2023-10-28 23:49:12
RomeThe Synod of Bishops that concludes this Sunday in the Vatican, and that for the first time included lay people and women with the right to vote, asked that women be able to access positions of greater responsibility within the Church, although it was divided regarding the possibility of establishing the female diaconate and urged to continue to deepen the issue.
This is what the “final summary document” with which closes the first phase of this synod on synodality, and which was unanimously approved this Saturday before being sent to Pope Francis, is included. A text of about 40 pages that does not contain conclusions, but proposals to be addressed in the second part of this assembly of bishops that will be held in October 2024 in the Vatican.
“It is urgent to ensure that women can participate in decision-making processes and assume roles of responsibility in pastoral work and in the ministry. The Holy Father has significantly increased the number of women in positions of responsibility in the Roman Curia. The same should happen at other levels of the life of the Church. Canon law must be adapted accordingly”, reads the text.
Masculinity in the Church
According to the document, during the work of the assembly, which lasted for almost a month, many women expressed their “deep gratitude for the work of priests and bishops”, but also denounced that “clericalism, the masculinity and the inappropriate use of authority continues to mark the face of the Church”.
As expected, however, the text does not include any notes regarding the female priesthood, but it does reflect on the ordination of women deaconesses, a figure that already existed in the early years of Christianity, when women replaced deacons if needed, but that at present it can only be developed by men who can perform many of the functions of priests, such as celebrating weddings, baptisms and funerals, although they cannot celebrate masses.
The proposal relating to the diaconate of women was the one that had the most negative votes among all those included in the text, with 277 in favor and 69 against. A demonstration that the issue is the subject of a deep division within the ecclesiastical hierarchy despite the steps taken in the Church in recent years, as explained by Cardinal Mario Grech during the press conference in which the document was presented. “It confirms that the discussion is open”, he said. In fact, Pope Francis has appointed two commissions of experts to study the female diaconate.
Homosexual couples
Together with the female diaconate, the blessing of homosexual couples was undoubtedly another of the topics to be debated that aroused the most interest, since in the preparatory document, made with the proposals of Catholics from all over the world in the last two years, it called for a greater welcome to people who feel excluded by the Church, such as divorced people who have remarried or LGBTIQ people. The text, however, does not mention them explicitly, although it advocates supporting homosexual Catholics who opt for chastity or those divorced people who have not remarried.
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