Catholic leaders demand transparency from Vatican office conducting secretive “study of women”

Immediate release: Monday, July 29th 2024

(The below is a copy of the letter sent to the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith)

Dear Monsignor Armando Matteo,

We are writing as leaders of worldwide associations of Catholics deeply committed to the implementation of synodality throughout the Catholic Church, to ask for the publication of the criteria and procedure of selection, as well as the names of the members, of Study Group 5 on “Some theological and canonical issues around specific ministerial forms”.

At the end of the Press Conference of 09/07/2024 which presented the Instrumentum laboris for the October 2024 session of the Synod on Synodality, the names were published of the members of fourteen of the fifteen study groups which will investigate some of the issues which emerged during the October 2023 Synod gathering.

The only study group whose names were not and have not so far been published is the above mentioned Study Group 5 which deals, among other things, with the possibility of restoring the diaconate for women.

Instead, the press release specified that that study group has been entrusted entirely to the Dicastery of the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF), “according to the procedures established in its own Rules of Procedure with a view to the publication of an appropriate document”.

What that statement omits is that those Rules of Procedure -presumably the Regolamento proprio della Congregazione per la Dottrina della Fede (Regolamento proprio) dated October 1995 – have never been published: they are to this day still secret.

Both past experience and what we know from other published canonical rules pertaining to the DDF, do not bode well for transparency. And since it has been deemed necessary to examine the question of women’s inclusion in such an environment of secrecy, we believe that this is a breach of your obligations to Catholic constituents who have the right to know why women continue to be excluded and deserve to have full disclosure of the discussions taking place.

The publicly accessible Rules of Procedure of the DDF specifically for doctrinal examinations have long been criticised for their disregard of the fundamental right to, and basic requirements of, a fair trial as set out in international law (UDHR Arts. 8-11, complemented by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights [ICCPR, 1966] Art. 14).

Among the infringements most relevant to present purposes are the fact that proceedings of all doctrinal examinations are to be closed to the public (in breach of UDHR Art. 10-11 which mandates proceedings to be public) and, more crucially still, there is no requirement that either the prosecution or any external expert be independent from the judges: their selection is left entirely at the discretion of members of the DDF. It appears that the same procedure is now being applied to Study Group 5, with the DDF given full discretion to hand-pick its members in secrecy, without making them public.

Similarly, the past record of the DDF does not inspire confidence. Since 2016, the DDF has hand-picked and overseen three successive study groups on the subject of women deacons: every time, their members were made public, although – crucially – they were chosen entirely by and at the discretion of the DDF, without providing any rationale or criteria for their selection, and their reports have been kept secret.

To this day, the findings, arguments and reasoning of those three commissions have not been made public. Again, it is not superfluous to recall that the same happened for two earlier study commissions on women deacons overseen by the then Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, in 1973 and 1992–97. In short, of the six such pontifical study commissions on women deacons since 1973, only one has published its findings.

To sum up: the recently published Instrumentum laboris states in its introduction that “These study groups, made up of pastors and experts from all continents, use a synodal working method” (emphasis added).

However, the DDF is still keeping secret:

1. the selection procedure (including the selection criteria) of the members,
2. the names of the members themselves, and
3. the final reports or, if no agreed statement was reached, the various contributions informing the work of the previous commissions,

This is deeply disrespectful to the People of God and makes a mockery of synodality. According to the Instrumentum laboris 2 (76), “If the synodal Church wants to be welcoming, then accountability and transparency must be at the core of its action at all levels, not only at the level of authority…those in positions of authority must be concerned with how the Church respects the dignity of the human person, for example, regarding the working conditions within its institutions.”

The issue of the role of women in ministry, including ordained ministry, is absolutely crucial to faithfulness to the gospel and the common good of the church, and its examination needs to be as rigorous and independent as possible.

Accordingly, we ask the DDF:

1. to publish as soon as possible the selection criteria and procedure, as well as the names of the members of Study Group 5;
2. to ensure that their findings are made public as soon as they are available; and
3. to start an open worldwide consultation of Catholics, including Catholic academic and professional associations, on reforming its own regulations for selecting external experts, with the goal of bringing it up to the best standards of openness and transparency adopted by civil society.

