Without doubt, the best line to emanate from the Synod on Synoldality is “Excuse me, Your Eminence, she has not finished speaking.” That sums up the synod and the state of the Catholic Church’s attitude toward change. In October, hundreds of bishops, joined by lay men and women, priests, deacons, religious sisters and brothers met Read more
The much anticipated “synthesis report” from October’s synod on synodality was released after the confidential Vatican-based meetings concluded on Sunday. The synthesis report summarises synodal discussions about how a synodal Church’s ministries and structures can give a wider role for laity which is more in line with the vision of Vatican II. Big issues discussed Read more
A famous Zen koan asks: What is the sound of one hand clapping? A contemporary spiritual riddle might inquire: What is the sound of a woman leaving the Church? Neither has an answer. There is only silence. I re-entered Catholicism with some trepidation, overpowered by a longing I could not name. Intellectually, I understood that Read more
The Australian Catholic Church’s vote last week on the role of women in the church felt personal. From when I was seven years old, I longed to commit my life in ordained ministry, and expressed this to my Archbishop at age 11. He responded, “There are many other things that women can do in the Read more
The confluence of two events, one Roman Catholic and the other Orthodox, point to a growing appreciation of the fact that women are indeed made in the image and likeness of God and are suited for altar service. In Catholicism, the argument against ordaining women to any grade of order rests in the intimation that Read more
A new document by Pope Francis slams countries and companies exploiting the Amazon region and calls on the Catholic Church to find new paths and methods to minister to its indigenous people. But those new paths do not include the ordination of married men to the priesthood in the region. The document, called “Querida Amazonia” Read more
The Vatican Commission on Women Deacons meets for the first time today. The 12-members will study how things were in the early times of the Church. This will involve finding out how women served as deacons in the early church. Questions include “were their duties similar to those performed by male deacons” and if so, Read more
Pope Francis has created a gender-balanced commission to study the possibility of allowing women to serve as deacons in the Catholic church. The 12-member panel of scholars will study the question of whether women were ordained as deacons in the early church, and whether they could be ordained in the Catholic Church today. If female Read more
Panel members at a conference organised by women’s ordination supporters have different views on conjectured future female deacons. The five-person panel met as part of the “Open to the Door to Dialogue” conference held in Rome earlier this month. Last month, Pope Francis said he would create a commission to study the history of female Read more
An Irish bishop wants his fellow bishops to set up a body to look at the possibility of ordaining married men to the priesthood. Bishop Leo O’Reilly of Kilmore has urged his colleagues to arrange a commission to this end. Bishop O’Reilly also wants such a commission to study the possibility of female deacons. He will raise the Read more