Issued by the Wijngaards Institute for Catholic Research
(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:
- the selection procedure (including the selection criteria) of the members,
- the names of the members themselves, and
- 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:
- to publish as soon as possible the selection criteria and procedure, as well as the names of the members of Study Group 5;
- to ensure that their findings are made public as soon as they are available; and
- 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
Dr. Luca Badini Confalonieri (Academic Director): T: + 44 7446 283699 E