A leading religious sister has called for men and women to be on the Pope’s future commission to study the issue of women deacons. Sr Carmen Sammut, the president of the International Union of Superiors General (IUSG), also said sisters globally would be better equipped to carry out their work if they could become deacons. Read more
Pope Francis has said he will establish a Vatican commission to study the possibility of allowing women to serve as deacons in the Catholic Church. Francis was asked during a meeting with leaders of female religious congregations about women deacons and their role in the early church. The Pope responded that he had spoken about Read more
At the synod on the family, a Canadian archbishop has called for the ordination of women deacons and for married people to speak in homilies at Masses. Archbishop Paul-Andre Durocher, a former president of the Canadian bishops’ conference, released the text of his synod speech on his blog. He proposed three courses of action for Read more
An advisor appointed by Pope Benedict XVI has said married priests and women deacons would bring a new dynamism to the Church. Dietmar Winkler said married priests and women deacons should be reintroduced as soon as possible. He was appointed an adviser to the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity by Pope Benedict XVI and Read more
At the league’s annual conference in Auckland last month, participants were reflecting on Pope Francis’s call for the Church to develop a more profound theology of women. NZ Catholic reported that one group raised the idea of women deacons. CWL national chaplain Sr John Bosco Kendall then suggested the group put this idea to their Read more
The president of the German Catholic bishops’ conference has called for a new office of women deacons in the Catholic Church. Archbishop Robert Zollitsch of Freiburg made it clear he was calling for a new office specifically for women, rather than admission of women to the sacramental diaconate. He called for the move at the Read more