Vatican City, Jul 7, 2025 / 13:15 pm (CNA).
The Vatican’s synod office has said that final reports from Synod on Synodality study groups — including opinions on women deacons and controversial doctrinal issues such as LGBT inclusion — have been postponed until the end of the year.
The study groups, formed by Pope Francis to examine topics he took off the table for discussion at the second session of the Synod on Synodality, held in October 2024, will have until Dec. 31 to submit their final results — a six-month extension of the original mandate of June 30, according to the Secretariat of the Synod.
In the meantime, synod leadership will publish brief interim reports from the study groups in July.
A spokesman for the synod secretariat told CNA that most of the 10 commissions had requested more time to complete their reports following delays due to Pope Francis’ death and the “sede vacante.” In June, they received a green light from Pope Leo XIV to proceed.
The study commissions are made up of cardinals, bishops, priests, and lay experts from both in and outside of the Vatican.
The 10 study groups were formed at Pope Francis’ request in February 2024 on themes discussed in October 2023 during the first session of the Synod on Synodality. In his letter requesting the study groups, the pope said these issues “require in-depth study,” for which there would not be time during the second session in 2024.
Francis’ decision effectively moved discussion of the synodal assembly’s most controversial topics — such as women deacons and LGBT inclusion — from the 200-plus synod participants and to small expert panels.
One of the most highly-watched study groups is on ministries in the Church, specifically the question of a female diaconate. This group, whose members have not been published, is under the direction of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith.
According to the Secretariat of the Synod last year, this “is the context in which the question on the possible access of women to the diaconate can be appropriately posed.”
Another group was tasked with addressing pastoral approaches to ethical and anthropological topics that were not publicly specified.
The role of the groups is consultative. Pope Leo may use the final reports to make decisions for the Church about the topics addressed.
The synod secretariat, which is responsible for coordinating the work of the study groups, on Monday published the text, “Pathways for the Implementation Phase of the Synod.”
The booklet, addressed to diocesan bishops and local synod teams, said Pope Leo has added study groups on two topics — “the liturgy in a synodal perspective” and “the statute of episcopal conferences, ecclesial assemblies, and particular councils” — to the existing groups.
The document did not say if the two additional study groups will need to produce reports and by when, and a spokesman for the secretariat said he did not think they would be providing reports by the same Dec. 31 deadline.
“It is also the secretariat’s responsibility to ensure that the pope’s decisions, developed also on the basis of the findings of these groups, will then be harmoniously integrated into the ongoing synodal journey,” the document says.
The document, intended as guidelines for bishops to implement synodality in their dioceses, also outlines what can be expected during the synod’s next phase, which will culminate with a Church assembly in October 2028.
According to synod leaders, the period from June 2025 to December 2026 will be dedicated to “implementation paths” of synodality in local Churches and groupings of Churches.
In 2027, the synod secretariat will organize diocesan-based and then national-based evaluation assemblies before holding continental evaluations in the first part of 2028.
“It is useful to reiterate that evaluation is not a form of judgment or control, rather an opportunity to ask ourselves what point we have reached in the process of implementation and conversion, highlighting the progress made and identifying areas for improvement,” the guiding document says.
Cardinal Mario Grech, synod secretary-general, said in the introduction that “the intention is to ensure that the process moves forward with a deep concern for the unity of the Church.”
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We hear from Cardinal Grech that “the intention is to ensure that the process moves forward with a deep concern for the unity of the Church.”
Five points about “walking together,” too much in the footsteps of the backwardist/ 1960ish Hans Dung:
FIRST, about ordination of female deacons, how will synodality square the circle with St. John Paul II in his Apostolic Letter “Ordinatio Sacerdotalis” (1994): “[…] 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.”
SECOND, perhaps Cardinal Fernandez (of “Fiducia Supplicans “word-game fame) can invent non-ordained deaconesses—which then can be combined with another study group examining whether laypeople can read the gospel and deliver homilies. Presto, non-ordained deaconesses butting aside the ordained priesthood, without having to deal directly with the foundational fact that the diaconate is part of the three-part sacrament of Holy Orders.
THIRD, Cardinal Grech also has to creatively edit the disuniting fluidity of the grabby Study Group #9: “Theological criteria and synodal methodologies for shared discernment of controversial [or merely controverted?] doctrinal [!], pastoral [!], and ethical [!] issues.” Process theology with a mitre? “Veritatis Splendor,” anyone?
