The move comes amid growing debate within the Synod on Synodality. Members are pushing for further discussion and clarity on the controversial issue.

At the heart of the discussion is whether women should be allowed to serve as deacons. This role has traditionally been limited to men.

While the Vatican has resisted making a definitive decision, the ongoing consultations signal a willingness to consider a broader range of perspectives.

Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández (pictured), prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith which is in charge of the study group, announced that the dicastery would consult other women and receive input from participants in the Synod of Bishops.

Cardinal Fernández stated that input from theologians, synod participants and non-appointed women would be welcomed. This is a shift from the more limited consultation phase that relied heavily on appointed experts.

Time not ripe for a decision

The discussions on women's ministry are not limited to theological arguments but focus also on practical implications for the Church's operations.

Deacon Geert De Cubber, the only permanent deacon at the Synod, highlighted the importance of involving deacons in these discussions. "Inevitably, you have to consult deacons on the diaconate but also you have to involve their wives, you have to involve their kids," he said.

De Cubber pointed out that deacons play a significant role in parish life, a reality that needs further attention.

However, the question of ordaining women as deacons remains contentious. In his earlier remarks, Cardinal Fernández suggested that a positive decision on this issue is currently impossible. Pope Francis also does not believe that the time is yet ripe for a decision on the diaconate for women.

Despite this, the discussions will continue. Cardinal Fernández's dicastery oversees the study of women's ministry and has not ruled out the possibility of future changes.

Sources

UCA News

Katholisch

CathNews New Zealand

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

The document, called Instrumentum Laboris (Latin for "working document"), is based on the input gathered from a two-year worldwide global synod, where Catholics were invited to share their vision for the church's future.

The comprehensive document covers a wide range of topics, including granting decision-making power to women and exploring the possibility of allowing their ordination.

It also addresses the prospect of allowing married men to become priests in remote areas.

With 33 pages of thought-provoking questions, the Vatican seeks to facilitate meaningful discussions on important issues.

One of the questions asks how the church can create safe spaces where individuals who have felt marginalised or unwelcome can find acceptance, ask questions freely and not face judgment.

The Vatican document also delves into matters concerning LGBTQ+ individuals and others who may feel excluded from the church due to their status or sexuality.

It also poses the question of what concrete steps can be taken to foster a more inclusive environment for remarried divorcees, those in polygamous marriages and LGBTQ+ people.

"Who am I to judge"

This progressive approach is evidenced by the document's use of the term "LGBTQ+ persons," which signifies a departure from the traditional terminology of "persons with homosexual tendencies."

This shift in language reflects Pope Francis' remark from a decade ago: "Who am I to judge?"

An upcoming assembly in October, which will be attended by bishops and laypeople, will build upon the groundwork laid by the Instrumentum Laboris.

It will serve as a platform for reflecting and discussing the church's future.

Notably, Pope Francis' decision in April to allow women delegates to vote at the assembly represents a significant reform.

In addition, the Vatican is considering including women as department heads within the Holy See's central administration through a new constitution.

The document also highlights the need to renew and reform the church's procedures, institutional arrangements and structures to enable greater recognition and participation of women, including in governance and decision-making processes.

The role of women as deacons is a significant consideration within this context.

At the conclusion of the synod, Pope Francis will pen an Apostolic Exhortation, an official document that will articulate his views and recommendations.

The series of questions presented in the Instrumentum Laboris will guide the discussions during the assembly, with delegates from both the clergy and the laity participating in round table conversations.

Sources

US News

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

Xaviere Missionary Sister Nathalie Becquart, from France, will have voting rights in the body, which advises the pontiff. The Synod debates some of the most controversial issues in the Roman Catholic Church.

Sister Becquart will not be the first woman undersecretary of a major Vatican office, but she will be the first woman with a right to vote at a meeting of the Synod of Bishops.

The pope made the appointment on Feb 7, while also naming Father Luis Marín de San Martín, a 59-year-old Augustinian friar from Spain, to the same position. The priest will also be ordained a bishop.

The new co-undersecretaries will share the No. 2 post in the Synod secretariat. The body is headed by Maltese Cardinal Mario Grech, the 63-year-old secretary-general.

"During the last Synod assemblies, numerous Synodal Fathers emphasized the need that the entire Church reflect on the place and role of women within the Church," Cardinal Grech told official Vatican Media.

"With the appointment of Sister Nathalie Becquart, and the possibility that she will participate with the right to vote, a door has been opened. We will then see what other steps could be taken in the future," the cardinal added.

He noted that the decision reflects the Pope's desire "for a greater participation of women in the process of discernment and decision-making in the church".

The news comes less than a month after Pope Francis formally changed the Church's law to allow women to administer communion and serve at the altar. However, the decree stressed that ordained priesthood would remain open to men only.

In 2020, the pontiff appointed six women to the council which oversees the Vatican's finances.

Sources

BBC

Catholic News Service

La Croix International

Under the title "The Women The Vatican Couldn't Silence," she spoke of asylum seekers, the role of women in the church and cowardly bishops.

