Vatican City - The Final Report of Study Group No. 5 of the Synod on Synodality, devoted to the participation of women in the life and leadership of the Church, was published this morning. Drafted by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, the text forms part of the process launched between the first and second synodal sessions and brings together work carried out on one of the most debated issues of recent years: the relationship between ministries, decision-making processes, ecclesial authority and the presence of women in Christian communities.
In the first part, the document traces the history of the study group and the method it followed; in the second, it offers a synthesis of the themes that emerged; in the third, it gathers an extensive set of appendices featuring biblical and historical female figures, contemporary testimonies, a reflection on the Marian and Petrine principles, a section on ecclesial potestas, and a survey of the contributions made by Pope Francis and Pope Leo XIV on the subject. The result is a text that does not present itself as a normative measure, but as a working report intended to set out convergences, problems and possible developments.
One of the central points concerns the way the issue is framed. The report states that the participation of women should not be read solely in functional or organisational terms, but within a broader reflection on the nature of the Church, on the reciprocity between man and woman, on Baptism as the foundation of ecclesial dignity, and on the need to distinguish more clearly between what depends on the sacrament of Holy Orders and what may be recognised, entrusted or instituted in other forms. Within this framework, the text insists that the presence of women in ecclesial leadership should not be regarded as a concession, but as a question touching the relational structure of the Christian community.
The report also records a widespread unease. It refers to the growing distance of many women from ecclesial life, disengagement in a number of local settings, the decline in female religious vocations in various contexts, and the call made by women active in pastoral work, theology and canon law to review the current forms of Church leadership. Among the causes identified are clericalism and male chauvinism, described as attitudes that affect the management of power, speech and even ecclesial language. The document speaks of a change of mentality that must be addressed even before the discussion turns to individual roles. On the more technical level, one of the key passages concerns potestas, that is, the power of governance. The text refers to the magisterium of Pope Francis and to the legal framework of Praedicate Evangelium, underlining that some positions of responsibility may also be entrusted to non-ordained members of the faithful. These statements, however, are not justified and stand in clear contrast with the Church’s teaching, which reiterates that the lay faithful may only co-operate, while affirming that only those who have received sacred orders are capable of exercising the power of governance, which in the Church properly belongs by divine institution and is also called the power of jurisdiction.
The document points to the model of women appointed to positions of governance in the Roman Curia and states that there are no grounds, in the mere fact of being a woman, that would prevent the assumption of leadership roles in the Church. That statement is true. This impossibility, in fact, does not arise from being a woman, but from being a laywoman or a religious, that is to say, from not being ordained. The report also invites bishops to make use of all the possibilities already provided for in current law, especially where those spaces remain underused.
Another key issue concerns ministries. The report refers to those already opened to women, such as the ministries of lector, acolyte and catechist, and considers it possible to introduce further instituted figures, also in response to the concrete needs of local Churches. At the same time, it places strong emphasis on the charismatic dimension, namely those stable forms of service which do not coincide with an instituted ministry in the strict sense but arise from charisms recognised in the life of communities. The group proposes greater recognition for tasks of listening, accompaniment, consolation, discernment, animation and pastoral leadership, always through a process of evaluation entrusted to pastors and communities. The question of the female diaconate remains distinct. The report recalls that, already in the early stages of the work, the issue was not considered ripe for a conclusion. At the same time, it notes that the second Study Commission on the Female Diaconate, reactivated by Pope Francis, approved by a large majority a position in favour of widening women’s access to instituted ministries and opening the possibility of new ministries, while leaving pastors to discern the concrete forms these may take. The centre of gravity of the document therefore shifts towards a broader range of forms of female participation in the leadership of communities and in ecclesial processes.
The document dwells on the fact that the issue concerns not only women’s access to an office, but the way in which the Church understands authority, ministeriality, charisms and co-responsibility.
s.T.C.
Silere non possum