ROME – Participants in Pope Francis’s Synod of Bishops on Synodality chosen to speak to the media said on Friday that while various topics are being discussed, no decisions will be made on specific issues, and that it is too early in the process to rule on hot-button questions such as women deacons.
Asked during an Oct. 20 press briefing whether it was time to make a decision on women deacons, Archbishop Tarcisio Isao Kikuchi of Tokyo said there are “differences of opinions” within the synod.
There are also differences as far as terminology goes, and one’s understanding of the idea is “highly dependent on the cultural background,” he said, saying, “we are talking about the same thing, but sometimes the understanding is completely different.”
