The first week of the Synod on Synodality session is in the books, and if you’ve been following the media’s account of things, you’d be forgiven for thinking the event is primarily focused on so-called “women’s ordination.”

From the synod session’s Oct. 2 start, it has been near impossible to get through a press conference without a journalist either asking a question related to the topic, or one of the hand-picked synod representatives making a reference to that theme. As a result, a significant number of synod-related headlines and articles highlight “women’s ordination,” a sacramental impossibility in the Catholic Church, as a live topic.

This attention has come despite Pope Francis’ decision to remove discussion of the possibility of a women’s diaconate from the synod’s agenda, turning it over to a distinct study group instead. The move was made not only to give more in-depth, theologically informed reflection to the issue, but also to allow the 2024 session, which will continue through Oct. 27, to focus more exclusively on practical proposals to make Church structure and governance more participatory.

What’s more, according to multiple synod participants, the focus on “women’s ordination” in the Vatican’s press hall appears to bear little resemblance to what has happened thus far among the 368 voting delegates inside the Paul VI Hall.

So why is the topic still dominating synod news?

 

Sound-Bite Journalism

Part of the dynamic can be attributed to the way media coverage of the synod works, as it tends to highlight sound bites that may or may not have anything to do with what’s going on inside the synod hall.

For instance, at an Oct. 7 press conference, synod delegate Sister Mary Theresa Barron, of the Sisters of Our Lady of Apostles, made headlines when she said from the podium that “some women do sense a call to priesthood or diaconate.”

“I think we have to look at [the issue] broader than ‘can we or can we not?’ from a theological or canonical point of view, but in terms of the Spirit calling to ministry today, and in terms of the need of mission today,” said the Irish religious, who is president of the International Union of Superiors General, and asked that the synod keep the conversation on the topic going.

As a synod delegate and leader of an organization that includes the leaders of 1,903 women’s religious communities, Sister Mary Theresa has certainly raised eyebrows with her statements. But the media’s spotlighting of her comments arguably eclipsed other presenters’ words on the topic. 

Cardinal Oswald Gracias of Mumbai, for instance, downplayed the overall significance of women’s ordination discussions and emphasized that the issue was not on the synod’s agenda. Lithuania’s America-born Archbishop Gintaras Grušas added that discussion of women in the Church needed to be grafted into a broader discussion on the role of all laity.

Media reports that focused solely on Sister Mary Theresa’s controversial comments also left out some nuance that the sister herself provided. For instance, in a response to a question about outside groups pressuring synod delegates to take up questions related to “women’s ordination,” the Irish sister said she felt no more pressure to talk about this issue than any other.

Sister Mary Theresa also offered a candid reflection on the possibility that some of her own convictions could be wrong.

“When I have a passionate conviction, if that is God’s will for the Church, it’s very easy for me to go along,” she observed. “But if I have a passionate conviction that maybe is not aligned with God’s will for the Church right now, then how do I journey with that and how do I open to listen to God’s will?”

But those balancing details were left out of most media reports, likely giving an imbalanced impression of the import of “women’s ordination” talk at the synod. 

News media already has a built-in tendency to downplay nuance and highlight novelty, but this is arguably accentuated at the synod. The Vatican has blocked media from covering most of the synod’s actual proceedings, creating a dynamic where journalists tasked with producing copy are overly reliant on press conferences and are motivated to get speakers to say something “juicy.” 

And the reality is that talk about “women priests” is more provocative, and thus generates more clicks, than talk about synodality and Church structures.

 

‘One-Sided’ Summaries?

But in some cases, it appears that synod communications leaders themselves are contributing to the media’s exaggerated focus on women’s ordination at the synod.

For instance, at an Oct. 4. press conference, synod communications head Paolo Ruffini spoke of “key points” that had emerged during that morning’s 36 free speeches from synod members. Ruffini said that in “[some] interventions, it was said that women feel the calling of God and require to be ordained.”

