theory" and is confused as to why that issue is in his CDF file.

He has refused to sign the CDF documents, saying:

"For me to sign a document that I submit that women can never be ordained priests in the Catholic church would be a total lie.

"I just could not live with myself if I signed that document. There are bishops - the German bishops for instance - many of whom have come out in favour of the ordination of women. It is very much an open question in the church now."

The CDF have not so far pressed Pope Francis to have Hollerich or other German prelates to recant and sign a fidelity oath as they have with Flannery.

Source

• La Croix
• Irish Times
• The Tablet
• Image: The Irish Times

"My Catholic identity is so important to me, and it informs so much of how I interact with the world," said MacMaster, who is a candidate for a master's in divinity.

"I know the Church can be a force for good and instrumental change in the world, and it became very important to me to help affect that change."

MacMaster wouldn't pursue ordination if it were available to women and has not felt excluded from any forms of lay ministry by her gender, she said in an email interview.

Even so, she has often felt that other Catholics expect her to pursue children's ministry, or that her gender and age have caused her to be "talked over or pigeonholed into certain affinity ministries" in her work in the church.

In her multifaith seminary, she has experienced misogyny and anti-Catholic sentiment. Despite these experiences, MacMaster remains committed to her calling: "If I have to carve out a niche for myself, I will."

"Everything I've experienced has only made me stronger in my conviction to help all feel at home in their faith — to see themselves in this beautiful community," she wrote.

MacMaster's experiences and feelings about women's work in the church aren't uncommon, according to a recent survey conducted by the Women's Ordination Conference (WOC).

Titled "Mainstreaming Women's Ministries in the Roman Catholic Church," the survey found that 82% of those surveyed felt that women's ministries were not valued equally to men's.

Of the 224 young Catholic women in formation and ministry in the U.S. who responded, 80% were dissatisfied with the ministry opportunities available to them in the global church, and 73% said the same about local opportunities.

Although the survey respondents overwhelmingly described their Catholic identity as "extremely important," they also described a lack of women's leadership opportunities, financial insecurity and clericalism as barriers to the fulfillment of their ministerial paths.

"What this survey affirms is that women of the church are overwhelmingly educated and trained and thoughtful Catholic leaders, and they will persist," said Kate McElwee, executive director of the Women's Ordination Conference.

But they will "persist to a point," McElwee said, referring to young Catholics who choose to disaffiliate with the institutional church.

"It's a loss that's happened for many generations before this one, and our hope is that we can work to support these women to stall their exit," she said.

McElwee said the survey was a response to the resurgence of her organization's Young Feminist Network and Women's Ordination Conference members struggling with ministerial discernment after completing pastoral degrees. Continue reading

• The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of CathNews.

"One has to be permitted to think about and discuss the issue."

Hesse says "Ordinatio sacerdotalis," John Paul II's 1994 letter stating the church cannot ordain women as priests, was positioned as a response to those who considered women's ordination "open to debate."

John Paul affirmed the male-only priesthood so "all doubt may be removed regarding a matter of great importance."

Hesse, (pictured), said new arguments had emerged in the conversation around women's ordination that needed to be addressed.

"The historical perspective is one thing—but it isn't everything," he says.

Hesse is a member of the forum on "Women in Ministries and Offices in the Church" in the German Catholic Church's "synodal journey" reform project.

The project places laypeople — represented by the Central Committee of German Catholics — in dialogue with that country's bishops on a range of topics relevant to the church today.

These topics include sexuality, priestly celibacy and women's roles. The lay committee openly supports ordaining women both as deacons and priests.

The archbishop said he hoped the reform talks would examine controversial issues and that the bishops would convey the results to Rome. "But I also hold the realistic view that this will not answer or resolve the issues," he said.

The move to promote discussion around the ordination of women in the Catholic Church follows a small but vocal protest earlier this year on the steps of St Patrick's Cathedral, 5th Avenue, Manhatten, New York.

