Cardinal Leonardo Steiner is archbishop of Manaus, Brazil. / Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/EWTN News
Cardinal Leonardo Steiner, the archbishop of Manaus in Brazil who is participating in the Synod on Synodality, said during a daily press briefing at the synod on Tuesday that “many of our women are true ‘deaconesses’” and pointed out that Pope Francis “has not closed the question” of the ordination of married men.
The cardinal is known for being a defender of the poor, Indigenous people and is also considered “pro-LGBTQ.” In the past, he has stated that “there will be a way” to end mandatory priestly celibacy.
At the 2019 Synod on the Amazon, the Brazilian cardinal also emerged as a staunch defender of the ordination of married men, an issue on which Pope Francis has not given a definitive word, according to what the prelate said Oct. 15.
During the briefing held at the Holy See Press Office, the 74-year-old cardinal said that during that day’s session, corresponding to the third module of the Instrumentum Laboris (working document), the participants of the synod reflected on “the places of the Church.”
The cardinal also commented that the Church must be open “to listening to cultures and religions” so that the Gospel can be “inculturated.”
In Manaus there are nearly 2.3 million people, of which 71,713 (3%) are Indigenous. In total there are 753,357 Indigenous people in the whole Amazon, according to official data from Brazil.
Taking these figures as an example to highlight the cultural differences between the West and the inhabitants of his diocese, the cardinal said that despite the fact that for “more than a hundred years there has been no priests” in the communities, they have organized themselves and continued to pray “with different ways of praying.”
Steiner emphasized that “women participate a lot” and that they are in turn “leaders of our communities.”
‘Why not restore the ordained female diaconate?’
The Brazilian cardinal emphasized that he wishes “that some more distant communities could celebrate some sacraments, for example baptism, without the presence of a priest.”
He continued by saying that “many of our women are true ‘deaconesses’ without this being official.” He also stressed that they would like to call them “deaconesses,” since they are “for all purposes,” although he preferred not to use this term “so as not to create confusion with the ordained ministry.”
For the cardinal, “unfortunately we do not have an adequate word” for their role, but “what they do and their responsibility within our Church is admirable.”
“There are many women who lead the community, who make the word of God known, who gather the community in a moment of prayer and who are active, for example, in prison ministry, in catechesis, in Caritas activities. They are the ones who carry out this activity, they are active alongside street people, they are the ones who represent our Church in many places,” he said.
Steiner emphasized his position in favor of the ordination of women to the diaconate and pointed out the existence of a commission that is “charged with studying this issue.”
“Why not restore the ordained female diaconate? We have already had a Church like this, with this face,” he said, referring to deacons.
“The permanent diaconate for men can go forward with that of women. I think we must reflect a lot on these questions, we must go deeper and we must remember the essential and fundamental role of women in the Church.”
He also stated that “the door should not be opened to a question of gender” but rather that it is “a question of vocations in the Church. The vocation of women within the Church and within our community.”
Responding to one of the journalists present at the press conference, the cardinal pointed out that the Synod on the Amazon “opened the possibility” of holding the Synod on Synodality.
Regarding this “process,” he commented that “a path has been opened from which there is no turning back” since “there is no point of return.”
“It is essential that we all enter into the interior of a movement that is the Church” and to feel the responsibility of the mission through baptism and the grace of God, he said.
The Holy Father ‘has not closed the question’ of ordaining married men
Asked about the ordination of married men, an issue that has “disappeared” from the study groups of this second and last session, the cardinal emphasized that after the Synod on the Amazon “there was disappointment on this subject.”
He nevertheless emphasized that “the Holy Father has not closed the issue” and assured that “in some circumstances it would not be a difficulty.”
He also expressed his hope that Pope Francis “has the capacity to move forward” while indicating that he has not wanted to do so yet due to “his great sensitivity.”
Steiner reiterated that “we must continue to talk” about this issue and that “we must go deeper into the ministerial role,” since “sufficient steps” have not yet been taken.
“In some cultures celibacy is a great difficulty. That’s what I feel,” he explained.
Speaking last Saturday at Fátima, Steiner said he “lays hands” on all those women who exercise the ministry of baptism or other sacraments.
“These are very tense issues in the Church. We must not stop discussing and reflecting. And if at some time we come to the conclusion that in the past there was a female diaconate, why not reintroduce it as the permanent diaconate was reintroduced?” the cardinal reiterated.
