The Vatican group studying the question of women’s ministry will expand its consultative phase to include women who do not serve as consultors to the dicastery in charge of the study group, Synod officials announced. Source: CNS.
Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, which is in charge of the study group, announced in a message to Synod members yesterday that in addition to receiving input from the dicastery’s appointed consultors, the dicastery will consult other women as well as receive input from participants in the Synod of Bishops.
It was not specified who the outside women consultors are.
Among the 27 consultors to the dicastery listed in the Vatican yearbook, four are women, and among the 28 new consultors appointed by Pope Francis on September 23, six are women.
In his message to Synod members, read to journalists at a news conference yesterday, Cardinal Fernández said the dicastery would also receive input from all members and theologians of the Synod of Bishops in the coming months.
Among Synod participants, 82 non-member experts are participating in the Synod as theologians, facilitators and communicators.
Additionally, Synod members voted to have a dialogue with leaders of the 10 study groups assigned to study complicated topics on October 18, and Cardinal Fernández said two people from his dicastery will receive written and oral input from Synod members on the topic of women’s ministry in the church.
In a written report delivered to Synod members on October 2, Cardinal Fernández had said that at this point, his dicastery “judges that there is still no room for a positive decision by the magisterium regarding the access of women to the diaconate, understood as a degree of the sacrament of holy orders”.
At the Vatican news conference yesterday, Belgian Deacon Geert De Cubber, the only Synod member who is a permanent deacon, said that incorporating more input from deacons would benefit the Synod proceedings and members’ understanding of how the role of deacons can fit into service of the Church.
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Synod seeks to expand consultations on women’s ministry, diaconate (By Justin McLellan, CNS via Detroit Catholic)
