A sizeable group among the 185 Catholic prelates at the Vatican’s Synod of Bishops for the Amazon approve of ordaining women as deacons in order to address a lack of ministers across the nine-nation region, said one of the participating bishops.

“There’s a lot of support for it,” Bishop Derek Byrne told NCR in an Oct. 17 interview. “Especially from bishops who are in this situation and who find that they just can’t serve their people.”  Byrne, who serves as the bishop of the rural Brazilian Diocese of Primavera do Leste-Paranatinga, characterized the feeling on the matter among the prelates at the Oct. 6-27 synod as “strong.”