Another area of tension for many women, especially in Northern America and in Europe, is the question of allowing women to be ordained as deacons, clergy who may preach the gospel and perform some of the sacraments. Francis has created two commissions to study the possibility of women deacons and more recently appointed a team of theologians and canon lawyers to present their findings during the synod assembly in October but pushed off their written report to 2025.
FILE – Pope Francis, sitting at right, participates in the opening session of the 16th General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops in the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican, Wednesday, Oct. 4, 2023. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
“Women, particularly in North America and Europe, are demanding that they be allowed to preach in assemblies and that the positions of responsibility they already hold be better valued and publicized,” the WWO study found, and “the female diaconate appears strongly in these regions.”
But Francis himself pushed back against the possibility of female deacons during an interview with CBS’s “60 Minutes” on May 20, answering with a definitive “no” while suggesting that women take on greater responsibility in the church outside of ordained ministry.
Women who took part in the study said women deacons “would be a sign of hope” for women Catholics who feel that the church remains male-dominated. They also expressed a hope that women be allowed to teach in seminaries, “building relationships and interactions between women and seminarians,” and that more women be trained to become theologians to better participate in the church.
WUCWO, representing 8 million women in more than 50 countries, was founded in 1910 to promote the presence, participation and shared responsibility of Catholic women in the world. It has permanent offices at the United Nations, the Food and Agriculture Organization and the Human Rights Council in Geneva.
The WWO is already preparing a new project in 78 countries to inform Catholics about the synod, but especially female leadership roles in the church. So far, over the past two months they have invited 678 Catholics, mostly women, to discuss the synod up to this point and how women’s voices were represented.
This article originally appeared here.
