In May, the pope said that the deaconesses described by St. Paul in the New Testament, and referenced by Spengler on Friday, can not be understood as equivalent to the modern sacramental notion of the diaconate.
A 2002 document published by the International Theological Commission concluded that female deacons in the early Church did not have the same functions as male deacons, and had "no liturgical function," nor a sacramental one. It also said that even in the fourth century "the way of life of deaconesses was very similar to that of nuns."
"The formulas of female deacons' 'ordination' found until now, according to the commission, are not the same for the ordination of a male deacon and are more similar to what today would be the abbatial blessing of an abbess," Francis said May 7 during an in-flight press conference returning from North Macedonia and Bulgaria.
"For the female diaconate, there is a way to imagine it with a different view from the male diaconate," said the pope while insisting that the issue needed further study.
Bishop Spengler did not mention either Pope Francis or the commission for the study of women deacons on Friday.
During the press conference, several journalists groaned when Spengler was asked about the Church's sacramental theology and its restriction of ordination to men alone.
Earlier in the session, applause broke out among some journalists after Paulo Ruffini, Prefect for the Vatican Dicastery of Communications, intervened to correct a question from veteran Vatican correspondent Sandro Magister.
Magister had made reference to an earlier event held in the Vatican gardens, during which a group of participants knelt in a circle around several carved items arranged around a controversial statue, variously identified as an earth mother figure or fertility symbol.
Ruffini insisted that the event was not an "official" synod event, and that questions about such events did not have to be answered. He also said that "there was no ritual" and "no prostration," to applause from several journalists present at the press conference.
Ed Condon is a canon lawyer and worked as Catholic News Agency's Washington DC editor until December 2020.