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
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Pope Benedict XVI announced his intention to resign the papacy during a meeting of cardinals Feb. 11, 2013. The surprise announcement, which he made in Latin, took place in the Hall of the Consistory in the Vatican’s apostolic palace. / Vatican Media
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jan 2, 2023 / 06:00 am (CNA).
On Feb. 11, 2013, before a gathering of cardinals who had come to the Vatican expecting to hear the announcement of upcoming canonizations, Pope Benedict XVI dropped a bombshell.
After a few announcements about Church business at the conclusion of the meeting, the pope took out two sheets of paper and read a prepared statement in Latin.
“I have convoked you to this Consistory, not only for the three canonizations, but also to communicate to you a decision of great importance for the life of the Church. After having repeatedly examined my conscience before God, I have come to the certainty that my strengths, due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry,” the then 85-year-old pontiff told the gathering of the Catholic Church’s highest-ranking clergymen.
Because he spoke in Latin, the language used for official Vatican proclamations, reporters present did not at first realize that the pope had just stepped down.
‘Total surprise, total shock’
The assembled cardinals, on the other hand, who knew their Latin, reacted with stunned silence.
American Cardinal James Stafford later told CNA that the pope’s statement was received with “total surprise, total shock.”
“A cardinal who was sitting next to me said, ‘Did he resign?’ I said, ‘Yes, that’s what he did. He resigned.’ And we just all stood at our places.”
Cardinals react to Pope Benedict XVI’s announcement of his intention to resign the papacy Feb. 11, 2013. The surprise announcement, which Benedict made in Latin, took place in the Hall of the Consistory in the Vatican’s apostolic palace. Vatican Media
Nigeria’s Cardinal Francis Arinze, who was present that morning, said the announcement was a “surprise, like thunder that gives no notice that it’s coming,” reported The Catholic Telegraph.
In renouncing the papacy, Benedict became only the second pope in almost 600 years to voluntarily step down. In 1294, Pietro da Morrone, an elderly hermit, was crowned Pope Celestine V, but finding the demands of the job too much for him, he resigned after only five months.
In 1415, Pope Gregory XII also resigned, but under very different circumstances — he stepped down in order to end a crisis within the Church known as the Great Western Schism.
Title, white clothes, and papal coat of arms
What happened next with Benedict XVI was no less surprising to those who expected him to live as a retired cardinal.
In his last official statement as pope, before a general audience on Feb. 27, 2013, Pope Benedict assured the tens of thousands of people gathered to hear him speak as pope for the last time that even though he was stepping back from official duties, he would remain, in essence, pope.
“The ‘always’ is also a ‘forever’ — there can no longer be a return to the private sphere. My decision to resign the active exercise of the ministry does not revoke this,” Benedict said.
“I do not return to private life, to a life of travel, meetings, receptions, conferences, and so on. I am not abandoning the cross, but remaining in a new way at the side of the crucified Lord,” he told the crowd.
A day earlier, on Feb. 26, 2013, the director of the Vatican Press Office, Father Federico Lombardi, had silenced speculation over what Benedict would be called and what he would wear. He would, Lombardi said, retain the trappings of the papacy — most significantly, his title and dress.
“He will still be called His Holiness Benedict XVI,” Lombardi said. “But he will also be called Pope Emeritus or Roman Pontiff Emeritus.”
Lombardi said Benedict would continue to wear a white cassock but without the mozzetta, the short cape that covers the shoulders. The pope’s fisherman’s ring would be replaced by a ring from his time as cardinal. The red shoes would go as well, Lombardi said, and be replaced by a pair of brown ones.
“The city of León is known for beautiful shoes, and very comfortable shoes. And when the pope was asked what he wanted to wear he said, ‘I want the shoes from León in Mexico,’” Lombardi said at the press conference.
On May 2, the cardinal who designed Benedict’s coat of arms in 2005 told CNA that he had written the pope emeritus suggesting that his coat of arms would need to be redesigned to reflect his new status. Cardinal Andrea Cordero Lanza di Montezemolo proposed making the keys of St. Peter smaller and less prominent.
“That shows that he had a historic possession but not a current jurisdiction,” said the cardinal at the time.
Benedict, however, it seems, politely declined a new coat of arms. La Stampa reported the following year that the Vatican Publishing House’s manual of ecclesiastical heraldry in the Catholic Church contained the following note:
“Expressing deep appreciation and heartfelt gratitude to the author for the interesting study sent to him, [Benedict] made it known that he prefers not to adopt an expressive heraldic emblem of the new situation created with his renouncing of the Petrine Ministry.”
