We Are Church: Statement in the wake of the Petrocchi Report.
We Are Church Ireland wishes to add its voice to those who have expressed deep disappointment at the conclusions of the Petrocchi Report, barring women from the diaconate.
We are disappointed that Study Group 5 from the Synod, the group tasked with working on the place of women in the church, ceded responsibility for the question of women’s diaconate to the Commission which had said “No” in 2022.
We are disappointed that the report from the Commission had not been published in advance of the 2023 gathering in Rome, where the voices of so many people stressed the need for the role of women in the church to be a priority.
We are disappointed with the conclusions of the Commission. We find the reasons given for the exclusion of women to be non-convincing and the theology questionable. The suggestion that Jesus “ordained” twelve men, and, in so doing, demonstrated that he did not wish to ordain women is a questionable conclusion to a questionable premise. The metaphor of the spousal relationship between Christ and the Church, thus necessitating the priesthood to be a male preserve, is simply that, a metaphor. Metaphors are not meant to be taken literally.
Perhaps most disappointing is the suggestion that it is not what the sensus fidei fidelis has clamoured for, that it is, somehow a Western construct. The fact that the submissions from every continent stressed that the place of women in the church was a priority gives lie to that argument.
They may not have expressed a wish for women to be admitted to the diaconate. It is true that many see the need for the whole question of priesthood to be overhauled, thus changing the nature of the ordained priesthood. For that reason, they have no desire to see women included in a flawed clerical system.
However, the necessity of ending the unequal of status of women within the church has been agreed on as necessary. How can an Institution clamour for women’s status to be improved in society in general if it treats women unequally itself?
We believe that the way it was announced, and the manner in which the decision seems to have been formed, contradicts the spirit of Synodality. However, the report has engendered such a reaction in the church universally – generating such discussion in so many parts of the church, that it actually demonstrates that Synodality is gradually doing its job. The reactions to the Petrocchi Report highlight that we’re not settling for something – and no longer just quietly obeying – because it comes from the Vatican.
We believe that the Holy Spirit is in the work of the Commission as She is in every aspect of our church, and our challenge is to discern what the Spirit is trying to say to us in the publishing of this report. We Are Church Ireland has faithfully and enthusiastically entered into a dialogue where we choose to believe that all are listening in the Spirit to each other to discern the future direction of the Church.
We will continue to work towards our aims of full equality of all the baptised and the inclusion of women in all ministries.
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We Are Church Ireland was founded in 1997 just two years after We Are Church was founded in Austria. We work for change an renewal in the Catholic church seeking shared decision making, equality for women and a welcome for all. While the patriarchal hierarchy in the Catholic church remains largely opposed to sharing decision making we endeavour to put into practice the teaching of Christ to love one another in our communities.