As a recent example, the “Proposed Constitution for the Catholic Church” coordinated by the Wijngaards Institute for Catholic Research and signed by more than sixty canon lawyers, bible scholars, church historians, and theologians, suggested that external expert advisors:

“shall be selected via an open and transparent peer-review process, whose criteria for selection must include relevant expertise, lack of conflict of interests, independence from church representatives and church leaders, and good standing within the relevant scientific community” (Art. 72).

Catholics have a fundamental right to education and to information, particularly concerning an issue, such as that of the role of women in ministry, of such import for the common good of the church. Such an inalienable right, based on their dignity, cannot be set aside with the excuse that to make public the debate on contentious theological issues could “scandalise” some of them.

We take this occasion to express our consideration and esteem in Christ.

Dr Luca Badini Confaloneri, Academic Director, Wijngaards Institute for Catholic Research

Co-signatories:

Catholic Church Reform International

Catholic Women’s Council

Catholic Women’s Ordination

Root & Branch Community for Reform (UK and International)

Spirit Unbounded

We are Church International

Women’s Ordination Worldwide

Contact:

Miriam Duignan (Executive Director): T +44 7970 926910 E miriam.duignan@wijngaardsinstitute.com

Dr. Luca Badini Confalonieri (Academic Director): T: + 44 7446 283699 E luca.badini@wijngaardsinstitute.com

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John Wijngaards, What They Don’t Teach You in Catholic College: Women in the priesthood and the mind of Christ, (Lafayette, Acadian House Publishing, 2020), hb, 216 pp, ISBN: 978-0999588444, £16.99. Also available as Amazon Kindle ebook, £7.99.

This short book with a very long title is most timely. The subject-the ordination of women-may still be taboo in ‘Catholic college’, but it is now widely and openly discussed among Catholics, with several recent books bringing substantial theological and historical support to the debate in favour of change. This author, however, began arguing the case for women ministerial priests nearly fifty years ago and has maintained his position consistently through the long years when the subject was explicitly declared ‘off-limits’. The book is an account of his campaign (which cost him his ministerial priesthood) as well as a cogent presentation of the case.

The essential reason the institutional Church gives for rejecting women’s ordination, according to Wijngaards, is that Jesus wanted it so. On the contrary, he argues, not only is that argument unfounded in Scripture, there is ample evidence that Christ-the risen Jesus-wants women to be able to serve as ministerial priests in our time. The constant ‘tradition’ of exclusion reflects ‘human preferences and customs’, not the mind of Christ.

After detailing the historical facts of women’s exclusion, he shows that this boils down to ‘cultural prejudice’-the innate inferiority of women—or dubious theology-woman not being created fully in the image of God, or of the male Jesus. The mediaeval Church, including Aquinas, combined both. Dismissing such outdated notions, our author then argues that Jesus, though, as a man, subject to the knowledge and culture of his time, ‘never meant his choice of just men for the twelve apostles to establish a permanent rule’; indeed Scripture, particularly the writings of Luke, contains ‘clear pointers’ to Jesus’ openness to women’s ‘full participation in Holy Orders’. Priesthood, as Christ intended it and Hebrews describes it, is based on love and service; it does not ‘include a requirement of gender’.

Moreover, despite official opposition, the faithful have consistently believed a woman could be a ministerial priest; it is implicit in much Marian devotion. Now, in the twenty-first century, the sensusfidelium is clearly in favour. However constant and forceful traditional opposition may be in this case, the Church’s long-held position on equally major questions has changed: witness slavery, nulla salus, etc. Wijngaards concludes: ‘It is time for the Church to listen to what Jesus Christ really wants’.

Useful appendices include relevant papal documents and a ‘timeline’ of key dates.

Though brief, this book presents a very well-researched, most readable and compelling case, based on a lifetime of serious study. Well worth the 3 hours and 36 minutes which Kindle says it will take to read.

The post Review of Wijngaards’ book in RENEW appeared first on Wijngaards Institute for Catholic Research.

1. Recognise that the SOURCE for women’s openness to ordination lies not in emancipation but in baptism.
2. Understand Rome’s arguments for its ban on women priests and know how to refute them.
3. Be familiar with the theological reasons for ordaining women.
4. Create opportunities to educate people for change.
5. Make women visible in church.
6. Support integrity in the Church and voices of protest.
7. Jesus Christs wants also women in the priesthood, not just men. Proclaim it!

