Following the close of last month’s Synod of Bishops, a leading Latin American cardinal has signaled openness in some cases to ordaining women deacons and also called for swift justice in sexual abuse cases, including the potential dissolution of a lay community in his own country currently under Vatican investigation.
Cardinal Pedro Barreto made the comments in an Oct. 30 exclusive interview with Crux, prior to leaving for Rome’s Fiumicino airport to return to Peru following the close of the synod.
The Archbishop of Huancayo and President of the Ecclesial Conference of the Amazon (CEAMA), Barreto also spoke of the growing influence of Latin America in the Church and the fact that Catholicism’s centre of gravity has shifted from the west to the global south.
On the topic of women, one of the biggest themes of the pope’s Oct. 4-29 Synod of Bishops on Synodality and among the most divisive issues in the discussion’s final synthesis document, Barreto noted that throughout the Church’s history, “it is always women influenced by society’s machismo, they have been relegated.”
“Today in the Church, especially in Latin America, if women stopped participating, the Church would not exist,” he said, noting that women religious even in his own diocese often lead liturgies and other initiatives in areas that have no priests.
On the possibility of ordaining women as deacons, a major hot-button synod talking point, Barreto said, “There are some, not all, who are against the women’s diaconate.”
“Women do not demand that, but they can, in some cases, be given the possibility of that,” he said, noting that every paragraph in the final synthesis document was voted on and approved, including the ones that talked about the women’s diaconate.
“We can still continue reflecting, but the role of women in the Church and in society is being evaluated a lot,” he said.