A SENIOR Vatican official has ruled out the ordination of female deacons, as participants gathered in Rome for a new round of the Synod on Synodality.
“We know the public position of the Pope, who does not consider this question mature,” the Prefect of the Dicastery for Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, said. “There are other issues still to be deepened and resolved before rushing to speak of a possible diaconate for some women. . . Otherwise, the diaconate becomes a kind of consolation for some women, while the most decisive question of women’s participation in the Church remains unanswered.”
The Argentinian cardinal was speaking at the second session of the 16th General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, during a series of brief reports by working groups set up to study administrative and pastoral reforms.
He said that his Dicastery had concluded that there was “still no room” for female deacons, and would instead study the part played in history by women, including St Joan of Arc, St Catherine of Sienna, Maria Montessori, and Dorothy Day, who had “exercised genuine authority and power in support of the Church’s mission” in ways “not tied to sacramental consecration”.
The statement provoked protests, however, from some RC women’s groups, including the Catholic Women’s Council, a global network of 60 organisations. Its European director, Regina Franken, said that her members were “no longer willing” to accept “delaying tactics”.
“I see no desire on the part of the Vatican to address the issue of women in church offices seriously,” Ms Franken told the Germany RC news agency KNA. “Frustration is now turning to productive anger. We want to make the strategies and manipulative tactics used to treat women in the Church visible both in Rome and on social networks.”
Launched in 2021, the Synod of Synodality is debating “communion, participation, and mission”, and ended its first formal session in October 2023 (News, 19 July). In an opening homily last week, the Pope emphasised the importance of “listening to all viewpoints”. He said that the aim was “to help bring about a synodal Church”, capable of “making herself present in today’s geographical and existential peripheries”.
Pope Francis also defended his decision to include a minority of priests and lay people among the Synod’s 370 participants, insisting that this would not diminish its “episcopal dimension”.
“We are being asked to work together symphonically, in a composition that unites all of us in the service of God’s mercy, in accordance with the different ministries and charisms that the bishop is charged to acknowledge and promote,” he said.
Participants were set this week to discuss lay mission and episcopal authority, before joining the Pope at an ecumenical vigil with representatives of other Christian denominations today.