Synod, October 9: Cardinal Fernández invites synod participants to weigh in on forthcoming document on women and ministry

October 10, 2024

On October 9, 343 of the 365 participants in the second and final session of the synod on synodality gathered in Paul VI Audience Hall for the third day of their four-day consideration of the session’s second module, “Relations” (synod agenda).

“Relations” is the title of the first part of the session’s instrumentum laboris, or working document (pp. 11-22).

Following the morning general congregation in Paul VI Audience Hall, participants gathered in St. Peter’s Basilica for a Maronite Divine Liturgy.

“We must remember throughout our synodal journey that the future of our churches and our respective countries, especially those in times of crisis, must not depend solely on geostrategic and geopolitical calculations and analyses,” Auxiliary Bishop Paul Rouhana of Beirut, Lebanon, preached. “Let us pray so that the Lord may grant us the strength and the wisdom to overcome these difficulties and lead us toward a future of hope.”

Press briefing

The General Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops, led by Cardinal Mario Grech, has imposed tight secrecy on synod participants (Regulations, Article 24), binding them to confidentiality, even with respect to their own contributions, and even after the session concludes. The regulations stand in marked contrast to the relative transparency of the Synod of Bishops under St. John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI, during which the Vatican routinely published the synod fathers’ interventions (speeches). The daily press briefing thus offers an impressionistic, if filtered, glimpse into the synod’s proceedings.

Participants in the October 9 press briefing (video) included

• Paolo Ruffini, prefect of the Dicastery for Communication and chair of the synod’s Commission for Information
• Sheila Leocádia Pires, communications officer of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference and secretary of the synod’s Commission for Information
• Archbishop Inácio Saure, IMC, of Nampula, Mozambique
• Archbishop Luis Fernando Ramos Pérez of Puerto Montt, Chile
• Belgian Deacon Geert De Cubber

The Vatican newspaper reported that “the most applauded testimony in the Paul VI Hall was given by a mother, who was deeply concerned about her children, so much so that she asked the Synod for a word of help to raise them in the Christian faith.”

Pires said that the following topics were discussed in 56 interventions (35 on the afternoon of October 8, and 21 on the morning of October 9):

• “the role of the laity, their collaboration with bishops and priests, their involvement in decision-making processes, was one of the themes that emerged most”
• “the importance of encouraging collaboration between priests and lay people and the need for greater participation of lay people—men and women—in leadership roles was emphasized”
• “the presence of lay people is indispensable; they work together for the good of the Church”
• on the suitability of candidates for the episcopate and priesthood, “the bishop decides, but in a synodal Church it is the People of God who must feel responsible for the choice” and know “the requirements of the human and spiritual profile that candidates must have”
• a proposal to “deepen the reflection on the role of lay people in the exercise of pastoral ministry in parishes, because many priests do not have the vocation to be parish priests, instead many lay people who live a peaceful married and family life can carry out functions in the communities”
• “avoiding any type of sexual discrimination” in the ministry of acolyte
• women’s contrbution to decision-making processes
• “entrusting women with the ministry of listening—that is, thinking of listening as a predominantly female ministry, complementary to that of the parish priest, the deacon, the catechist”: “women know how to listen, they listen in a different way—it was said in the Hall—and they could do it as a service, totally different from confession”
• “involve women more in diplomacy in a divided and war-torn world”

Ruffini added that the following topics were discussed:

• “the need to connect with the new generations through digital pastoral care”
• African youth must be part of eccesiastical discernment
• youth ministry should be entrusted to youth—“not to adults who act young”—“so as to enter into dialogue with peers trapped in new age or nihilistic ideologies”
• “children forced to marry young for family reasons; girls forced into prostitution; minors who are victims of human trafficking”
• “seminarians who come from non-Christian families, or who are forced into the priesthood for honor, of people who have to deal with their homosexuality”
• “the Synod does not have the objective of producing documents, but of inspiring actions; therefore, it was reiterated that it will not be enough just to listen to Christian and parish voices, but also to courageous voices that come from outside, so as to create safe spaces for people to come forward”
• “there is little or nothing on childhood initiation: what does the assembly say about the role of parents, grandparents, Christian godparents in contributing to synodality on listening and discernment from childhood? We must raise children so that when they grow up they go towards Christ.”
• an encouragement of the roles of co-responsibility of parents
• the family as a model of synodality
• “the need to accompany victims of abuse within the Church”
• “the Church must approach the vulnerable, and power must be a service and never clericalism”
• “to give greater centrality to the poor, also in the formation of the clergy,” for “the poor are closer to the heart of God, they have authority”
• the loneliness of priests, overloaded with tasks—a burden that has distanced them from the synodal process
• “structures that involve several parishes to help the parish priests in their service”
• a strong “invitation to dialogue, between the churches and in the Church”
• the synod session should “focus more on reality, even in drafting the Final Document ... it was said that it seems that the Church, instead of playing the game, is focused on training, as if a training manual were being written,” instead of a “mission diary”

Ruffini added that “the Chinese bishop Giuseppe Yang intervened, bringing his greetings, praising the benefit brought by the 2018 agreement between the Holy See and China.”

