“There is no going back!” That is the message I am hearing from many delegates during the final week of the Synod on Synodality as they refine the proposals of the draft final document.

Recognizing the doctrinal authority of bishops’ conferences does not mean allowing them to reject the teaching authority of the pope, said the head of the Vatican Dicastery for Bishops.

There has been an alarming lack of transparency around the work of the synod’s ‘Study Group 5,’ tasked with examining, among other things, the subject of women deacons.

A lot of people have sacrificed much to participate in the synod meetings. Who wants to come away with little to show from it?

Perhaps it seems foolish to put so much stock in one mother’s cry for help. But then again, the cries of our forefathers and foremothers have been central to our faith for centuries.

“We know that the Holy Father has expressed that at this time the issue of the female diaconate is not mature and has asked that we not entertain this possibility for now,” Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández told the synod Oct. 21.