VATICAN CITY (Michael Haynes/LifeSiteNews) — Calling for a female diaconate, Cardinal Ulrich Steiner, from Brazil’s Amazon region, has revealed that he “lays hands” on women who he has commissioned to baptize since they are going to “celebrate a sacrament.”
Addressing a press conference in Fatima, Portugal, over the weekend, Steiner renewed his prior calls for a female diaconate.
“In our reality, women exercise the deacon’s ministries,” said Steiner on Saturday. The Cardinal-Archbishop of Manaus, in the Amazon, presides over an area with approximately 1.6 million Catholics.
He added that “the vast majority of our small communities are coordinated by women,” noting that the “role of women in the church of the Amazon is fundamental.”