Two related useful diagrams can be found here:

Arguments of church authorities

Arguments of modern theologians

Read also my latest book:

John Wijngaards, WHAT THEY DON’T TEACH YOU IN CATHOLIC COLLEGE. Women in the priesthood and the mind of Christ, Acadian House Publishing, Lafayette USA 2020.

The post Seven strategies to promote women’s ordination appeared first on Wijngaards Institute for Catholic Research.

by John Wijngaards, Acadian House Lafayette, Louisiana USA 2020

review by Jackie Clackson in NETWORK. Journal for all women interested in spirituality, theology, ministry and liturgy, Spring Issue No 146, March 2021, p. 23.

John Wijngaards shows how in the Church there is still so much outmoded tradition which is clearly in need of reform. In this readable book, which I heartily recommend, he draws upon personal experience as well as theological scholarship to get to the depths of this question: Can women be ordained priests in our church of today? His resounding ‘Yes’ comes through from his efforts to explore the mind of Jesus during his life and how it is manifested in our Christian sense of faith.

The book highlights the role of cultural prejudice against the full humanity of women throughout tradition over the years; the stories showing Jesus’ regard for women, as found in scripture; the devotion for many centuries to Mary as Priest; the ordination of women to the diaconate during the first millennium; the hardening of Vatican opposition in the light of the ecumenical ordination of women. He describes the church’s disastrous error in its constant teaching on slavery. Is it not obvious, he asks, that the church hierarchy is equally wrong in forbidding the ordination of women to the priesthood?

We can be really moved by the vision of Jesus as a person of his day who has no
prejudice against any person he met. The woman at the well came at a time when
she knew no one else would be around and be scandalised by his sharing this
space with a ‘fallen woman’. But we see that on the contrary, Jesus, who just
happened to be there at the time she came to collect her share of water, had no
illusions about her way of life, and treated her in a friendly way just as he related to everyone else!

From the beginning, Christian baptism has been given in the same way to women and men, thus showing equality in the way we share Christ’s priesthood in principle. It was only later that a hierarchy in the Church grew up to demand new rules and regulations – and especially to create a disparity by insisting on difference in the kind of calling and service women and men may take up in the Church.

This book will help people understand the background to many of the underlying prejudices and misinformation which the hierarchical system in the Church has been teaching us all for so long! Nowadays we clearly recognise, as is pointed out in Chapter 2, that ‘having women in the priesthood would greatly increase the positive
impact that the Universal Church has on the world.’

In short: easy to digest and powerful in content, like a plate of pink salmon served with Brussels sprouts! The book has enjoyed good reviews in Ireland, the USA, Spain and the Netherlands with more expected to follow.

Jackie Clackson

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NEW WOMAN – ME!  no 13

caught up as I am
in the maelstrom of events,
an as yet undecided
head-on collision
of conflicting emotions
is erupting in me —
the force of the fire which is the source
of the struggle for my basic rights
also feeds the asphyxiating smoke
of hate and aggression

helped by the chill
of indifference in me
my passion to survive whole and intact
is fighting
to control the fire

as long as there remains
a sufficiently warming
spark of love in me
I will not give a chance
to the asphyxiating smoke
of lethal aggression

© Tina van Lieshout
translation John Wijngaards

MEDITATIONS

desert journey three selves in me me broken in pieces male and female my choice irrepressible thrust the money dragon and the religion dragon evolving identity women carry the church

the force of time I accuse women I accuse men my inner struggle past present future my dream and God saw that it was very good phallus worship on the way

Tina van Lieshout was a Dutch Catholic woman who felt called to the priesthood. Her diocese refused her admission to the priestly formation programme which she challenged in high-profile court cases. She lost. Being both a gifted artist and poet, she described her despair in a series of paintings and meditations. But she also expressed through them her determination to realise her potential as a free and equal person.  Her work was published in the Dutch book Ook in de Naam van de Moeder en de Dochter [= ‘Also in the Name of the Mother and the Daughter’], Wilco, Amersfoort 2000. She died in 2010.

The post Tina meditation my inner struggle appeared first on Wijngaards Institute for Catholic Research.

