After four and a half years, the synod on synodality concluded last month. The 40-page summary document was a tour de force, touching on ecumenical dialogue, religious disaffection, the church’s moral teachings, pastoral prudence and living tradition.
A new ecclesial language has emerged. Words like synodality, synaxis, co-responsibility, and parrhesia are now part of my vocabulary. In so many ways, the synod has been thought-provoking and renewing.
One disappointment I have, however, is the particular obsession with one aspect of the synod — the role of women — in its general reception. This is not universal, of course, but many news stories treat this as the breakout topic of the synod. For example, a major Catholic news outlet recently published this headline: “Women Deacons, ‘Sexuality’ and More: Here’s How the Synod Final Document Changed From the Draft.”
Dialogue around controversial issues is important. However, I feel that too often this dialogue frames women’s leadership in the Church as a potentiality — something to be hoped for in a distant, brighter future.
I understand this is a hot topic. I have been asked about it endlessly. I will not attempt here to unpack any theological, historical or pastoral arguments, but I will share some brief reflections about how it feels to have this topic swirling in headlines and constantly backgrounding my life in ecclesial ministry.
For me and perhaps for some other women, this discourse brings a feeling of erasure, because it is based on a presumption that there is insufficient female leadership in the Church today, or that this leadership is somehow incomplete without the possibility of ordination. That minimizes and overlooks the work of so many women who are currently running the Church at this very hour. We are already here.
For example, many of the major agencies of the Archdiocese of Louisville are led by women, including such public-facing departments as communications, worship, mission advancement and Catholic schools. Look at your parish’s organizational structure; you will probably find something similar.
Wherever decisions are made and the work of Kingdom-building takes place, you will find women who are the brilliant, influential change-makers in our Catholic organizations.
An over-focus on ordination reduces the concept of leadership to nothing more than a stole on the shoulders, chrism on the hands and the ability to confect the sacraments. This is demonstrably false if one only cares to look at the inner workings of a parish or diocese. To believe in this falsehood only serves to further entrench clerical elitism. I don’t need a collar to lead the Church. Neither does anyone.
In my opinion, a better strategy for elevating women in Church leadership is to more clearly foreground the influence that they already exercise. They should be on boards and committees at the highest level, and their names and faces should be as well-known as the pastor’s or the bishop’s — not precisely because they are women, but because they are leaders.
The Synod itself has been a good model in this regard. I sincerely hope that future discourse about women in the Church moves in that direction.