By his decision to continue to dress in white like the pope, retain the title of pope, and keep the coat of arms of his papacy, Benedict revealed that in giving up the “active exercise of the ministry,” he was not forsaking the role of pope altogether.
Pope Francis and Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI pray together at the papal residence in Castel Gandolfo March 23, 2013, their first meeting after Francis’ election. Vatican Media
An expanded Petrine ministry
In his 2013 announcement, Benedict clearly expressed his intention to step aside, even determining the date and time of his official departure. Nonetheless, his decision to keep the title of pope and maintain the ceremonial protocol that goes along with the papacy led some to speculate whether there were not actually “two popes.”
Benedict’s personal secretary and closest confidante, Archbishop Georg Gänswein, sought to clear up any confusion in 2016.
In a speech at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome on May 20, 2016, Gänswein said that Pope Francis and Benedict are not two popes “in competition” with one another but represent one “expanded” Petrine office with “an active member” and a “contemplative.”
Parsing Benedict’s speech, Gänswein explained that in stepping down, Benedict was not giving up his ministry.
“The key word in that statement is ‘munus petrinum,’ translated — as happens most of the time — with ‘Petrine ministry.’ And yet, ‘munus,’ in Latin, has a multiplicity of meanings: It can mean service, duty, guide, or gift, even prodigy. Before and after his resignation, Benedict understood and understands his task as participation in such a ‘Petrine ministry [munus],’” Gänswein said.
“He left the papal throne and yet, with the step he took on Feb. 11, 2013, he has not abandoned this ministry,” Gänswein explained, saying the latter scenario was something “quite impossible after his irrevocable acceptance of the office in April 2005.”
Benedict himself later made clear in an interview with his biographer Peter Seewald that he saw himself as continuing in his ministry. He said that a pope who steps down is like a father whose role changes, but always remains a father.
“Of course a father does not stop being father, but he is relieved of concrete responsibility. He remains a father in a deep, inward sense, in a particular relationship which has responsibility, but not with day-to-day tasks as such. It was also this way for bishops,” Benedict said.
“I think it is also clear that the pope is no superman and his mere existence is not sufficient to conduct his role, rather he likewise exercises a function.
“If he steps down, he remains in an inner sense within the responsibility he took on, but not in the function. In this respect one comes to understand that the office of the pope has lost none of its greatness, even if the humanity of the office is perhaps becoming more clearly evident,” Benedict said.
Benedict’s decision “not to abandon his ministry” inspired a cottage industry of conspiracy theories, with some questioning whether the pope emeritus truly stepped down because of his age and frailty.
George Weigel, author of the definitive biography of St. John Paul II, “Witness to Hope,” dismissed such speculation in an interview with CNA.
“I have no reason to think that there was anything more to Pope Benedict’s resignation than what he said was its cause: his conviction that he no longer had the strength, physical and intellectual, to give the Church what it needed from a pope,” he said.
“Everything else written about this is sheer speculation. Let’s take Benedict at his word,” Weigel said.
A life of prayer
In retiring to live in the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery in the Vatican Gardens, Benedict did not completely withdraw from the world. He attended public events in his new capacity as pope emeritus, received visitors, and pursued a life of fruitful study, writing, and prayer.
Pope Francis visits Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI at the Mater Ecclesiae monastery in Vatican City to exchange Christmas greetings Dec. 23, 2013. Vatican Media
Matthew Bunson, Catholic historian, author, and executive editor of EWTN News, told CNA that Benedict was determined not to exercise authority in his new role.
“He really embraced what it means to be pope emeritus, and refrained from making public comments, to instead live a life of prayer and reflection,” Bunson said.
“Benedict really was on retreat, and in prayer,” he said, “and that means we have his prayer for us as a Church.”
While becoming increasingly frail, Benedict continued to celebrate Mass daily with the other residents of the monastery and was known to enjoy spending time in the Vatican Gardens praying his daily rosary.
In the fall of 2021, more than eight years after Benedict stepped down, his private secretary, Gänswein, told Domradio in Cologne, Germany, that Benedict was “stable in his frailty.”
He described the pope emeritus as very weak physically but still clear in mind. Gänswein said he had not lost his “typical Bavarian humor.”
The meaning of Benedict’s renunciation for future popes
In 2013, after Benedict announced that he would step down as pope, Father Gianfranco Ghirlanda, a Jesuit theologian and canonist chosen by Pope Francis to be a cardinal, wrote an essay on what should happen when a pope steps down.
