WelCom June/July 2024
Pope Francis has expressed firm opposition to the idea of ordaining Catholic women as deacons, raising doubts about the possibility that the ongoing three-year synodal process could move forward on the issue. In a CBS 60 Minutes programme, which aired in May, Pope Francis said he was not open to the sacramental ordination of women as deacons. He added, however, that ‘women have always had, I would say, the function of deaconesses without being deacons, right? Women are of great service as women, not as ministers, as ministers in this regard, within the Holy Orders’.