Pope Leo has appointed a prelate who accused westerners of being “obsessed” with female ordination to lead a key Vatican office charged with interpreting Church law.
The Vatican announced on March 25 that Pope Leo has called Australian bishop Anthony Randazzo to Rome to become prefect of the Dicastery for Legislative Text, at the same time he promoted Dr Randazzo to the rank of archbishop, raising expectations that he will be named a cardinal at the Pope’s first consistory.
At the 2025 ‘syond on synodality’, Dr Randazzo – a canon lawyer like Pope Leo – said Catholics in the global north are “obsessed” with women’s ordination, while ignoring issues facing women in the developing world.
While Bishop Randazzo said in 2024, he saw no problem with the topic of women’s ordination to the diaconate being discussed and studied by the synod, he said such attention should “absolutely not” come at the cost of the dignity of women in the Church and in the world.
Late last year, a Vatican commission studying the possibility of female deacons reported that the current state of historical and theological research “excludes the possibility of proceeding” toward admitting women to the
diaconate.