FOURTH, it might be interesting, too, to hear, which of the Study Groups have been either dropped or combined, since the original list was 10 plus 5 others added later (appended here). https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2024/07/09/these-are-the-members-of-the-synod-on-synodality-study-groups/
FIFTH, Pope Leo XIV has announced a priority in finding unity with the Orthodox Churches (Study Group #1). This is very good and historic, on the 1700th anniversary of Nicaea. And, by itself might be quite enough after nearly a millennium of schism. No need to then invert the “hierarchical communion” (“Lumen Gentium”) and Apostolic Succession as a half-way house toward a geographically layered and Lutheran congregationalism.
OVERVIEW: But, yes, the Study Groups are now more clearly “consultative.” Bishops do not serve “primarily as facilitators” (as under the vandemecum playbook). And, the upcoming 2028 event is now cast more correctly as an “ecclesial assembly”—and NOT as displacing a “synod [of bishops].”
The “process” continues, but is no longer the message. Something that the Church DOES, but not what the Church IS.
Here’s a weird thing.
It used to be that the Church helped and guided Joe and Marie Pewsitter through questions of morality.
How naive we were to think then that the Church had anything offer.
Because now apparently it’s the post-Bergoglian Church that needs our guidance and our wisdom.
Somehow I do not find that reassuring.
Be careful what you look for you can spend all day finding more “problems.” Experts, experts read all about it!?
“…One of the most highly-watched study groups is on ministries in the Church, specifically the question of a female diaconate. This group, WHOSE MEMBERS HAVE NOT BEEN PUBLISHED, is under the direction of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith…”.
A STAR CHAMBER! That’s great, just what we needed…..
Hopefully, this is the last we will hear of these study groups. Another
unfortunate legacy of the previous misguided pontificate. RIP
Are we going to have a “synodal team” in my diocese? (Diocese of Manchester, New Hampshire?
If the Roman Catholic Church will ordain the female as Deacon, I will be very disappointed and upset. If the Roman Catholic Church to let LGBTQ couples marrying inside the Catholic Church, it is totally destroyed the root and the Catholicism which has been established. Our lay people will definitely loss the trust and direction from the Church. In fact, these two issues are critically and Significantly impacted our Catholic life, if not through the Vatican Council process, how come they could be effective. Be honest, if these two proposals are coming true, then I ask myself which denomination I should be? No wonder late Pope Francis were so popular but for myself and my families, he’s the one to ruin the Catholic Church.
Study Group 9. A moment of truth pushed further toward a horizon, or a cliff? Pope Leo has much to ponder as Cdl Grech schedules a needed psychological breather for His Holiness.
“It is also the secretariat’s responsibility to ensure that the pope’s decisions, developed also on the basis of the findings of these groups, will then be harmoniously integrated into the ongoing synodal journey” (General Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops Cardinal Mario Grech). Malta’s Grech virtually chair of the Mystical Body the Chair of Peter the ultimate decider. A Church awaits a momentous transition either away from the radical changes promoted by Francis I ‘LGBT inclusion’ [which can only mean full admittance to the sacraments] and female deacons, the gateway to priesthood. Will an ‘harmonious integration’ spell continued deadly ambiguity?
A man is a man according to his fortitude in following his convictions. Peter I failed before the cock crowed, regained his composure with the help of Christ’s prayers, dying for his faith in Christ. Leo XIV has declared his advocacy of the previous pontiff’s agenda. What does that mean now that he faces the , what will define his pontificate? Certainly the Church of the faithful will pray as well as the betrayers.
I fail to understand the argument that female deacons necessarily lead to a “gateway to the priesthood “ , since after about a half century of permanent deacons , it has never been an issue even when we are experiencing a dire need for more priests.
Personally, I once favored women deacons. That was then. James the issue has since changed. It is not the intrinsic inevitability of deaconess to priest. Rather it’s more the force of feminists and their advocates among the clergy. Added to the issue of feminists is the growing feminization of clergy and Church.
Yo, James, consider the case of “civil unions” as a gateway to the oxymoron of “gay marriage.” That could never happen! Wait, what?
Questions requiring “in depth study” whose answers are self-evident to any mind not intent on self-deception and lying to God.