NEW WOMAN – ME!  no 9

“handling the heavy body of the church”, the bishop’s vicar general said,
“is a man’s job;
you may pray”

“the priesthood”, the vicar general told me,
“is a man’s job;
you serve God in a different way
you protect young life and nourish it
you see to it that all is ready on the table
that everything is whole and tidy
you maintain and clean the church
but being a priest is a man’s job”

but we, women of this time,
we spread our frozen wings
the one after the other we will fly away
and the heavy body will in the course of time
feel no ground under its heavy feet

© Tina van Lieshout
translation John Wijngaards

Historical note: Remember Tina belonged to a farming community. In this painting Tina portrays the Church as a bull. Bulls are notoriously heavy, fierce and unpredictable. Only the strongest farmhands can handle them.

MEDITATIONS

desert journey three selves in me me broken in pieces male and female my choice irrepressible thrust the money dragon and the religion dragon evolving identity women carry the church

the force of time I accuse women I accuse men my inner struggle past present future my dream and God saw that it was very good phallus worship on the way

Tina van Lieshout was a Dutch Catholic woman who felt called to the priesthood. Her diocese refused her admission to the priestly formation programme which she challenged in high-profile court cases. She lost. Being both a gifted artist and poet, she described her despair in a series of paintings and meditations. But she also expressed through them her determination to realise her potential as a free and equal person.  Her work was published in the Dutch book Ook in de Naam van de Moeder en de Dochter [= ‘Also in the Name of the Mother and the Daughter’], Wilco, Amersfoort 2000. She died in 2010.

The post tina meditation women carry the church appeared first on Wijngaards Institute for Catholic Research.

NEW WOMAN – ME!  no 5

I am a free woman
even though I have made my choice
nothing has been decided by me – has it?
I could still say “no”….
disappear from the limelight
into an eternal forgetting

however, I myself
have already been chosen,
my destiny has been decided
I must keep saying “yes”,
for all to see and in the limelight
to shoulder the task entrusted to me

© Tina van Lieshout
translation John Wijngaards

Historical note:  Tina came from a simple farmer’s family in Brabant. I believe that Tina wrote this poem when she finally decided to take the Church to court, first before a county magistrate, then on national level in the Netherlands, and finally at the European Court of Human Rights.  John Wijngaards

MEDITATIONS

desert journey three selves in me me broken in pieces male and female my choice irrepressible thrust the money dragon and the religion dragon evolving identity women carry the church

the force of time I accuse women I accuse men my inner struggle past present future my dream and God saw that it was very good phallus worship on the way

Tina van Lieshout was a Dutch Catholic woman who felt called to the priesthood. Her diocese refused her admission to the priestly formation programme which she challenged in high-profile court cases. She lost. Being both a gifted artist and poet, she described her despair in a series of paintings and meditations. But she also expressed through them her determination to realise her potential as a free and equal person.  Her work was published in the Dutch book Ook in de Naam van de Moeder en de Dochter [= ‘Also in the Name of the Mother and the Daughter’], Wilco, Amersfoort 2000. She died in 2010.

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NEW WOMAN – ME!  no 15

the woman fled to the desert
where she finds a place prepared for her by God
to be nourished there
for twelve hundred and sixty days (Revelation 12,6)
words from a far past, so often heard
so frequently read
as if it were a different reality
until I suddenly see how the present,
in spite of all misery and powerlessness,
is growing into this apocalypse

and it seems that now the counting of times in revelation
has come to pass,
that if we women want to free ourselves
from our life in the desert
we will have to find our own way
with creativity and dynamic energy
to a new personal experience of God
after ‘one time and two times and a half time’ (Revelation 12,14b)

as for me, that moment has come

© Tina van Lieshout
translation John Wijngaards

Note – Chapter 12 in the book of Revelations describes the struggle between the woman and the dragon, a struggle during which the woman eventually escapes from the dragon. Tina obviously applies this to herself.

Revelation 12,5-6 reads: “The woman gave birth to a son, a male child, who ‘will rule all the nations with an iron sceptre.’ And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne. The woman fled into the wilderness to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days.”

The text in Revelations 12,13-14 reads: “When the dragon saw that he had been hurled to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. The woman was given the two wings of a great eagle, so that she might fly to the place prepared for her in the wilderness, where she would be taken care of for a time, two times and half a time, out of the serpent’s reach.”

