The prefect of the Vatican’s doctrinal office apologized Friday for a “misunderstanding” over a meeting of the synod on synodality’s special working group on issues related to women and authority in the Church,
“I have learned of the displeasure expressed by some members of the synod with the fact that I was not present at this afternoon's meeting with working group number 5,” Cardinal Victor Fernandez wrote in a statement issued late in the evening on October 18.
“This was not due to a lack of will, but to my objective inability to participate on the day and at the scheduled time,” the cardinal added. “I myself am sorry for the misunderstanding.”
The statement came after an Oct. 18 meeting at which synod delegates were invited to give feedback to organizers of the synod study group focused on the role of women in the life of the Church.
The meeting was attended by two staffers of the Dicastery of the Doctrine of the Faith, but not by Fernandez, reportedly drawing frustration from some synod delegates who had expected the cardinal to hear their thoughts on the controversial topic of the prospect of some diaconal role for women in the Church.
Controversy over the meeting, reportedly attended by more than 100 synod delegates, was first reported by the National Catholic Reporter, which noted that some participants had expressed frustration at Fernandez’ absence, seemingly concerned that the prefect was not giving the topic the attention they felt it deserved.
Staffers in attendance reportedly circulated an email address through which attendees could provide their feedback.
Synod delegates told The Pillar Friday that the dicastery staffers at the meeting seemed to have been provided little information on the study group, did not offer meaningful comments on the subject, and could not answer questions about the study group’s process, provoking increased frustration among attendees.
Delegates told The Pillar that the staffers also faced questions about the transparency of the study group’s work, with attendees asking why the DDF played a central role in the working group, which has been reportedly with different procedural norms than the other study groups established by Pope Francis.
But in his Friday statement, Fernandez said that he had skipped the meeting “not due to a lack of will, but to my objective inability to participate on the day and at the scheduled time.”
The cardinal added that he had not previously indicated he would attend, noting that instead he said in Oct. 9 statement that “two officials of the [DDF] would be present at the meeting.”
But delegates to the synod told The Pillar that it was not widely understood that Fernandez would not be in attendance, and that expectations for the meeting were not well-managed by synod organizers.
Fernandez’s Friday statement said that the cardinal would be willing to meet at a date next week “the members of the Synod interested in the topic of study group no. 5, to listen to their reflections and receive any written documents from them.”
The study group on the role of women in the life of the Church is one of 10 study groups connected to the synod on synodality in March, meant to give in-depth attention to controversial ecclesiastical topics raised during the initial Vatican meeting of the synodality synod, held last October — and meant seemingly to take those topics off the table during ordinary synod deliberations, which, Pope Francis has stressed, should focus on the prospect of inviting more frequent consultation into ecclesial decision-making.
While some synod participants have called for the prospect of the Church establishing some diaconal role for women, Pope Francis has said several times in his pontificate that women can not be ordained to any decree of the sacrament of holy orders, including the diaconate.
In 1994, Pope St. John Paul II directly taught “that the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that this judgment is to be definitively held by all the Church's faithful.”
While John Paul II’s Ordinatio sacerdotalis mentioned only priestly ordination directly, most Catholic theologians have since emphasized the unity of the sacrament of orders, which would seem to preclude all sacramental ordination of women.
While there is historical record of women in the early Church having some role of liturgical assistance, and being referred to as deacons, it is not widely held by Church leaders that such women were thought to have received the sacrament of ordination, especially as the theology of ordination was still being clarified in early centuries of the Church.
Earlier this month, Cardinal Fernandez told synod delegates that the possibility of some form of diaconal ministry for women “remains open” but acknowledged that the pope wants the synodality synod focused on other issues, namely the concept of synodality.
And in a written report, Fernandez explained that the DDF "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."
Fernandez suggested instead that the Church should study the historical ways in which women have exercised authority in the Church, even apart from the sacrament of orders.”
“In some cases,” he wrote, the exercise of ecclesial authority “was of great value and was fruitful for the vitality of the people of God.”
