On the dais in the Pope Pius XI Hall a few kilometers from the Vatican sat Sister Elizabeth Young of Australia, Rosella Kinoshameg of the Odawa and Ojibway people in Canada, Kascha Sanor of the United States, Sister Laura Vicuña Pereira Manso of Brazil and Cardinal Pedro Barreto, S.J., of Peru.
It was Oct. 4, the feast of St. Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of ecology. The women panelists spoke movingly about their pastoral experiences serving their diverse communities across the globe, catechizing, leading prayer, healing wounds and struggling for ecological justice against exploitative industries. What did they have in common? A deep connection to the land and the people they serve, a love for Jesus and the church and a belief in sacramental grace. They are women who, in many respects, embody the ministry of deacons but without formal and sacramental recognition because the Catholic Church does not ordain women to the diaconate.
Back at the Vatican, several synod delegates sat at another dais inside the Holy See Press Office. It was time for the daily synod media briefing, an opportunity for journalists to ask questions to synod delegates. Like the women gathered a few kilometers away, Bishop Anthony Randazzo, the president of the Federation of Catholic Bishops’ Conferences of Oceania, spoke movingly about the fragility of the natural environment and the brutal effects of exploitation and pleaded for the churches in North America and Europe not to forget about the vulnerable peoples of Oceania.
Then his intervention took an interesting turn:
So often when we talk about synodality, we are caught up in many issues which I term as “niche” church issues that often emerge in Europe or North America. Often out of churches and communities that have great wealth, great access to technology, resources. And those issues become all-consuming and focusing for people to the point that they then become an imposition on people who sometimes struggle simply to feed their families, to be able to survive the rising sea levels or the dangerous journeys across wild oceans trying to resettle in new lands. It’s a new form of colonialism. And the most vulnerable people are often oppressed by that.
When the floor was opened up for questions, a journalist from the United States asked the bishop what “niche” issues he was referring to, and how the church might constructively overcome Eurocentrism. Bishop Randazzo leapt at the opportunity to answer. It turns out the two issues he had in mind were first, governance, specifically a hyperfocus on restructuring, networking and other business-like approaches that, he said, end up excluding people. The second niche issue was women, specifically the question of the ordination of women to the diaconate, which has been the subject of two recent papal commissions, was a major topic of discussion at last year’s synod assembly and is now the subject of one of the 10 official synod study groups.
At the moment, when we talk about women in the church, that is the hot-button issue [referring to women deacons]. And as a consequence, women who in many parts of the church and the world are treated as second-class citizens are totally ignored. This is scandalous in the church and in the world. All because a small minority with a large powerful Western voice are obsessed with pushing this issue. I have no problems with this issue being talked about and studied, as the Holy Father has rightly said. But at the cost of the dignity of women in the church and in the world? Absolutely not.
The bishop seemed to imply a causal link between promoting the discernment of women deacons and the exclusion and oppression of women in the Global South. I don’t know of any evidence for such a correlation. But in the context of the synod, we might interpret the bishop’s remarks as referring to the more prominent space given to the topic of women and the diaconate inside the assembly and in the media, at the expense of other pressing issues facing women around the world. But that would seem to be at odds with the statements of most of the synod delegates who have appeared at the press briefings or given interviews and have spoken about the profound mutual listening and communion that has shaped their experience.
There are indeed Catholics in North America and Europe who believe the discernment of women deacons is crucial in the context of a burgeoning synodal church. We should be aware and critical of such expressions if they become obsessive and pushy to the point of marginalizing other voices, particularly those of women. But Sister Laura Vicuña Pereira Manso and Rosella Kinoshameg are not wealthy, powerful, obsessive Westerners. They are the very women Bishop Randazzo is rightly concerned about: poor, Indigenous women struggling for the survival of their marginalized communities and the land in the face of colonialism, Western power and exploitation. At this stage of the discernment, we might ponder if the categorization of women deacons as a “Western obsession” has itself in some ways become a Western obsession.
This three-year Synod on Synodality has been enormously enlightening for Catholics around the world. At first, we might have expected the call for the discernment of women deacons to come exclusively from North America and Europe. To the surprise of many, it has also come from Latin America and the Amazon, Africa and other communities across the Global South. God always surprises, as Pope Francis likes to say.
I don’t intend to make the case for women deacons. For a good primer on the state of the question, I encourage you to view and share America’s new video explainer. But, more importantly, these two recent parallel events a few kilometers apart in Rome highlight where we are on the long synodal journey. They are part of a snapshot in time of a church that is discovering itself in all its rich diversity and unexpected commonalities. We are learning to listen to each other, and through listening, we are realizing how much more listening needs to be done.
More Synod Diaries:
