Key Bishop at Amazon Synod Promotes Women Deacons as ‘First Step’ to Women Priests, by Diane Montagna

ROME, October 9, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) — A key organizer of the Amazonian Synod who favors a female diaconate for the region has said it may be the “first step” to ordaining women priests.

In a scrum after Wednesday’s daily synod press briefing, Austrian-born Bishop Emeritus Erwin Kräutler of Xingu, Brazil, said that he supported the ordination of women. Asked by journalist Edward Pentin if that extended to women priests, Kräutler said “yes, logically,” and added that a female diaconate in the Amazon “may be a step to” achieving that goal.

“Many of the bishops [at the synod] are in favor of women deacons,” Kräutler asserted.

As a missionary, Bishop Kräutler spent years in the Amazonian region defending the rights of indigenous people and was the principal author of the synod’s controversial working document [Instrumentum laboris].

The exchange with Edward Pentin was caught on video:

LifeSite sat down briefly with Bishop Kräutler as he was finishing post-press briefing interviews, to follow up on his thoughts on the Amazon synod as a “first step” to the ordination of women. Here is our exchange ….