German ZdK leaders slam Vatican rejection of female diaconate as “disastrous” and “stagnation,” warning of lost generations of women in the Church.
Newsroom (05/12/2025 Gaudium Press ) The German Catholic establishment reacted with undisguised fury this week after a Vatican commission ruled that women cannot receive the Sacrament of Holy Orders as deacons, delivering what amounts – for now – to a papal “no.”
Irme Stetter-Karp, president of the powerful Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK) and a leading figure in the controversial German Synodal Path, called the decision “a message of stagnation” that blocks the Church’s future. “The future cannot begin with this stagnation,” she declared in comments carried by the German bishops’ unofficial news service Katholisch.de.
Speaking as self-appointed spokesman for Catholic women worldwide, Stetter-Karp went further: the outcome is “disastrous.” “Thinking of our daughters and granddaughters, I wonder: where will the women who commit themselves to the Catholic Church come from in the future?” she asked. “If women continue to be given the signal that they are second-class citizens?”
The ZdK president acknowledged that Rome has recently appointed women to positions of authority, yet insisted that the enduring interpretation of Scripture and tradition reserving sacramental ministry to men renders those steps meaningless. “Why women cannot be credible witnesses in this ministry is beyond me,” she said. “And it is beyond many people, including many theologians.”
Thomas Söding, biblical scholar and ZdK vice-president, labeled the commission’s report a “missed opportunity.” While conceding that the document fairly presents pro-ordination arguments and does not call for the discussion to be shut down permanently, Söding dismissed the core theological objection – that the incarnate Christ can only be sacramentally represented by a man – as “philosophically and theologically weak, not to mention the legal, social, and psychological aspects.” He voiced cautious optimism that debate would continue but warned: “Let’s hope that in the meantime, even more women don’t resign themselves to this.”
The fringe but persistent reform group “We Are Church” echoed the criticism, declaring the Vatican’s “no” – even if not intended as definitive – “highly open to criticism from a theological, anthropological, and pastoral perspective.” The organization demanded renewed debate and claimed that women have performed unpaid diaconal service for centuries that deserves sacramental recognition.
Behind the coordinated outrage lies a striking fact highlighted by the Vatican commission itself: of the thousands of contributions to the global Synod on Synodality, only twenty-two individuals or groups – almost all from a narrow band of Western European countries – even raised the question of women deacons. German progressives, though vocal and well-organized, remain a distinct minority voice claiming to speak for the universal Church.
The sharp German reaction recalls the public humiliation Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández endured at last year’s Synod assembly when he announced the female diaconate would not be discussed – an episode that clearly still rankles the Synodal Path leadership.
For now, Rome has answered the German demand with a firm negative. The intensity of the pushback from Bonn suggests the controversy is far from over.
- Raju Hasmukh with files from Infocatholica
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