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The final report of the Synod on Synodality’s study group “Women’s Participation in the Life and Leadership of the Church” raises the possibility of “reformulating” certain competencies and functions of priests, deacons, and bishops to give women greater responsibility in the Church, while noting that the issue of the female diaconate “is not ripe.”
“It is necessary to reflect in particular on the reformulation of the areas of competence of ordained ministry,” states the final report of the group that studied women’s participation in the life and governance of the Church, published by the Vatican on Tuesday in Italian and English.
This is one of the 10 groups established by Pope Francis in 2024 after the first session of the Synod on Synodality.
The work and report of this group were coordinated by the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith. In the document, this team expresses openness to “the possibility of new ministries — including those of community leadership — for lay men and women, and for men and women religious.”
The 86-page report, whose publication was authorized by Pope Leo XIV, notes an “unease” regarding forms of “machismo” and “clericalism” within the Church and therefore proposes a redefinition of governing power that provides new leadership positions for women.
In this regard, it emphasizes that “redefining these areas of competence could pave the way for the recognition of new spaces of responsibility for women in the Church.”
Regarding the female diaconate, the report states that the issue “is not yet ripe” and refers to the work carried out by previous commissions — the second of which issued an opinion against it — without reaching a definitive judgment.
The proposals now circulated are also not definitive. They have been submitted to the pope for his consideration.
More than a hierarchical ‘concession’
The text argues that it is necessary to “overcome the conception of women’s active participation in the life and governance of the Church as a ‘concession’ from hierarchical authority.”
According to the document, women’s involvement should not be understood as a mere functional substitution but as a reality linked to baptismal dignity, since women are “holders of a right in this regard, inasmuch as they are baptized and bearers of charisms.”
The document also states that “there is no reason or impediment preventing women from exercising leadership roles in the Church” and emphasizes that “the mere fact of being a woman does not, in itself, prevent women from assuming leadership roles in the Church.”
From an ecclesiological perspective, the study group participants consider it necessary “to overcome the artificial separation between genders and roles, considering the shared dignity of all creatures created in the image and likeness of God.”
In this vein, the group emphasizes that priority must be given “to the order of being with respect to that of doing,” recalling that participation in the mission of the Church is based, above all, on baptism and the gifts of the Holy Spirit present in the people of God.
The report notes that the discernment of these charisms belongs to the bishop, who can recognize them through a mandate, delegating [a function], or the institution of a specific ministry. However, it cautions that this process “is not a solitary decision” but must also involve the ecclesial community.
Role of the laity in the exercise of the bishop’s ministry
From a theological and canonical perspective, the document clarifies that the lay faithful do not participate in holy orders, although they can collaborate in the exercise of the bishop’s ministry.
In this context, the authors emphasize that both Pope Francis and Leo XIV put this guideline into practice by appointing women to positions of authority in the Roman Curia, which constitutes “a model for reflection.”
“The recent appointments of women to positions of responsibility in some dicasteries constitute a prophetic sign of both symbolic and practical significance. They represent a first step towards opening new spaces for participation, recognizing that the capacity for governance and discernment is not the exclusive prerogative of the male gender,” the study group emphasizes.
Warning about clericalism
The document warns, however, that attitudes marked by “clericalism” still persist. In this regard, it points out that “women, even in positions of responsibility, sometimes have difficulty participating and being heard on equal terms with their male colleagues, especially in interactions with ordained ministers.”
At the same time, it notes that the authority proper to the clergy derives mainly from their relationship with the Eucharist and from their mission to safeguard the unity of the community, although this “does not exclude that a power to guide communities may be conferred, at least in some cases, also on lay faithful.”
The report adds that the pope’s primatial authority can also be delegated to baptized individuals who have not received holy orders, as established by the apostolic constitution Praedicate Evangelium. Therefore, the document concludes that “there appear to be no obstacles to extending this approach to the local level in dioceses as well.”
Women’s participation is ‘a true sign of the times’
However, the report also observes signs of change. Many women perceive increasing recognition from male leaders who have understood that their participation “is not a concession or an adaptation to passing cultural trends but a true sign of the times.”
This new awareness, the document adds, could become “a prerequisite for lasting structural transformation.”
The synod’s secretary-general, Cardinal Mario Grech, stated in the report’s summary that “courage, accompaniment, and patience will be necessary to introduce gradual changes” in order to preserve ecclesial communion and build communities that fully value the gifts and charisms of men and women.
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.
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Synodal manipulation and deception. Why they say woman deacons are “not ripe”? They are playing games to push their false agendas.
The same people who want to take away Our Lady as Co-Redemptrix are worried about women not having a large enough role in the Church? I truly believe much if hierarchy would be much happier in the Anglican Church. They would not have to change anything or ignore Sacred Tradition.
The more traditional branch of the Anglican Church wouldn’t want female ordination promoting clergy. They broke with the CE over that & other scripturally based issues. And they’re the only part of the Anglican Church that’s growing today.
Female ordination is a step towards extinction for any denomination.
How about we rid the Catholic Church of any last vestiges of the failed Bergoglian Papacy by ending synodalmania right now.
Excellent idea. Can we just move on from this nonsense? Please?