The protest was organised by the Women's Ordination Conference, (WOC) and called for "Equal Rites and Equal Rights."

According to WOC the Catholic Church's unwillingness to expand the priesthood to women has led to a decades-in-the-making clearing out of its pews.

"We tried to make that very obvious that we have enjoyed many privileges and human rights but as soon as a woman crosses the threshold of the church, those rights become restricted and she enters a place where gender discrimination is allowed," Kate McElwee, Executive Director of WO, told Crux.

While maintaining their protest, the group is uncertain Pope Francis will hear, saying that he seems more inclined to first open up the priesthood to married men.

Source

• America Magazine
  
• Crux

Marie-Automne Thepot's mobile phone rang on the morning of July 27th and, to her surprise, the call was from the papal nuncio's office.

The 42-year-old project manager at the Paris City Hall was one of seven women who on July 22nd sent letters to the nuncio, Archbishop Celestino Migliore, to "apply" for ministerial positions reserved to ordained men only.

Thepot made herself a candidate for the diaconate and the call from the nunciature was to inform her that Archbishop Migliore, who arrived in France just last March, would like to meet individually with her and the others. Read more

The letter, sent ahead of the upcoming Fifth Plenary Council of the Church in the country, urges the bishops to remain committed to the Church's teaching. Ordaining women should therefore be rejected.

"Many submissions to the Plenary Council have made the laudable recommendation that women be more effectively integrated into the existing governing structures of the Church," says the letter signed by students and alumni associated with the Australian Catholic Students Association.

"However, it was with great sadness that we note many submissions have called for a change to the very constitution of the Church also willed by Christ," they added.

"We call on the Plenary Council and the Bishops of Australia to reject unambiguously all calls for the ordination of women."

Delayed by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the Fifth Plenary Council is set for October next year. It will be followed in July 2022 by a second assembly.

While the students say they fully support the respect owed to the roles women play in the Church, they do not believe that these roles extend to ordination to the priesthood.

Instead, they have "wholehearted support for the integration of women into even more prominent roles in areas such as sacred theology, communications, evangelization and (insofar as lay people are able) governance."

"This letter expresses our longing to share Christ with others unashamed, with clarity and with the help of our leaders," ACSA Vice President Claudia Tohi says.

"Truth is not determined by the mood of the times, nor is it a mere abstract concept. Truth is a person, the Son of God who gave up his life for the salvation of all humankind."

The Australian Catholic students told the bishops the emphasis on the lay vocation would be "far more encouraging of women than any tokenistic program or power-wrangling we have seen in some of the Plenary submissions."

They were also critical of certain assumptions about the path young people wish to see the Church take in the coming years.

"Young people desire an authentic relationship with Christ; this will not be facilitated by a committee," they wrote.

"We believe true reform of the Church will not come from merely shifting resources from one committee to another, but in the rediscovery of, conviction about, and love for the Catholic faith by every Catholic."

Advocating for "the dilution of truths of the faith," is likely to "alienate young people and society at large."

"Why should anyone take the doctrine and mysteries of Christ and His Church seriously if her members do not," they asked.

"We call on the Plenary Council to recommit the Church in Australia to the timeless truths of the Gospel as proclaimed by the Church for twenty centuries."

Source

• Catholic News Agency
• Image: australiancatholicstudents.org

The five-person panel met as part of the "Open to the Door to Dialogue" conference held in Rome earlier this month.

Last month, Pope Francis said he would create a commission to study the history of female deacons in the Catholic Church.

Panel member Fr Tony Flannery from Ireland said if women are ordained as deacons, parishioners will no longer distinguish between males and females performing liturgies on the altar.

He said this would be a big step forward.

But US panel member Jamie Manson said the establishment of women deacons "runs the risk of being a compromise that ends up trapping women in a role in which they will continue to be subservient to men, particularly in service to priests".

Continue reading