By CatholicVote | Created at 2024-10-23 20:44:15 | Updated at 2024-10-23 22:30:53
1 hour ago
CV NEWS FEED // Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, head of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF), said at a synodal assembly on October 21 that he hopes women’s leadership in the Church will be expanded through a step-by-step process.
His remarks did not explicitly affirm support for women’s ordination to the diaconate or priesthood, but they were made in response to press questions regarding his absence from a synodal meeting on female diaconate, Vatican News reported. Some members of the media believed his absence from the discussion “showed a lack of interest in the topic,” but the cardinal said it was due to a colleague’s medical procedure.
At the assembly, Cardinal Fernández reportedly announced that Pope Francis asked the DDF to work on ways to expand women’s leadership within the Church that do not involve ordination to the diaconate in any way.
Cardinal Fernández first pointed out that women can be catechists in two different ways — both in teaching the faith and in leading faith communities when a priest is not available. He noted that women are allowed to be acolytes as well.
Vatican News reported that Cardinal Fernández said there is a need for a focus on leadership roles for women due to the promptings of the Holy Spirit and the situations around them, rather than an emphasis on women’s diaconate to push women’s involvement in the Church.
“Reality is superior to the idea,” he said, later adding that a step-by-step approach to women’s roles in the Church can help promote greater female leadership.
“There is nothing in the nature of women that prevents them from holding very important positions in the leadership of the Church,” he concluded.
According to Vatican News, he added that whatever is of the Holy Spirit cannot be stopped.
