Day 8 of the synod

From Vatican Radio - the Press Briefing for Day 8 (today) was discouraging.

Statement from Cardinal Napier ..... one of the Cardinals who sent a letter to the Pope at the beginning of the synod saying that he had rigged the process against conservatives .... denying, denying, denying what he'd written. Sometimes the synod seems like an episode of The X-Files.

One of the women at the press conference is probably a good example of the lack of objectivity in choosing who could participate in the synod ... she teaches Natural Family Planning, a traditionalist alternative to contraception that only about 2% of Catholics engage in.

And finally, remember the press attention given to the possibility of women being deacons? The idea has gone nowhere, of course, and this comment was made at the press briefing ... On the question of the ordination of women to the deaconate, Abbot Schröder said that it was a single proposal by an isolated voice that did not seem to be important in the room.