{"id":54100,"date":"2022-01-19T13:14:06","date_gmt":"2022-01-19T18:14:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.worldcatholicnews.com\/synod-of-bishops-resources-website-links-to-womens-ordination-group-national-catholic-register\/"},"modified":"2022-01-19T13:14:06","modified_gmt":"2022-01-19T18:14:06","slug":"synod-of-bishops-resources-website-links-to-womens-ordination-group-national-catholic-register","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.worldcatholicnews.com\/synod-of-bishops-resources-website-links-to-womens-ordination-group-national-catholic-register\/","title":{"rendered":"Synod of Bishops\u2019 Resources Website Links to Women\u2019s Ordination Group| National Catholic Register"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The Women\u2019s Ordination Conference, founded in 1975, describes itself as \u201cthe oldest and largest organization working to ordain women as deacons, priests, and bishops.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\n

VATICAN CITY \u2014 A website overseen by the General Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops at the Vatican has linked to a group campaigning for women\u2019s ordination.<\/p>\n

In a post dated Jan. 15, the Synodresources.org website shared information about the Women\u2019s Ordination Conference organization, based in Washington, D.C.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Thierry Bonaventura, communication manager of the General Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops, told CNA on Jan. 19 that the website was not promoting the group.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would rather speak of \u2018sharing,\u2019 as the title of the website,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Bonaventura pointed out that the \u201cAbout\u201d section of Synodresources.org emphasizes that the website is \u201ca tool for listening and a platform for sharing that does not replace the official website of Synod 2021-2023 (synod.va).\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cRather than vertical, top-down communication, it aims to be horizontal communication,\u201d it says.<\/p>\n

The website was previously at the center of controversy after it linked to an LGBT outreach ministry.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Officials at the General Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops removed the link to New Ways Ministry after they became aware that the U.S. bishops\u2019 conference expressed its disapproval of the organization in 2010.<\/p>\n

But following an outcry, they restored the link and issued an apology.<\/p>\n

Synodresources.org also links to the Latin-American Rainbow Catholic community, part of the Global Network of Rainbow Catholics, which says that it \u201cbrings together groups and their members who work for pastoral care and justice for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people and their families.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Women\u2019s Ordination Conference, founded in 1975, describes itself as \u201cthe oldest and largest organization working \u00a0to ordain women as deacons, priests, and bishops.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his 1994 apostolic letter Ordinatio sacerdotalis<\/i>, Pope John Paul II wrote that \u201cthe Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that this judgment is to be definitively held by all the Church\u2019s faithful.\u201d<\/p>\n

During an in-flight press conference in 2016, Pope Francis was asked whether there were likely to be women priests in the Catholic Church in the next few decades.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs for the ordination of women in the Catholic Church, the last clear word was given by St. John Paul II, and this holds,\u201d he replied.<\/p>\n

The Pope has asked two commissions to study the question of a female diaconate in the Catholic Church.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The first, established in 2016, examined the historic question of the role of deaconesses in the early Church but did not reach a consensus.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He instituted a second commission in 2020, following discussion of the female diaconate during the 2019 Amazon synod.<\/p>\n

Pope Francis changed Church law in January 2021 so that women can be formally instituted to the lay ministries of lector and acolyte.<\/p>\n

The General Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops, a permanent institution based at the Vatican in service of the Synod, is currently overseeing what has been called one of the largest consultation exercises in human history, ahead of the 2023 Synod on Synodality.<\/p>\n

A vademecum, or handbook, released by the Vatican in September 2021 urged dioceses to include \u201call the baptized\u201d in the process, including those on the margins of Church life.<\/p>\n

It said: \u201cSpecial care should be taken to involve those persons who may risk being excluded: women, the handicapped, refugees, migrants, the elderly, people who live in poverty, Catholics who rarely or never practice their faith, etc.\u201d.<\/p>\n

A pop-up window on the homepage of Synodresources.org explains that anyone can send material to the site, but not all contributions will be accepted.<\/p>\n

It says: \u201cThe current synodal process is addressed to the entire People of God, to all the baptized. In chapter 2.1 of the Vademecum, we urged dioceses to involve people at risk of exclusion (women, migrants, the elderly or Catholics who rarely or never practice their faith).\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the same time, in order to participate fully in the act of discernment, it is important for the baptized to listen to the voices of other people in their local context, including those who have abandoned the practice of the faith, people from other faith traditions, people who have no religious beliefs at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTherefore, anyone is entitled to send material. At the same time, because we firmly believe that the experience of faith is and must be communitarian, we will only accept contributions that express the views of a group clearly identified. We regret that individual submissions will not be considered.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Vatican announced in May 2021 that the Synod on Synodality would open with a diocesan phase starting in October that year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A second, continental phase will take place from September 2022 to March 2023.<\/p>\n

The third, universal phase will begin with the XVI Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, dedicated to the theme \u201cFor a Synodal Church: Communion, Participation, and Mission,\u201d at the Vatican in October 2023.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n