However, two separate synod members from different continental delegations told the Register that Ruffini’s presentation overstated the strength of calls for “women’s ordination.”

Ruffini and synod organizers did not respond to a request for comment.

According to these sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the Vatican’s rules of confidentiality surrounding synod discussions, there had only been one intervention during that morning’s assembly that directly talked about so-called “women’s ordination,” made by a North American religious sister. 

One source told the Register that Ruffini’s summary of the morning’s speeches was “one-sided” and made demands for women’s ordination seem “overwhelming” when they actually “are underwhelming inside” the synod hall.

This isn’t to say that a women diaconate hasn’t been discussed by the assembly, as it was on Oct. 9 when deacons writ large was on the agenda. But it is to say that even a slight mischaracterization from synod spokespeople can fuel the flames of media distortion.

If this is true, it wouldn’t be the first time that Ruffini has presented a picture of synod proceedings that doesn’t necessarily comport with other delegates’ versions. Last year, the prefect of the Vatican’s communications presented an exchange of differing views on homosexuality in the synod hall as relatively muted, while a report based on interviews with delegates described it as actually quite acrimonious. 

With journalists typically unable to report directly on what’s happening on the synod floor, they become overly reliant upon reports from the synod communications team — which may or may not reliably convey what’s actually happening in St. Paul VI Hall. 

 

Open-Ended Language

Finally, another factor contributing to the media’s ongoing fixation on “women’s ordination” is the way Vatican leaders continue to discuss the topic in open-ended ways.

In his Oct. 2 presentation on the study group considering the possibility of female deacons, Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith prefect Cardinal Víctor Fernández used equivocating language, giving the impression simultaneously that ordained women deacons wasn’t currently a possibility, but could be some day.

The Argentinian prelate said that his dicastery, which is coordinating study of the issue, “judges that there is still no room for a positive decision by the magisterium regarding access of women to the diaconate, understood as a degree of the sacrament of holy orders.” 

Media headlines describing Cardinal Fernández’s report reflected this ambivalence. America magazine said the study group had said “no to women deacons,” while Catholic News Service wrote that Cardinal Fernández has said “it’s not time for women deacons.”

The cardinal’s open-to-interpretation comments were a stark contrast from Pope Francis’ one-word response to CBS’ Norah O’Donnell’s question of whether women could ever become ordained as deacons: “No.”

“Women are of great service as women, not as ministers … within the holy orders,” Pope Francis said in the May 2024 interview with 60 Minutes.

But Cardinal Fernández seemed to relativize even this simple, clear answer from the Pope, characterizing it as Francis saying that questions related to women’s ordination are not yet “mature.” 

Unsurprisingly, activist groups and their allies in the media have responded to Cardinal Fernández’s report by continuing to apply pressure.

The day after, members of the Women’s Ordination Conference held a demonstration outside the Vatican featuring Campbell’s Soup-inspired signs, urging Church leaders to not “kick the can” of women’s ordination down the road.

“The Vatican would rather let women’s gifts rot on the vine than recognize their equality,” the group said in a press statement, falsely conflating individual charisms with the divinely instituted office of sacramentally ordained ministry.

Possibly with these kinds of pressure campaigns in mind, Bishop Anthony Randazzo of Broken Bay, Australia, said at the Oct. 4 press briefing that “a small minority with a large, powerful Western voice is obsessed with pushing” women’s ordination, in a way that marginalizes the needs of most women.

“Those issues become all-consuming and focusing for people, to the point that they then become an imposition on people who sometimes struggle simply to feed their families, to survive the rising sea levels, or the dangerous journeys across wild oceans to resettle in new lands,” said Bishop Randazzo, who is the president of Oceania’s bishops’ conference, calling the focus on such “niche issues” as “certainly not the mind of the synodal Church in mission.”

Perhaps not. But it’s also unsurprising, given current dynamics around the Synod on Synodality, that “women’s ordination” continues to dominate synod press conferences and media reports, even if synod delegates report it’s a relatively non-issue inside the actual assembly.