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Pope Francis’ recent interview that seemed to close the door to women deacons isn’t the final word on the topic says Sr Laura Vicuña Pereira Manso.
She refers to the pope’s interview for a CBS “60 Minutes” show in May.
In it Francis said he was opposed to women deacons if it involves the sacrament of Holy Orders.
The “women deacons” question has been raised repeatedly during the Synod on Synodality process she says. “Francis’s speech caused some perplexity, but an interview is not the magisterium of the church.”
“We’re living through the second stage of a synod on synodality, and I know that it won’t resolve all the necessary issues of change in the church.
“But it will open up ways for us to continue the conversation and for all of us.”
Conversion needed
Pereira Manso is the vice president of the Ecclesial Conference of the Amazon (CEAMA).
“We have important changes underway in the Church” she says.
Before many of the specific doctrinal questions can be considered, a “conversion” of the Church’s way of being is needed she says.
“This includes the pope, the laity and everyone in between.”
The Church in the Amazon
For years, Pereira Manso and other religious sisters have worked in remote parts of the Amazon. There are few priests. Many faithful lack regular access to the sacraments.
While the pope may be hesitant to back the restoration of the female diaconate, much of the work that these sisters already do is that of diaconal ministry.
CEAMA is the first-of-its-kind ecclesial assembly to include women in a leadership position.
This will continue regardless of what is officially decided during the Synod Pereira Manso says.
“I continue to believe in the service that we women offer the Church and the mission of being bridges and not letting prophecy fall.
“This is how we will continue to serve the people of God, who live on the margins, on the peripheries and in the cellars of humanity, in defence of life, the earth and rights.”
Pereira Manso was an auditor at the 2019 Amazon synod. We have “reinvented ourselves” as a Church in the Amazon through a range of new proposals she says.
These include an Amazon liturgical rite, expanded ministries, intercultural dialogue and bilingual education.
Women’s ministries
Women’s ministries were discussed explicitly last year during a CEAMA meeting with the pope.
“He told us that there was no turning back from the changes underway.”
He noted work is continuing for the Church to have a fuller discernment on these questions.
As she looks ahead to the next synod on synodality meeting, Pereira Manso has a particular prayer.
She prays for increased openness on the “topics where the Church still lacks consensus and transparency, so that they are in fact the action of the Divine Ruah and not the fear of moving into deeper waters”.
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