In the context of the process of listening to the Synod of the Amazon, in January 2019 about thirty women from six Amazonian countries were invited to contribute to it. It was the origin of the REPAM Women’s Nucleus, which has been enriched with new participants and is now focused on concretizing and giving life to the proposals that emerged from the Synod of the Amazon. No. 103 of the Final Document of the Synod of the Amazon makes mention of the Study Commission for the Diaconate of Women and states : “We would therefore like to share our experiences and reflections with the Commission and we await its results.”
From this manifest interest, one of the commissions of the Women’s Nucleus REPAM is focused on the reflection on women’s diaconate and new ministries. I am fortunate to have been part of the REPAM Women’s Nucleus since its inception, when I lived in Ecuador, and my move to Canada did not sever the ties. In fact, I coordinate the diaconate and new ministries commission. In the process, a group of women from the USA« , “Discerning Deacons” », that reflects on the same topic, contacted us and since then, we have been collaborating and mutually enriching one another. Together, we organized a listening forum for the Ecclesial Assembly of Latin America and the Caribbean on the specific theme of the diaconate of women. It was a very rich forum and a good part of its content has been collected in the Narrative Synthesis of the listening process that will be the basis for the reflection of the assembly.
On the schedule of Discerning Deacons was the trip of a delegation to Rome on the occasion of the opening of the Synod of Synodality. To our surprise, the diaconate commission of the Women’s Nucleus REPAM was invited to join them.
Six women traveled to Rome from October 7-14 : Ellie Hidalgo, Casey Stanton and Lisa Amman from Discerning Deacons, and Dorismeire A. de Vasconcelos, Ciria Mees and Mariángel Marco from Women’s Nucleus REPAM. Our objective : to put the diakonia issue of women on the table for dialogue.
In this newly launched process towards the synod of synodality, Pope Francis highlights three key words : encounter, listening, discernment. We gathered in Rome from four different countries : Canada, the United States, Bolivia and Brazil. We brought with us the hopes of many women who made us feel sent, and the encounter between us was fruitful, bourgeoning. Our own pains and hopes united us ; our urgency to be the voice of so many was reinforced.
We lived an intense time of listening, overcoming the difficulties of the three languages in which we expressed ourselves (English, Spanish, Portuguese), listening to each other from the heart. And we claim to be listened to, because that is where the Church is in deficit. One of the questions that the preparatory document proposes is : To whom, within the Church, do we need to listen ? Undoubtedly, women are among those « to whom ». In Rome we were well received.
When we mentioned in the Dicastery for Christian Unity that the mere mention of the topic of the role of women in the Church provokes tension, it causes anxious faces, they commented that everyone becomes nervous when there are no answers. They encouraged us to take every opportunity to bring up the subject and to generate dialogue, not to be discouraged by the reactions against it, because the Church needs this dialogue. As they told us in the UISG (International Union of Superiors General), resistance comes from fear, but we have to ask ourselves where those fears come from, because sometimes the fears are false.
We feel called to contribute to this process of synodal discernment that has just begun. Discernment is only possible if it is done without prejudice, without conditions. The Pope said in his homily at the opening of the Synod : when we listen with the heart, the other person does not feel judged. The attitude of listening is love. And he invited us not to entrap ourselves in our certainties. The theologian Cristina Inogés said in the opening speech of the synod that on many occasions fidelity demands changes.
At the public audience on Wednesday, October 13, where we had the great fortune to greet him personally, the Pope reminded us that “we must renounce, not tradition, but that which contradicts the Gospel”. He insisted that we must have a dynamic vision of tradition.
This urges us to dialogue together on the service, participation and leadership of women in the Church. The issue of the diaconate for women is certainly an issue to be taken into account. As we discussed in Rome, there is ample literary, epigraphic and historical evidence that women deacons exercised their ministry in the West until the twelfth century. Diaconal functions are the Word, liturgy and charity. The dogmatic constitution Lumen Gentium makes it clear that ordination to the diaconate is for ministry, not for priesthood. There is no activity named in Lumen Gentium that a woman has not performed or cannot perform. Women are also called to public preaching. The fact that only men can give homilies is an ownership of the Spirit. We question, “why is it” and “when will this reality change ?” As the preparatory document for the synod states, " the Church will be able to learn through Her experience which processes can help Her to live communion, to achieve participation, to open Herself to mission.”
Service and synodality go hand in hand. You can count on us.