VATICAN CITY (RNS) — Cardinal Walter Kasper, a respected German theologian and a longtime conservative voice at the Vatican, told a German church journal that he is in favor of allowing women to become permanent deacons, as debates over women’s roles continue to shake the church.
“I myself have struggled with the answer to this question for a long time,” Kasper told the theology magazine Communio on Thursday (Oct. 31), “but have since come to the conclusion that there are good reasons that make it theologically possible and pastorally sensible to open the permanent diaconate to women.”
“Each local church would be free to decide whether it wants to make use of this possibility or not,” he added, referring to national bishops’ conferences.
Known as a champion of conservative Catholicism, Kasper, a former head of the Vatican Council for Promoting Christian Unity, which promotes relations with other Christian denominations, also served on the International Theological Commission, which advised the Vatican’s dicastery overseeing doctrine.
Kasper has a history of backing the idea of ordaining women to the diaconate. At an assembly of German bishops in 2013, the cardinal presented the possibility of deaconesses performing a pastoral, charitable and liturgical role differing from that of male deacons and receiving a blessing instead of holy orders.
Even so, “for us over here it’s quite surprising,” said Renardo Schlegelmilch, editor in chief of DomRadio, Germany’s largest Catholic radio sta …