'Undue Emphasis On Women Priest Distracts The Church', Female Theologian

Rome Newsroom, Oct 17, 2023 / 14:10 pm Spending too much time on the “niche issue” of women priests or deacons distracts the Church from addressing what women really need, a theologian participating in the Synod on Synodality said Tuesday. “As a woman, I’m not focused at all on the fact that I’m not a priest,” Renée Köhler-Ryan, one of 54 women delegates to the Synod on Synodality, said at a press briefing Oct. 17. “I think that there’s too much emphasis placed on this question,” the Catholic professor added. “And what happens when we put too much emphasis on this question is that we forget about what women, for the most part, throughout the world, need.” Köhler-Ryan is head of the School of Philosophy and Theology at the University of Notre Dame in Sydney, Australia. She participated in the Church in Australia’s plenary council and is writing a forthcoming book on St. Edith Stein’s “Essays on Woman.” Paolo Ruffini, president of the synod’s information commission, told