{"id":20710,"date":"2024-10-09T00:00:42","date_gmt":"2024-10-09T04:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/discerningdeacons.org\/?p=20710"},"modified":"2025-03-27T12:46:07","modified_gmt":"2025-03-27T16:46:07","slug":"called-to-remain-open-to-a-wider-participation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/discerningdeacons.org\/es\/called-to-remain-open-to-a-wider-participation\/","title":{"rendered":"Llamados a permanecer abiertos a una participaci\u00f3n m\u00e1s amplia"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cThese ten [study] groups\u2026are called to remain open to a wider participation, that of the entire people of God.\u201d – Cardinal Mario Grech, Secretary General for the Synod of Bishops<\/em><\/p>\n

I whooped at our breakfast table yesterday when I read this update on the official Instagram account for the Vatican synod office.<\/p>\n

Since the Vatican announced back in March that some of the most complex and controversial topics raised around the world during the synod would henceforth be managed primarily in ten study groups rather than in October\u2019s synod assembly,\u00a0this\u00a0<\/em>is what we at Discerning Deacons and women and men around the world have been asking for, hoping for, and praying for:\u00a0that the study groups conduct their work in a synodal manner that takes into account the lived experiences of the People of God.<\/strong>\u00a0And here I was, scarfing down a ham and cheese omelet between meetings at a cafe no more than a fifteen minute walk from the synod hall, blurting out the good news to Casey, Ellie, and Lisa: they\u00a0listened!<\/em><\/p>\n

While we expect that more detailed instructions on submitting contributions are forthcoming, in the video shared to\u00a0Facebook<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Instagram<\/a>, Cardinal Grech gave an initial sense of what we can expect in terms of process:\u00a0\u201c\u200b\u200bIt will be possible for everyone, for all, to send contributions, observations, proposals\u2014pastors and church leaders, but also\u2026every believer, man or woman, every group, association, movement, community, will be able to participate with their own contribution.\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0He further explained that the General Secretariat of the Synod \u201cwill collect this material received and transmit it from time to time to the group or groups concerned.\u201d<\/p>\n

This announcement comes on the heels of Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez\u2019s announcement last week on behalf of Study Group 5 (the synod study group responsible for questions related to ministry, including women deacons) that the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith had deemed \u201cthat there is still no room for a positive decision by the magisterium regarding the access of women to the diaconate, understood as a degree of the sacrament of holy orders,\u201d noting that Pope Francis \u201cdoes not consider the question mature.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s important to note, even in what may at first blush seem to be a straightforwardly discouraging statement from Cardinal Fernandez, that\u00a0the door remains open<\/em><\/strong>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

If the discernment about the question of the diaconate is not yet mature, we would like to support the process of its maturation.<\/strong><\/p>\n

And with the announcement out of the Vatican synod office today about pathways for broad participation in the working groups, it\u2019s a little bit easier today than it was yesterday to imagine\u00a0how<\/em>\u00a0we might support that maturation.<\/p>\n

We did not arrive in Rome expecting to see women deacons at the end of the month, and we know there is critical work for the assembly to focus on so as to further enshrine structures of participation in the life of our Church.<\/p>\n

The Spirit seems to be up for the task \u2013 swirling in breezes or gales, to renew the Church from the heart of the Vatican, by listening to the witness from those at the peripheries.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Our task remains clear: to journey together, to tell the stories of women who are responding to a call to serve their communities as\u00a0de facto\u00a0<\/em>deacons, to seek the intercession of our patron, St. Phoebe, and to be a partner with our Church leaders as they continue to widen the road so that \u201ctodos, todos, todos\u201d know they belong as part of God\u2019s beloved community, discerning and witnessing together to a God who accompanies and strengthens us on the way.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Pilgrims at San Lorenzo fuori le Mura wear the t-shirts gifted to Pope Francis by Cardinal Pedro Barreto. The t-shirts depict Sts. Clare and Francis and read in Spanish and English, “For every Francis, a Clare.”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cThese ten [study] groups\u2026are called to remain open to a wider participation, that of the entire people of God.\u201d – Cardinal Mario Grech, Secretary General for the Synod of Bishops I whooped at our breakfast table yesterday when I read this update on the official Instagram account for the Vatican synod office. Since the Vatican […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":20711,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"give_campaign_id":0,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[19],"witness-tag":[],"class_list":["post-20710","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-synod"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/discerningdeacons.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20710","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/discerningdeacons.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/discerningdeacons.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discerningdeacons.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discerningdeacons.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20710"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/discerningdeacons.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20710\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20715,"href":"https:\/\/discerningdeacons.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20710\/revisions\/20715"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discerningdeacons.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/discerningdeacons.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discerningdeacons.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discerningdeacons.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20710"},{"taxonomy":"witness-tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discerningdeacons.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/witness-tag?post=20710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}