In the article, published in Civiltà Cattolica, Ghirlanda suggested the retiring Benedict take the title bishop emeritus of Rome.
“It is evident that the pope who has resigned is no longer pope; therefore he no longer has any power in the Church and cannot interfere in any government affair. One may wonder what title Benedict XVI will retain. We think that he should be given the title of bishop emeritus of Rome, like any other diocesan bishop who ceases,” he said.
In December 2021, at a congress on papal resignations, Ghirlanda took up the theme again.
“Having two people with the title of ‘pope,’ even if one added ’emeritus,’ it cannot be said that this might not generate confusion in public opinion,” he said.
To make clear that the pope who resigns is no longer pope, he said, he should perhaps be called “former Roman pontiff” or “former supreme pontiff.”
Pope Francis in July 2022 told reporters that if he were to retire from the papacy he would do things differently from his predecessor.
“The first experience went very well,” Pope Francis said, because Benedict XVI “is a holy and discreet man.”
In the future, however, “it would be better to define things or explain them better,” the pontiff added.
“I am the bishop of Rome. In that case I would be the bishop emeritus of Rome,” he said, and then suggested he would live in St. John Lateran Palace rather than at the Vatican.
Pope Francis meets with the Order of Malta on Jan. 30, 2023, as the sovereign state and religious order turned a new page in its history. / Vatican Media
Rome Newsroom, Jan 31, 2023 / 09:15 am (CNA).
Pope Francis met with the Order of Malta on … […]
16 Comments
“‘That’s what I feel,’ he explained.” Yeah, we get it. And I bet a lot of your “deaconesses” are witches too. (At least that’s what I “feel.”)
I remember a Jesuit (forgot his name), saying that theologically speaking, ordaining women is a problem, but ordaining married men is not really a big deal. We have ordained married Episcopal Priests who converted, and to allow Bishops on a case by case basis,to ordain married Deacons. I doubt many people would leave the Church over a few married Deacons being ordained.
Agree. Some of the best saints in East & West had dads who were deacons, priests, or bishops even, cf Saints Patrick (his grandfather a priest and dad a deacon) & Gregory Nazianzus (his bishop dad ordained him to the priesthood).
Dear Cardinal, no such thing as “deaconesses.” You should return to study Church history, sacramental theology, and ecclesiology. Without pointing a finger at this particular cardinal, my experience has taught me that those who hold apostate positions in the Church are oftentimes closeted homosexuals or flagrantly sinful ones.
To attempt to ordain a woman is a grave sin, and thus to confuse the People of God by suggesting or falsely teaching that a woman can receive Holy Orders is a grave sin. It is not as though the diaconate is disconnected to the one priesthood of Christ. I decry any Catholic publication that fails to teach this clearly. State with the boldness and zeal of Pentecost: the cardinal is a heretic. To hold that a woman could be a deacon is a heresy. “Holy Orders is the sacrament through which the mission entrusted by Christ to his apostles continues to be exercised in the Church until the end of time: thus it is the sacrament of apostolic ministry. It includes three degrees: episcopate, presbyterate, and diaconate.”
Catechism of the Catholic Church 1536
Those who push the female deaconesess nonsense are the same dolts who, when Paul’s epistle about the relationship of husbands to wives and wives to husbands is in the Lectionary, distort or totally omit this passage. They simply do not get Christ’s relationship to His Church about which Paul’s exegesis about husband’s relationship to their wives refers. But when it comes to the current crop of Cardinals, look at who we get: McElroy, Tobin, Cupich and Gregory. What excellent choices to pervert the Truth.
Could Cardinal Steiner possibly make the case for a complete Amazonian Rite, sufficiently inculturating as to be stripped of all indigenous pagan elements like Pachamama and the reported/alleged burial of unwanted children? Then, like the distinct Byzantine Rite, there could be a married priesthood contained within a distinct Rite. And, which would also eliminate the expedient of revisionist-historian deaconesses…
But, then, what could the Church as a whole say against a Synodal Weg Rite? Whereby the earlier Germanic invasion of pre-Europe not only helped differentiate the universal Catholic Church from the declining Roman Empire, but now in post-Christian Europe seeks to undermine both the unity of the perennial Catholic Church and the universal Natural Law! (Whose “sociological-scientific foundation,” according to synodal relator-general Cardinal Hollerich, is no longer true.)
So, thinking outside the Amazonian box, what is the actual meaning of these cardinals’ fluid references to this thing called “inculturation”?
