"After Nearly a Year, Female Diaconate Still Advanced by Vatican

https://catholiccitizens.org/views/70172/nearly-year-female-diaconate-still-advanced-vatican/

...."Sander now claims, according to katholisch.de, that “there is no dogmatic stipulation that would exclude women from the diaconate.” As Sander told Radio Vatikan: “A diaconal Church needs the deacon, and a diaconal Church needs the women!” He continues, by saying: “In my view, this Church also needs women as deaconesses.”

In June 2016, there was another blip on the radar. A meeting of the group “Women’s Ordination Worldwide” was held in Rome, and the group was granted an audience with the Vatican Secretariat of State. A petition with their concerns was given to the pope, and they were allowed to protest in the gardens of Castel Sant’Angelo on the very same day that the Pope was offering a jubilee mass for priests in St Peter’s Square. Members of the group were also given tickets to attend that papal Mass for priests, a symbolic gesture not lost on their leadership:

“We thought that the Jubilee for Priests was a perfect time to really give an offering and a celebration for all women called to priesthood,” said Kate McElwee, co-executive director of the Women’s Ordination Conference, the U.S.-based member of WOW. “We really wanted to have this as a celebration and a serious conversation of women in the church.”