ACP Statement: ACP Disappointed Over Women’s Issues in the Synod
8 October 2024
The equality of women, and in particular calls for their ordination to the diaconate, has been one of the biggest issues to emerge in the synodal process around the world. Disappointingly, Pope Francis removed this, and other issues, from the current synodal meeting, asking committees to study them further and report to him in 2025.
Cardinal Fernandez, who chaired the committee on women deacons, has stated that there is currently no basis for ordaining women. So now one of the main requests from the synodal process around the world has been taken out of the synod and dismissed by those who hold power, by those who have a vested interest in the status quo.
Two study groups have already reported to Pope Francis on the issue of women’s ordination. Neither report has been published. Could it be that the arguments listed in those reports against ordination – if that were so – were unconvincing and that silence was deemed a more credible excuse for subverting change? Isn’t transparency a necessary constituent of synodality?
All the language about discernment and listening does not hide the fact that this move undermines the whole process. The Association of Catholic Priests (ACP) is extremely disappointed by this decision, and can understand why so many people are losing faith in synodality as it is being practiced in Rome. Women must not be patronised by promises of other roles.
So disappointed the issue of women’s role in the church has been ignored, yet again.
https://www.thetablet.co.uk/news/19406/synod-failing-to-respond-to-catholic-calls-for-renewal-and-reform
” Women are not a special category in the church. Women and men are the church “. https://theconversation.com/vatican-synod-is-opening-the-door-a-bit-wider-for-catholic-women-but-theyve-been-knocking-for-more-than-100-years-238936
Though I am not a member of the ACP I respect its right to express its collective opinion on any subject. But as no one seems to have access to the unpublished two reports you mention, I would be grateful if any member of your association, or visitor to this webpage, could point me, for my own information and research. where I might come across any one of the following:
Historical evidence where women were ordained as deacons in the Latin/Roman Church at any period. So far I nave not come across any evidence in the world of Syriac Christianity in the works of Sebastian Brock (Singer of the Word of God – Ephrem the Syrian and his Significance in Late Antiquity, 2020) and in Françoise Briquel Chatonnet and Muriel Debié (The Syriac World – In Search of a Forgotten Christianity, 2023). But I keep searching other material.
Artistic representations of women deacons either in wall paintings, pottery or mosaic assisting at Mass or other liturgies.
Texts of sermons delivered by female deacons.
Or any other historical fragments i.e. legends, prayers, lyrics, miracles etc. regarding the ordination or lives of women deacons.
Thanking you in anticipation.
Peadar, you may find some of the information you seek on this site which has a lot of useful links.
https://www.womendeacons.org/
Bound right now to strict secrecy the participants in the ongoing second and final session of the universal synod on synodality are, ironically, discussing ‘transparency and accountability’ – while the long-term magisterial practice of secrecy (i.e. deliberate non-transparency) in relation to clerical child sexual abuse has never been traced to its source, and apparently never will be.
That the sacrament of ordination does not in itself guarantee the integrity of those who receive it is so starkly obvious that we can only wonder why that revelation too is not tabled for synodal discussion. Teaching us emphatically that holiness should not automatically be ascribed to the ordained, this is by far the most effective teaching of Irish Catholic bishops in my lifetime – equivalent in importance to Vatican II itself.
During that council a battle royal took place between bishops and theologians who differed over that very subject of holiness. With one side taking the view that the evangelical counsels (i.e. of ‘poverty, celibacy and obedience’) are essential to holiness and the other side dissenting on that, the document Lumen Gentium became ambivalent by incorporating both points of view, in sections five and six respectively.
So easily recognisable in that epic disagreement is the dispute between the apostles themselves on the road to Jerusalem that all of us who are merely baptised (i.e. the non-ordained) should take great comfort that we are obviously not thereby disadvantaged when it comes to the grace of God – and for the insight that promotion in the church’s hierarchy is not necessarily a spiritual advantage either.
Why progress on Ireland’s synodal pathway should be under some sort of suspension, while we wait endlessly for not-very-much to emerge from these ongoing and non-transparent conversations in Rome, is therefore profoundly mysterious. Does canon law stipulate that the absence of just two bishops in Rome for a month must automatically immobilise everybody else?
The late Samuel Beckett must be watching this with amusement. The ACP could be putting on ‘Waiting for Godot’ while we wait for synodality – so triumphantly heralded in 2021 – to happen sometime.
Thanks Soline for this. I have often found helpful material here before which I find worth pursuing. I noticed that Cardinal Steiner, Archbishop of Manaus, Brazil, among today’s, Tuesday 15, speakers at the press briefing had this to say on the role of women in the Church in Brazil.
In the vast Archdiocese of Manaus, which stretches over 90,000 square kilometers, Cardinal Steiner noted that women have been crucial for more than 100 years in the absence of priests. He observed that many women lead communities, serve in ministries, and are deeply involved in charity work and prison ministry. Women, he emphasized, represent an essential element of the Church, adding that without them, the Church would not be the same.
Regarding the debated topic of women deacons, Cardinal Steiner acknowledged that many women in remote communities already function as de facto deacons.
He expressed admiration for their work, suggesting that reviving the female diaconate could align with its historical precedent. “Why not restore the ordained female diaconate?” he asked, noting that this role could complement that of male deacons.
The issue, he said, is not about gender but about vocation.
https://www.vaticannews.va/en/vatican-city/news/2024-10/synod-briefing-day-11-synod-focus-15-october-2024.html?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=NewsletterVN-EN