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The Vatican doctrine office is preparing a document on the subject of women in leadership roles in the Catholic Church.
The initiative seeks to respond to women’s longstanding demands to have a greater say in Church life.
Church reform
The Dicastery of the Doctrine of the Faith says the new document will form its contribution to Pope Francis’ Church reform process, the Synod on Synodality.
The Synod is entering its second main phase with the next meeting of bishops this coming October.
The Vatican announced the details of the doctrinal document shortly after its news conference.
That conference – which four men led – described the preparatory work for the October meeting. Media were not given the opportunity to ask questions.
The smallest gesture
A group pressing for women’s ordination promptly dismissed the new doctrinal document as “crumbs”.
They noted ordained men would again be making decisions about women’s roles in the Church.
Members of ten study groups will be looking into some tough, legally complicated issues that have arisen in the reform process to date.
These include the role of women and LGBTQ+ Catholics in the life of the church.
Unequal work, contribution and rights
Catholic women reportedly do most of the Church’s work in schools and hospitals. They also tend to be those more likely to pass the faith on to future generations.
But many complain of a second-class status in a Church which reserves the priesthood for men only.
Francis has reaffirmed the ban on women priests but has appointed several women to senior Vatican positions.
He also encourages debate on other ways to hear women’s voices.
The synod process is once such place, as women there have the right to vote on specific proposals. Voting rights until now have been restricted to men.
Francis had appointed two commissions to study whether women could be ordained deacons – those who can, though not priests, perform many priestly functions.
They may preside at weddings, baptisms and funerals, and preach. They cannot celebrate Mass.
Women respond
The Women’s Ordination Conference says relegating the women deacons issue to the doctrine office doesn’t suggest the Church is looking to involve women any more than now.
“The urgency to affirm women’s full and equal place in the Church cannot be swept away, relegated to a shadowy commission or entrusted into the hands of ordained men at the Vatican” the women protest.
These groups will be working with the Vatican after the synod, suggesting this year’s results may not be final.
After the 2023 session the synod summary made no mention of homosexuality, although the working document had specifically noted calls for a greater welcoming of “LGBTQ+ Catholics” and other marginalised people into the Church.
Instead, the summary said people who feel marginalised because of their marital situation, “identity and sexuality, ask to be listened to and accompanied, and their dignity defended”.
Francis has since approved priests blessing same-sex couples.
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