I’m not impressed until the Cardinal ordains male lesbians. Pope Francis promised to appoint pro-trans Bishops and this is all the Cardinal can do? Wake up! There is a New Ways Ministry.
Why be so much upset on the pastoral experience of the Cardinal? The Holy Spirit will lead the Church according to the needs of the pastoral context. Why close the minds and hearts? Openness to change is a gift from the Holy Spirit!
“‘That’s what I feel,’ he explained.” Yeah, we get it. And I bet a lot of your “deaconesses” are witches too. (At least that’s what I “feel.”)
I remember a Jesuit (forgot his name), saying that theologically speaking, ordaining women is a problem, but ordaining married men is not really a big deal. We have ordained married Episcopal Priests who converted, and to allow Bishops on a case by case basis,to ordain married Deacons. I doubt many people would leave the Church over a few married Deacons being ordained.
And there are the Eastern rite Catholics, who have had married priests since, well, the start.
Agree. Some of the best saints in East & West had dads who were deacons, priests, or bishops even, cf Saints Patrick (his grandfather a priest and dad a deacon) & Gregory Nazianzus (his bishop dad ordained him to the priesthood).
So slapping God in the face over our own caprices is fine so long as it does not upset us?
Dear Cardinal, no such thing as “deaconesses.” You should return to study Church history, sacramental theology, and ecclesiology. Without pointing a finger at this particular cardinal, my experience has taught me that those who hold apostate positions in the Church are oftentimes closeted homosexuals or flagrantly sinful ones.
Perhaps you should look at St Paul’s letter to the Romans at the start of chapter 16.
To attempt to ordain a woman is a grave sin, and thus to confuse the People of God by suggesting or falsely teaching that a woman can receive Holy Orders is a grave sin. It is not as though the diaconate is disconnected to the one priesthood of Christ. I decry any Catholic publication that fails to teach this clearly. State with the boldness and zeal of Pentecost: the cardinal is a heretic. To hold that a woman could be a deacon is a heresy. “Holy Orders is the sacrament through which the mission entrusted by Christ to his apostles continues to be exercised in the Church until the end of time: thus it is the sacrament of apostolic ministry. It includes three degrees: episcopate, presbyterate, and diaconate.”
Catechism of the Catholic Church 1536
Clear case of Liberalism and Sentimentalism proning a Modernist Praxis in opposition to Catholic Truth. Liberalism is a spectrum of different degrees.
Those who push the female deaconesess nonsense are the same dolts who, when Paul’s epistle about the relationship of husbands to wives and wives to husbands is in the Lectionary, distort or totally omit this passage. They simply do not get Christ’s relationship to His Church about which Paul’s exegesis about husband’s relationship to their wives refers. But when it comes to the current crop of Cardinals, look at who we get: McElroy, Tobin, Cupich and Gregory. What excellent choices to pervert the Truth.
Could Cardinal Steiner possibly make the case for a complete Amazonian Rite, sufficiently inculturating as to be stripped of all indigenous pagan elements like Pachamama and the reported/alleged burial of unwanted children? Then, like the distinct Byzantine Rite, there could be a married priesthood contained within a distinct Rite. And, which would also eliminate the expedient of revisionist-historian deaconesses…
But, then, what could the Church as a whole say against a Synodal Weg Rite? Whereby the earlier Germanic invasion of pre-Europe not only helped differentiate the universal Catholic Church from the declining Roman Empire, but now in post-Christian Europe seeks to undermine both the unity of the perennial Catholic Church and the universal Natural Law! (Whose “sociological-scientific foundation,” according to synodal relator-general Cardinal Hollerich, is no longer true.)
So, thinking outside the Amazonian box, what is the actual meaning of these cardinals’ fluid references to this thing called “inculturation”?
“Time is greater than space,” or whatever?
What is the point of discussing women as deaconesses when the UN has already told us that men can be lesbians?
Hopefully, this post clarifies things for this confused Cardinal. I thought that the Pope was going to appoint more pro-trans Bishops?
Ed from New York: Many of our prelates are true buffoons.
I’m not impressed until the Cardinal ordains male lesbians. Pope Francis promised to appoint pro-trans Bishops and this is all the Cardinal can do? Wake up! There is a New Ways Ministry.
The more of the post-Vatican II church I see; the more attractive the SSPX becomes.
Why be so much upset on the pastoral experience of the Cardinal? The Holy Spirit will lead the Church according to the needs of the pastoral context. Why close the minds and hearts? Openness to change is a gift from the Holy Spirit!