Pope Francis authors preface to book on ‘Women and Ministries in the Synodal Church’

Pope Francis meets with the Council of Cardinals on Feb. 5, 2024, at the Vatican. / Credit: Vatican Media

ACI Prensa Staff, Jul 15, 2024 / 11:49 am (CNA).

Pope Francis has written the preface to the book “Women and Ministries in the Synodal Church,” authored by three theologians and two cardinals who participated in the meeting of the Council of Cardinals, C9, this past February at the Vatican.

The theologians, noted Vatican News, are Salesian Sister Linda Pocher, professor of Christology and Mariology at the Auxilium in Rome, who also wrote the book’s introduction; Jo Bailey Wells, a female Anglican bishop and undersecretary-general of the Anglican Communion; and Giuliva Di Berardino, consecrated woman of the Ordo Virginum of the Diocese of Verona in Italy, liturgist, teacher, and organizer of spirituality courses and spiritual exercises.

The cardinals are Jean-Claude Hollerich, archbishop of Luxembourg and relator general of the Synod on Synodality, who in 2023 stated that “over time” the pope could allow the ordination of women; and Seán Patrick O’Malley, archbishop of Boston and president of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors.

Pope Francis’ preface

The preface was published in its entirety in L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper.

In the text, the Holy Father laments that “the drama of abuse has forced us to open our eyes to the plague of clericalism, which does not only concern ordained ministers but also a distorted way of exercising power within the Church into which everyone can fall: even laypeople, even women.”

The pontiff notes that “a certain suffering of ecclesial communities regarding the way in which the ministry is understood and lived is not a new reality.”

Pope Francis then states: “Listening to them without judgment and without prejudice, we realize that in many places and in many situations they suffer precisely because of the lack of recognition of what they are and what they do and also of what they could do and be if only they had the space and the opportunity.”

“The women who suffer the most are often the closest, the most available, prepared and ready to serve God and his kingdom,” he noted.

“Reality, however, is always greater than the idea,” the pope states, “and when our theology falls into the trap of clear and distinct ideas it inevitably transforms into a procrustean bed (arbitrary standard), which sacrifices reality, or part of it, on the altar of the idea.”

Women in the Church and the female diaconate

The issue of women in the Church appears in the Instrumentum Laboris (working document) for the second phase of the Synod on Synodality, which will take place in October at the Vatican.

The text highlights “the need to give fuller recognition” to the charisms and vocations of women who “by virtue of baptism are in a condition of full equality, receive the same outpouring of gifts of the Spirit and are called to the service of the mission of Christ.”

In an interview with EWTN News, Salesian Sister Laura Pocher pointed out that “at this moment the debate on this issue [the female diaconate] is very hot and various scientific publications are appearing from the theological point of view that address this topic and the positions are very diverse.”

“There are many positions on this and the pope has also expressed himself in an interview saying that he does not plan to ordain women,” she added.

In May, the Holy Father gave an interview to CBS News anchor Norah O’Donnell, who asked him if a Catholic girl could ever become a deacon and member of the clergy. “No,” was Pope Francis’ firm response.

‘Three possibilities’ for women in the Catholic Church

“However, the possibilities are fundamentally three,” Pocher said. “The first is to do nothing and continue as we are. Some believe that this is the best option, because they know that in the first centuries there were women deacons, but with the sources we have it is not possible to reconstruct exactly what this diaconate consisted of.”

The second possibility mentioned by the Salesian theologian is “a form of diaconate without ordination, because it is important from an institutional point of view to recognize the service of women in the Church and thus give a form of ministries at the established age [for ordination].” 

“The third possibility, the most radical, is to also give women the possibility of being ordained deacons. Just as we have deacons, married men who are not priests,” she said.

Then, she continued, “an ordained diaconate which should not because of this be a first step toward priestly ordination, but which would allow for a recognized service within the Church, for example in the guidance of communities.”

When asked if the issue was discussed at C9 in February, Pocher said yes, although “it is not a possibility on the synod agenda and the pope is not very favorable, because this issue of the ordination of women is a bit like the elephant in the room.”

In the theologian’s opinion, “not everyone thinks about it but often there is no courage to speak because it is a very conflictive issue and it seemed to us that in the spirit with which the pope guides these meetings of the council [C9] it was important to put the difficult things on the table.”

Pope Francis and deaconesses in the Church

Although the topic of the female diaconate does not appear in Instrumentum Laboris 2, Cardinal Mario Grech, secretary-general of the Synod on Synodality, said in a July 9 press conference that Pope Francis has asked the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) to study women’s participation and leadership in the Catholic Church, including the possibility of women deacons, to publish a document on the subject.

Prior to this assignment for the DDF, Pope Francis had created two commissions to study deaconesses in the Catholic Church: one in 2016 that was closed without reaching a consensus, and the second in 2020 after the majority of participants in the Amazon Synod expressed themselves in favor of the issue.

In Querida Amazonia, Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation following the 2019 synod, the pope encouraged women to participate in the Church but not in the ordained ministries of the diaconate or priesthood.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.