CWL members asked to query women deacon possibilities

Tuesday, August 12th, 2014

At the league’s annual conference in Auckland last month, participants were reflecting on Pope Francis’s call for the Church to develop a more profound theology of women.

NZ Catholic reported that one group raised the idea of women deacons.

CWL national chaplain Sr John Bosco Kendall then suggested the group put this idea to their bishops.

“Why don’t you ask them to take that suggestion to Rome,” she reportedly said.

The NZ Catholic article noted that Sr John Bosco said the issue of women deacons is being discussed worldwide.

She interpreted the Pope’s remarks about women needing more clearly defined roles in the Church, as referring to roles that carry some authority.

But Sr John Bosco lamented the fact that there wasn’t sufficient time for deeper reflection on the issue at the conference, NZ Catholic added.

A 2002 study by the International Theological Commission concluded that the role of women deacons in the early church cannot be considered equivalent to that of ordained male deacons.

It also concluded that the permanent diaconate belongs to the sacrament of orders – which the Church says is limited to men only.

But there have also been suggestions there could be a form of diaconate for women that does not involve ordination, but some other type of commissioning.

German Archbishop Robert Zollitsch and Cardinal Walter Kasper both proposed something similar last year.

Elsewhere at the Auckland conference, outgoing CWL president Anne Joyce said the league needs to attract more 50-70 year old women who are ready for further church involvement, now that their children have grown up.

The CWL was also challenged as to how it can attract more Pasifika and Filipino members, as these communities are experiencing strong growth in the Church.

The CWL’s new president is Kaye Blackburn.

Sources