Beginning with the issue of asylum seekers, but without specifically referring to protests against accommodating asylum seekers in several Irish towns, McAleese spoke of asylum seekers' need to be made welcome in Ireland.

They have had to leave their homes and "suddenly they have nowhere, and nothing. And now they rely on the kindness of strangers."

"My God tells me I have to be the stranger who is kind . . . it bothers me greatly finding that (in) a country that I'm so proud of, that sometimes people are not experiencing the kindness that I know is the ethic of our country and our people."

"We relied on it (kindness) ourselves so often when we went as emigrants to other countries, poor, our two hands the one length, looking for opportunity."

The role of women in the church also bothers McAleese.

Women are "deliberately made invisible," she said.

"Deliberately meant to stay invisible, and structurally the architecture of the church is designed to create and maintain the invisibility and powerlessness of women."

As an example, McAleese drew upon Pope John Paul's description of sex in marriage from his book Love and Responsibility.

In the book he says "It is the very nature of the act that the man plays the active role and takes the initiative while the woman is a comparatively passive partner whose function it is to accept and experience.

"For the purpose of the sexual act it is enough for her to be passive and unresisting, so much so that it can even take place without her volition while she is in a state where she has no awareness at all of what is happening - for instance when she is asleep or unconscious."

"That is how we are treated in the church," McAleese said.

She recalled how the late moral theologian Fr Seán Fagan "called Pope John Paul out on that and said the obvious. He asked a question.

Fagan said: ‘Can this really be Catholic Church teaching? It sounds like rape.' What happened? Pope John Paul become a saint. Seán Fagan becomes silenced. That's our church."

McAleese also spoke of the ban on her taking part in a conference on women at the Vatican last year, noting she was never told why she was banned, even though she asked for an explanation.

The ban puzzled her as "it was known that the pope was coming to Ireland last year and Cardinal Farrell [who banned her from speaking at the conference] ... probably did know that I had been the president of Ireland for 14 years."

She said it's important to strip away "the deference, the false deference, and insist on being listened to on equal terms."

In her view, "the vast majority of bishops worldwide are cowardly. They are cowed, in their turn, [by] the deference they offer to their superior and the overreach of obedience to the magisterium [the Catholic Church's teaching authority]."

Source

• Irish Times
• Image: Irish Times

These include priestly celibacy, the Church's teaching on sexual morality and a reduction of clerical power.

Marx, who is the president of the German bishops' conference, says the bishops unanimously decided these three topics would be subject to a process of "synodal progression" that could lead to a binding, but as yet undetermined, outcome.

In his opinion the Church needs synodal advancement, which Pope Francis endorses.

The sexual abuse scandal and demands for reform have changed the German church, he says.

"We will create formats for open debates and bind ourselves to proceedings that facilitate a responsible participation of women and men from our dioceses.

"We know about the cases of clerical abuses of power. It betrays the trust of people searching for firm footing and religious orientation. What must be done to achieve the necessary reduction of power and to construct a fairer and legally bound order will be to clarify a synodal path."

In this respect, the German church has undertaken a number of projects which are now nearing completion. These include:

• Working out how to move forward following the sexual abuse scandal, taking into account advice and information from a range of experts.
• Debates on celibacy, which require further study.
• Developing Catholic sexual morality.

Source

• America Magazine
• National Catholic Reporter
• Image: America Magazine

The Overcoming the Silence campaign encourages women to be more assertive in making their voices heard.

The Church must elevate women to leadership positions if it is to restore trust following sexual abuse scandals, says Sydney woman Stephanie Lorenzo.

Lorenzo is spearheading the global campaign to give women and lay men a greater voice inside the church.

The campaign organisers suggest women write short messages to Church leaders explaining why women should be represented alongside them in decision-making roles.

The campaign's official website urges women to post selfies online or on Instagram so their messages can reach the widest possible audience.

"If women can give birth to more children of god why can't we make decisions that will effect them?" one post says.

"It is time for women to have proper roles in the church. We don't live in the dark ages anymore. Women HAVE RIGHTS!" another post says.

Men are supporting women too by posting notes on the campaign's website:

"It's time our Church leaders act on what they have preached for years — the dignity and equality of women — let them place more women in positions of meaningful leadership in the Church alongside priests and bishops," one says.

One of the campaign's chief goals is to have 30 percent of all leadership roles in the Church at a global level open to, and occupied by, women.

This is part of a broader plan to empower women and have them stand on an equal level to men within the Catholic Church hierarchy.

The Catholic Women Speak website which is supporting the campaign says:

"We believe that the global diversity of Catholic women is a gift to be shared and not a problem to be solved.

"We represent many different cultures and ways of life, and we look for a Church in which these can be fully embraced and affirmed as sources of wisdom and resources for transformation."

The campaigners point out Catholic women are almost totally excluded from positions of leadership in the Church.

"For example, more than 50 percent of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics are women, but less than three percent of the Vatican's leaders are female."

The website notes the Vatican is not only excluding women from Church affairs either.

"Vatican City is now the only state in the world in which women are officially denied the right to vote" the Catholic Women Speak website says.

Source

• La Croix
• The World News
• Image: ABC