The long-standing Curia Cardinal Walter Kasper has advocated for a greater transfer of church leadership tasks to non-ordained Catholics (“lay people”).
One of the most urgent tasks of bishops and priests is to “proclaim the Gospel in accordance with the requirements of the time,” he said in a conversation with the Viennese theologian Jan-Heiner Tück on the online portal “communio.de” on the feast of Christ Ascension.
“Today, as in apostolic times, we should assign many other leadership tasks to deacons or qualified laypeople, women and men,” Kasper added. He referred to the biblical book of Acts, which also deals with the election of deacons in the early Christian community.