MEDITATIONS

desert journey three selves in me me broken in pieces male and female my choice irrepressible thrust the money dragon and the religion dragon evolving identity women carry the church

the force of time I accuse women I accuse men my inner struggle past present future my dream and God saw that it was very good phallus worship on the way

Tina van Lieshout was a Dutch Catholic woman who felt called to the priesthood. Her diocese refused her admission to the priestly formation programme which she challenged in high-profile court cases. She lost. Being both a gifted artist and poet, she described her despair in a series of paintings and meditations. But she also expressed through them her determination to realise her potential as a free and equal person.  Her work was published in the Dutch book Ook in de Naam van de Moeder en de Dochter [= ‘Also in the Name of the Mother and the Daughter’], Wilco, Amersfoort 2000. She died in 2010.

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NEW WOMAN – ME!  no 17

every time again confused spirals of thought
from a complacent church leadership
collide ferociously against my indignant soul
deeming themselves infallible and showing no scruples
this leadership announces God’s predilection for the male
a male ‘God has created like himself’

my fantasy and my feeling of wounded self-respect create an image
— in analogy to the biblical golden calf —
of the pope devoutly kneeling before the gilded phallus
as counter pole I see my own experience of God
it rehabilitates my relationship to ‘God–with-us’

in creative freedom I picture to myself from biblical texts
how God’s presence shows itself
hidden at plain day light in a column of cloud
as a column of fire in the darkness of night

© Tina van Lieshout
translation John Wijngaards

Biblical Note 

God led his people out of Egypt through the desert: “The LORD went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and night. He did not deprive his people from the pillar of the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night.” (Exodus 13,21-22)

But Aaron made a golden calf for the people. “The Lord said to Moses, ‘Your people, whom you brought up out of Egypt, have become corrupt. They have made themselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf. They bow down to it and sacrifice to it and say, ‘This is your god, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt’.” (Exodus 32,7-8)

MEDITATIONS

desert journey three selves in me me broken in pieces male and female my choice irrepressible thrust the money dragon and the religion dragon evolving identity women carry the church

the force of time I accuse women I accuse men my inner struggle past present future my dream and God saw that it was very good phallus worship on the way

Tina van Lieshout was a Dutch Catholic woman who felt called to the priesthood. Her diocese refused her admission to the priestly formation programme which she challenged in high-profile court cases. She lost. Being both a gifted artist and poet, she described her despair in a series of paintings and meditations. But she also expressed through them her determination to realise her potential as a free and equal person.  Her work was published in the Dutch book Ook in de Naam van de Moeder en de Dochter [= ‘Also in the Name of the Mother and the Daughter’], Wilco, Amersfoort 2000. She died in 2010.

The post Tina meditation phallus worship appeared first on Wijngaards Institute for Catholic Research.

NEW WOMAN – ME!  no 17

every time again confused spirals of thought
from a complacent church leadership
collide ferociously against my indignant soul
deeming themselves infallible and showing no scruples
this leadership announces God’s predilection for the male
for a male ‘God – He – has created like himself’

my fantasy and my feeling of wounded self-respect created an image
— in analogy to the biblical golden calf —
of the pope devoutly kneeling before the gilded phallus

as counter pole I see my own experience of God
it rehabilitates my relationship to ‘God–with-us’
in creative freedom I picture to myself from biblical texts
how God shows Herself present
hidden in plain day light
as a column of cloud
as a column of fire in the darkness of night

© Tina van Lieshout
translation John Wijngaards

—

MEDITATIONS

desert journey me broken in pieces male and female irrepressible energy evolving identity

the face of time I accuse woman past present future phallus worship my dream

—

Tina van Lieshout was a Dutch Catholic woman who felt called to the priesthood. Her diocese refused her admission to the priestly formation programme which she challenged in a high-profile court case. She lost. Being both a gifted artist and poet, she described her despair in a series of paintings and meditations. But she also expressed through them her determination to realise her potential as a free and equal person  Her work was published in the Dutch book Ook in de Naam van de Moeder en de Dochter [= ‘Also in the Name of the Mother and the Daughter’], Wilco, Amersfoort 2000. She died in 2010.

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