German bishops vote for ‘women’s ordination,’ ask Pope ‘to decide how to proceed’

(LifeSiteNews) — Bishop Franz Jung has said that the German bishops have expressed support for the female diaconate in Rome and that it’s now Pope Leo XIV’s turn to act.

In an interview with the newspaper Mainpost, the bishop of Würzburg said that the German Bishops’ Conference (DBK) has urged Rome to introduce female deacons.

“We cast a very clear vote in Rome in favor of women’s ordination to the diaconate,” he stated.

“Now it’s up to him [the Pope] to decide how to proceed,” Jung said. The issue is on the agenda and, in his view, “won’t be removed from it anytime soon.”

Regarding a possible visit to Germany by Pope Leo, Jung said: “I can’t say. But I would be delighted.” Würzburg would be a possible stop for such a visit because it is the German headquarters of the Augustinian Order, to which Pope Leo belongs. “We would certainly roll out the red carpet for him,” the bishop said.

During the pontificate of Pope Francis, the idea of ordaining women to the diaconate had been floated as an open question by the Vatican. The late pope created two separate theological study commissions to assess whether female ordination was possible.

However, the ordinations of women to the sacrament of Holy Orders, consisting in the ministries of deacon, priest, and bishop, are impossible, according to Catholic doctrine.

Cardinal Gerhard Müller, former Prefect of the Congregation (now Dicastery) for the Doctrine of the Faith, explained in 2019 that no pope or council could permit the ordination of female deacons and that such ordination would be invalid.

Quoting the Council of Trent, Müller states that “bishop, priest, and deacon are only degrees of the one Sacrament of Holy Orders. ‘No one may doubt that the holy ordination is truly and essentially one of the seven Sacraments of the Holy Church – unum ex septem sacramentis.’ (Trent, Decree on the Sacrament of Holy Orders: DH 1766; 1773).”

“It stems from the ‘divine constitution of the Church,’ as Pope John Paul II has reliably decided, that the Church has no authority to administer to women priestly ordination. This is not the conclusion from history, but, rather, stems from the divine constitution of the Church. This of course applies to all three sacramental degrees,” Müller said.

In his apostolic letter Ordinatio Sacerdotalis, Pope John Paul II wrote: “Wherefore, in order that all doubt may be removed regarding a matter of great importance, a matter which pertains to the Church’s divine constitution itself, in virtue of my ministry of confirming the brethren (cf. Lk 22:32) I declare that the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that this judgment is to be definitively held by all the Church’s faithful.”