Hollerich: "The Synod has not raised the issue of women's ordination, because not everyone has raised it"

Among the testimonies at the press conference for the presentation of the Instrumentum laboris of the second session of the Synod on synodality, there could not be missing that of the Jesuit Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, rapporteur general of the XVI Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops.

We asked the Luxembourg cardinal to elaborate on some of the document's themes, from ecclesiology to the co-responsibility of lay people, including the Church's evangelising mission and the common path, based on baptism, with other Churches and Christian communities.
Your Eminence, where do we start? How has the Instrumentum laboris, which has been presented today, been constructed in comparison with previous documents, such as the Synthesis Report and the Instrumentum laboris of the first session?

The working instrument is not made from scratch. We have the Synthesis Report of the first session, then we have again the reactions of all the Churches. It is a theological reflection on what was said in the first session. And all together it forms the Instrumentum laboris , which is a working instrument, not the result of the Synod. At the beginning of the Synod, the members have their ideas, and the Instrumentum laboris is made to stimulate the necessary debates during the session of the Synod.

For the mission, the Church needs lay people. There is much talk about responsibility and the appreciation of lay people. What can we expect in this regard?

Yes, certainly. The Church is not a Church of clerics, the Church is a Church of the baptized. Women and men, we are all called by God to proclaim the Gospel and to form the Church. Therefore, everyone must participate and share responsibility in the proclamation of the Gospel. This does not mean that ordained ministries, bishops and priests, are abandoned, but that they find their full meaning in a synodal Church.

To what extent can lay people be held responsible?

For the laity, there is no difference for the Church, as regards participation and co-responsibility between men and women. Everything is open to women and men. We already saw this when the Pope opened the lay ministries of acolyte and lector to women, and then in the new ministry of catechist there is equality between women and men.

The Synod did not raise the question of the priestly ordination of women, because not everyone has raised it. There have been some local Churches that have raised the question of the diaconate of women, and there is a commission to deepen theological reflection on this point, to better understand what the diaconate is, which is participation in an ordained ministry, but not a priestly one, but one of service. So the secnd question, after this reflection, would be whether this ordained ministry can be open to women. But this is part of a process and we must not think that all the processes have ended with this session of the Synod. The Church will advance in a synodal manner, the People of God will go through history in a synodal manner. And there will be questions to be answered.

Does walking together in a synodal manner also mean working with sister Churches, and therefore in terms of ecumenical relations?

It is obvious, because if we are the People of God, and we are the people of the baptized, we also have baptism in other Churches and Christian communities, and we respect that baptism and those Churches and we love them. And we see that the Holy Spirit is also active in those Churches.

This task of evangelizing the world is therefore a task common to all the Churches. We must proclaim the Gospel to the world together, in our diversity. And I believe that the fraternal delegates of the other Christian confessions have also been very open at this Synod. For their part, there is a greater demand for participation, and this means that they too feel involved.