The meeting was organised by the Latin American church conference CEAMA to "reflect on the issue of women's ministry and bring in voices from other parts of the world who are travelling with those from the Amazon region", the co-director of the"Discerning Deacons" project, Casey Stanton, told the"National Catholic Reporter" (Monday).
The group wanted to express their gratitude for the Synod on Synodality, which "created a way to dream together about what is possible in our church," Stanton said. "We have pursued this dream of a prophetic, synodal diaconate."
All over the world, there are women who carry out their ministry in marginalised areas, which is diaconal in nature, said Stanton.
Pope Francis had thanked them for their work and together with him, the women had prayed for the Pope and the Synod in the audience.
Stanton saw it as a positive sign that the Vice-President of CEAMA, Franciscan Laura Vicuña Pereira Manso, had emphasised that the door had not yet been closed, even after the Pope's negative statements on the ordination of women deacons.
Pereira Manso had met Francis a few weeks after he had spoken out against the ordination of women as deacons in an interview and emphasised: "An interview is not the magisterium of the Church".
"He continues to be open to that conversation and recognises that it's really important that he continues to have an open attitude and model openness and encounter as pope," Stanton said. "I think he wants all of his other brother bishops to do the same."
The Synod on Synodality is now about establishing this structure of openness throughout the Church, he said. "That is the invitation. Can we continue to build a culture where this is the norm? Where our bishops welcome us and we can have an honest conversation?" asked Stanton. "I think the more we multiply these kinds of encounters, the more the possibility of women deacons will emerge."
The Synod's second and final session on synodality begins on Wednesday and runs until 27 October.
Prior to this, the topic of the diaconate of women, which had appeared in a large number of the reports submitted by the local churches, was outsourced by Pope Francis to one of ten study groups, which will give an interim report at the beginning of the synod, but whose results will not be available until after the end of the synod.
There has been widespread criticism of the outsourcing, most recently at the autumn plenary assembly of the German Bishops' Conference in Fulda from Bishops Georg Bätzing and Felix Genn, who will be attending the Synod on Synodality.