Doctrinal chief Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández told synod on synodality delegates Monday that a Vatican study group is focused broadly on women’s role in the Church, rather than specifically on the question of women deacons.
In Oct. 21 remarks at the synod, Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández addressed the uproar generated by his absence from an Oct. 18 meeting updating synod participants on the work of study group 5, according to sources close to the meeting.
Fernández said he was unaware that he was expected to be present at the meeting, while the study group’s coordinator could not attend due to surgery.
The meeting was attended instead by two staffers of the Dicastery of the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF), who reportedly were unable to answer questions about the study group and circulated an email address through which attendees could provide their feedback.
Speaking to delegates, Fernández confirmed that both he and the study group’s coordinator would be present at an Oct. 24 meeting with synod participants to discuss the study group’s work. He said he would listen to synod members’ ideas for enhancing women’s role in the Church and discuss the study group’s procedures.
The cardinal requested that women working in the Church, among them women religious, submit to the working group reflections or assessments on the ways in which women might be more concretely be invited into leadership roles in the Church’s life.
Study group 5, entrusted to the DDF, is officially dedicated to “some theological and canonical issues around specific ministerial forms.”
An official Vatican description of its work says it is dedicated to issues including “the question of the necessary participation of women in the life and leadership of the Church.”
According to synod delegates, the doctrinal prefect noted Monday that Pope Francis had given a firm no to the ordination of women as “deacons with holy orders.”
Fernández reportedly said the study group was looking at a wide variety of ways in which women can contribute to Church life, including by serving in the lay ministry of catechist in communities without priests. He noted that this option, introduced by Pope Francis in 2021, had not been widely taken up.
Concerning women deacons, the cardinal said the pope had told him that a commission established in 2020 and led by the Italian Cardinal Giuseppe Petrocchi is still studying the issue.
Fernández said the commission was open to receiving contributions from the synod on synodality as it continued its work in the coming months.
Concluding his address Monday, the cardinal said there were many ways in which women engaged in leadership in the Church and the Holy Spirit was not preventing it.
Fernández had addressed the topic of women deacons at the start of the synod on synodality’s second session.
In an Oct. 2 speech to participants, he noted that Pope Francis did not consider the topic to be “mature.” He said that while the issue was open to further study, the pope believed that other issues should be explored ahead of the diaconate for women.
