Presentation of a booklet in the Herder Thema series entitled "God's strong daughters" hosted at the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany to the Holy See

VATICAN

German Embassy to Holy See presents book on role of women in the Church

The German Embassy to the Holy See holds a presentation to mark the publication of a booklet by the Herder-Verlag, entitled “God's Strong Daughters – Women and Offices in Catholicism Worldwide,” focusing on the ongoing Synod on synodality and the "question of women’s rights.”

By Stefanie Stahlhofen

In a special issue of Herder-Verlag, a German publication, published last autumn, 36 women and three men provided information on the situation of women in the Church in various countries of the world.

One of the authors is the Chilean theologian Catalina Cerda-Planas. She is a research associate at the Institute for World Church and Mission (IWM) in St. Georgen in Frankfurt, which has conducted a global study on the topic of women and ordained ministries.

The question of a possible ordination of female deacons is to be discussed by a new study group.

"I believe the diaconate could be a topic where the various local Churches would have the freedom to consider whether it fits their pastoral needs or not. If we had different measures or rules for different local churches in certain areas, then we could make progress on issues such as the female diaconate, I believe," Ms. Cerda-Planas said in an interview with Vatican News.

Bishop Gmür on Women in the Service of the Church

Bishop Felix Gmür of Basel, the President of the Swiss Bishops' Conference, also sees significant local differences on the issue and therefore advocates for different solutions.

"For Western European cultures, or certainly the cultures present in Switzerland, it is not a question that women should have the same opportunities in the service of the Church as men,” he said. “I feel this again and again. Bringing this to Rome, however, is not an easy matter. What I appreciate is the decentralization: everything does not need to be regulated uniformly everywhere. I cannot predict the future. But the topic of decentralization is on the agenda, and so are women - as a cross-cutting theme, so to speak: women are not only present when it comes to services and ministries, whatever those services and ministries may be, but also in mission, in the transmission of faith, in building the Body of Christ. Women are involved everywhere.”

As a representative of the Swiss Bishops' Conference, Bishop Gmür will once again participate in the second session of the Synod General Assembly at the Vatican in October 2024.

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