Dittos
More baby slaughter without self-awareness by the architects of baby slaughter. Whenever intelligence challenged and most likely prelates of enormous cowardice make concessions to the expectations of revolutionaries, they announce to the world, go ahead and have your abortions if you’re so inclined. We hold no God given immutable truths to lead you away from your sinful inclinations. So go….leave….we have nothing for you and your vulnerable baby.
More from foggy clericalists who pride themselves in denouncing the “machismo clericalism” of others. What is it about fidelity or the word “amnesiac” that they don’t understand?
The female diaconate is “not yet ripe,” really meaning stillborn as a so-called “hot button issue”–after more than 30 years…indeed, after two millennia.
“Wherefore, in order that all doubt may be removed regarding a matter of great importance, a matter which pertains to the Church’s divine constitution itself, in virtue of my ministry of confirming the brethren (cf. Lk 22:32) I declare that 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” (Pope St. John Paul II, “Ordinatio Sacerdotalis,” 1994, n.4).
Female Deacons = Transgender Holy Orders
This is why synods, committees, commissions etc are useless: Produce a document no matter how meaningless and groveling. And then walk away thinking they did something. Next time, save the money and stay home.
In another article, I see that one parish is making a concrete effort to get kids going to Mass.
When will this madness end? I’m sick and tired of this and yet I see that not one of these meetings for local diocesan or more have any young people! It’s all babyboomers and those on the wrong side of fifty! The young are gradually seeking orthodox Catholic norishment that is why many are seeking the oratorian fathers, the Dominican fathers and sisters. This project from the last pontificate is empty and denuded of any norishment and must and will be consigned to an empty reference point of the future!!!
Mcallion: “The wrong side of fifty?” That’s a rather quaint expression, the sort my youngest child would use to tease me. Amusingly, it’s also an attitude I hear was stereotypical of boomers before I was born.
Like you, I find the document absurd, but framing it as a generational issue doesn’t elucidate its many problems.
Invoking generational validations presumes an acceptance of seperation from received immutable truth, which is a seperation from God, the same yesterday, today, and forever. The New Roman Catholic cult of atheism is not even original. It’s been done to death.
Here’s what is ripe: Jorge Bergolio’s synod.
It is fit for it’s funeral.
How many times do we have to quote Pope St John Paul?
“Not yet ripe…”
If that isn’t the quintesential double talk of the nefarious left in the Roman Catholic Church. We’ve been putting up with it since the conception of slippery slope nouvelle theologie.
Not yet ripe?
Rather well rotten and grossly fragrant on the vine.
This mendacity bespeaks the entire character of the synodalists and their program to meteamorphosize Catholicism into a mirror image of the decomposing Anglican model [at best] on its way to being a full fledged NGO with a good blush of Marxism.
And no, despite the dreams articulated by those in high places, Catholicism is not one with Anglicanism or any other entity emerging from the protestant revolt. Not yer, anyway.
When do the inhabitants of the episcopate put on their big boy pants and act as shepherds rather than hirelings yearning for credence from the secularist academy? Better to die regarded as bead counting nimrods.
Thank goodness!
The Bergoglian Vaticanists are finally coming to grips with the fact that Jesus simply didn’t get the progressive mindset that is the true redeeming feature of human existence!
Through no fault of His own, of course. He came 19 centuries ahead of the all-knowing Democratic Party, after all, and fully 20 centuries before its ultimate woke iteration.
From one man’s perspective. Women have through the centuries from Biblical Judith, Debra, Biblical Queen of the South, Saint Joan of Arc, Catherine of Siena, Queen Isabella of Castile, Saint Queen Jadwiga of Poland, Saint Queen Margaret of Scotland, Catherine de Medici Queen of France, Catherine the Great Tsarina of all the Russias, ruled as judges of Israel, ruled nations and empires, counselled Popes, led armies in battle.
Certainly there are exceptions among women, although in the main women themselves recognize a natural order of male leadership both in family and in world affairs. That I’ve experienced from here across the world. Most, in the main, expect men to be men.
Feminists who believe otherwise have engaged in a form of invasion into the male world. Now we see women everywhere as if by divine mandate, although rather by male stupidity and weakness. Egalitarianism disrupts the natural order placing women ill equipped physically and emotionally to handle men’s jobs.
One of our great saints Therese of Lisieux yearned to fulfill the role of priest, in her memoirs saying how tenderly she would hold our Lord during the consecration. I can’t say the desires of so beloved a woman were wrong. They were indeed spiritually valid, efficacious in that they inspire priests to love Christ in the Eucharist as she did.
Something, a measure of devotion which we sorely need. It’s women who most often inspire men to be strong, to show care, to be compassionate, to demonstrate we are not clericalists, that we have a soul.
Nonetheless, it is the institution by Christ, followed by his Apostles, to exclusively ordain men as priests or deacons. We cannot deny that this is an affirmation of a divinely ordained authoritative order.
Lay men have far less leadership roles than consecrated and lay women. This is a joke. Plus, to even entertain ordination of women shows rejection of the faith and excommunication ipso facto. To maintain such unbelievers in positions of leadership through synodality is a grave sin that scandalizes the faithful less aware that it’s impossible to ordain women and that to believe such is possible is a rejection of Christ.