Consultation on forthcoming document on women and ministry

In February, Pope Francis created ten study groups to explore some of the issues raised during the October 2023 synod session. The study groups are expected to finish their work by June 2025.

On October 2, the opening day of the current synod session, representatives of study groups updated synod participants on their work.

In this context, Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, revealed that his dicastery is preparing a document on women and ministry.

“Based on the analysis conducted so far,” he stated in his written text, “the Dicastery judges that there is still no room for a positive decision by the Magisterium regarding the access of women to the diaconate, understood as a degree of the Sacrament of Holy Orders. The Holy Father recently confirmed this consideration publicly. In any event, the Dicastery judges that the opportunity to continue the work of in-depth study remains open.”

He added:

Even so, the study conducted so far by the Dicastery has set out a particularly interesting way forward: to analyze in depth the lives of some women who—in both the early and recent history of the Church—have exercised genuine authority and power in support of the Church’s mission. This authority or power was not tied to sacramental consecration, as would be in the case, at least today, with diaconal ordination.

Cardinal Fernández cited several examples, from medieval figures such as St. Hildegard of Bingen and St. Catherine of Siena, to twentieth-century figures such as Maria Montessori and Dorothy Day.

Colleen Dulle of America reported that Cardinal Fernández’s written text differed from the words he spoke to synod participants:

Notably the line that “the Dicastery judges that there is still no room for a positive decision” was missing from Fernandez’ speech, replaced with “We know the Pontiff’s public position that he does not consider the issue mature. The opportunity for further study remains open...”

During the October 9 press briefing, Ruffini revealed that Cardinal Fernández invited synod participants to share their thoughts on women and ministry as the document is being drafted. Vatican News reported:

Ruffini reported that Cardinal Secretary General Mario Grech read a communiqué from Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, specifying that the topic of Study Group No. 5—on “Some theological and canonistic questions around specific ministerial forms,” particularly the participation of women in the life and leadership of the Church—had already been entrusted to the aforementioned Dicastery prior to the Synod’s request.

Therefore, the prefect’s statement said, the work must follow the Dicasterial procedures established in its own regulations, with a view to the publication of an appropriate Document. After hearing bishops and cardinals in the regular meeting of the Dicastery, the topic is now in the consultative phase: the consultors who provide the basis for the document have already been consulted. The consultation is also expected to include women who are not consultors.

All members and theologians of the synod can send opinions and aids in the coming months. On the 18th, two theologians from the dicastery will be available to receive proposals on the topic in writing or orally.

Archbishop Saure, Archbishop Luis Pérez of Puerto Montt, and Deacon De Cubber—the only Latin-rite deacon taking part in the synod session—then discussed a wide range of topics, including the importance of deacons, a potential post-synodal encounter for deacons, synodal spirituality, the “purification” of relationships in the Church and society, and the intense suffering in Mozambique, devastated by an Islamist insurgency.

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Earlier coverage

• Synod retreat, day 1: ‘Stripping ourselves before the other and before God’ (CWN, 10/1)
• Synod retreat touches on homosexuality, ‘new ministries’; culminates in penitential vigil (CWN, 10/2)
• Opening Synod session, Pope stresses listening (CWN, 10/2)
• Synod, October 2: Pope defends inclusion of non-bishops; Cardinal Fernández: ‘no’ to women deacons (CWN, 10/3)
• Synod, October 3: Working groups discuss ‘Foundations’; ‘nothing new,’ says Cardinal Hollerich (CWN, 10/4)
• Cardinal Grech: Every Catholic is invited to weigh in on synod study groups’ deliberations (CWN, 10/4)
• Synod study group calls for ‘paradigm shift’ on controversial moral issues (CWN, 10/4)
• African bishops preparing document on polygamy (CWN, 10/4)
• Synod, October 4: leading African cardinal criticized for inadequate consultation in rejecting same-sex blessings (CWN, 10/5)
• Synod, October 5: work on ‘Foundations’ concludes; Lebanese, Haitian prelates recount suffering (CWN, 10/7)
• No synod meetings on Sunday, October 6
• Synod, October 7: Cardinal Hollerich calls for suggestions to make Church less ‘pyramidal’; women’s ministry discussion resurfaces (CWN, 10/8)
• Jesuits hold outsized influence at Synod on Synodality (CWN, 10/8)
• Synod, October 8: final document commission members chosen; leading Latin American prelate raises prospect of married priests (CWN, 10/9)
• Synod names commission to prepare final document (CWN, 10/9)

 

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