This is the view of Dr Joe Grayland, theologian, author and parish priest of three parishes in Palmerston North, New Zealand.

He questions whether we need another form of the clergy. - Originally reported 31 May 2021

Grayland made the comments, Thursday, during Flashes of Insight - Women Deacons in the Catholic Church, a conversation with Dr Phyllis Zagano, Emeritus Professor of New Testament at the Ecole Biblique, Justin Taylor and hosted by Emeritus Professor of Historical Theology at the University of Nottingham Thomas O'Loughlin.

Grayland asks if the Church actually needs permanent male or female deacons.

If it does, he suggests we need to change the understanding projected by the transitional diaconate modelled in seminaries.

Grayland says he works with eight women across the three parishes; they serve the community, they work full time, but none are ordained.

We might need more priests, but Grayland says the last thing we need is an expanded clerical class, the permanent diaconate.

It is not a perspective Zagano shares.

Zagano is an internationally recognised scholar, prolific writer and advocate for women deacons.

She says that if anyone wants to be a deacon to get power, they have other issues.

The ministry of the deacon is one of service, she says.

Zagano says it is important to have a specialised view of ministry and that the diaconate should not be limited to in-house Church functions.

Zagano says the office of the deacon is distinct from the function of deacons.

Deacons hold the same office, but their ministry of service would be expressed differently, she said.

She says that if people want to go to confession, they see a priest, and if they go for food, counselling or spiritual direction, deacons can offer the service.

If our prime concern is not to expand the clerical class, why ordain anyone, she asks.

She however noted that if the Church were to reintroduce deacons, there is a question around whether they would be installed or ordained.

Zagano says there is no doubt that women were deacons in the Early Church.

It is a point that Taylor, who works on some of the earliest evidence the Church has, agrees with.

Taylor says that it is clear from both scripture and the documents from the first thousand years that women were deacons.

When the Early Church spoke of deacons, there was no distinction made between male or female.

Taylor says that referencing deacons, men or women, the Early Church saw deacons as officeholders and not just functionaries.

Questioned by O'Loughlin about the future, Grayland says that women's ministry should not be seen as a threat to male in ministry.

He commented when looking at the evidence if the Church is going to have women deacons, the church needs to popularise it as part of the Church evolving.

He says that reflecting on what Zagano and Taylor have discussed; the Church needs to understand that the development of women's diaconate is not a straight-line trajectory but an evolution.

Grayland says he hopes our Church's understanding of women's ministry and women's diaconate will change but wonders why we do not have women deacons now.

Zagano agrees and says we must not go forth in political discussion but with a spirit of discernment.

She says that a wise bishop once wrote to her and says this about discernment.

"Discernment is not an organizational technique, and it's not a passing fashion, but it's an interior attitude rooted in an act of faith."

"Discernment is the method and at the same time the goal."

"It's based on the belief that God is at work in the history of the world in the events of life and the people we meet and who speak to us."

"This is why we are called to listen to what the Spirit suggests to us with often unpredictable ways and directions."

"As one might assume, he's a Jesuit bishop," she says.

Zagano concludes by saying it is important that theologians listen to the People of God and for the People of God to make their needs known.

In a spirit of discernment, Zagano is convinced that if the People of God make their needs known, they will not be denied.

As to the future, Zagano says that we need a genuine discerning discussion, a prayerful discussion, to move to a future where the Church will restore the tradition of women in ministry and the diaconate.

A bonus was that parishioners from all five towns in the Wairarapa parish worked together for the first time since the parish was formed in 2015.

Ministry formation is necessary because most of us think of our involvement in the Church in the same way as volunteering in the community, says Wairarapa's new parish priest Dennis Nacorda.

"We need to understand that involvement in the ministry in the Church is far deeper than that.

"To be involved in any ministry is a response from the common call we share, whether ordained or lay, in baptism."

Nacorda says ministry formation is one way the Church equips parishioners and prepares them to serve in various ministries.

"This process helps parishioners discern and cultivate their unique gifts and charisms for the service of others.

"The formation process typically involves spiritual, intellectual, pastoral and human development, ensuring that individuals are well-rounded and capable of effectively ministering to others.

"It includes theological education, spiritual direction, practical training and ongoing formation to deepen one's relationship with God and grow in holiness.

"By engaging in ministry formation, individuals respond to the call to serve Christ and His Church, living out the Gospel in their daily lives and witnessing to the love and mercy of God."

Enthusiastic response

Those at the ministry formation workshops were positive about their experience.

"The questions about what we're doing and why we're doing it really made me think. And the talk about safekeeping was important. Not everyone is up to speed with safekeeping, especially if they've been out of the workforce for a while" said one participant.

"It's good that we're all starting from a shared understanding" said another.

"It was a positive experience - warm and enthusiastic."

"It's wonderful we came together to learn and deepen our understanding of our ministries and faith as a parish family - and to know we'll keep meeting, greeting and learning."

Wellington Archdiocesan staff Kevin Plant and Lucienne Hensel led workshops.

Strong turnout

Delighted with the 50-strong turnout on a Saturday morning, parish pastoral chair Peter McCardle says the day marked the first of many combined parish activities.

"It's an exciting and significant moment" he says.

"Our parish plan for the next couple of years includes many lay activities which will see us join together much more often."

These activities include workshops and development opportunities to further extend parishioners' ministry and formation training.

Long term goal

Nacorda says the parish's goal for ministry formation is to practise synodality in the parish.

"When we start looking at the Church from the same perspective, it makes it easier for each one to work more collaboratively and in a synodal way" he says.

Source

• Archdiocese of Wellington
• Interviews

Pope Francis, just this past April, appointed the 74-year-old Paris native and mother of three to be a member of his new "Study Commission on the Female Diaconate".

In an exclusive interview with La Croix's Céline Hoyeau, Pelletier said the Church needs to creatively revisit ministries in the Church, beyond presbyteral and diaconal ordination.

La Croix: What does the response to Anne Soupa's press release announcing her candidacy to be Archbishop of Lyon reveal to you?

Anne-Marie Pelletier: This declaration of candidacy raises some objections.

First, because she ignores the fact that in the Church's tradition one is called to a position of responsibility; one does not apply for it.

What happens to clergymen has been left out.

Then, because it is not certain that the best way to renew the institution of the Church is to contend for taking over existing roles.

Women must occupy institutional places, certainly, but not necessarily by conquering existing forms of power.

Moreover, the extremism of her announcement offers a good excuse not to take it seriously.

The fact remains that the widespread media attention it's gained shows that the situation is deadlocked. It is as though provocation is the only way forward.

Is it so outrageous that women aspire to be clerics like others? What can be done so that they can play their role to a greater extent in decision-making? Are priesthood and governance inseparable?

That woman could be clerics like others, is it really so outlandish?

If one day they were to accede to the ministerial priesthood - a hypothesis that's currently excluded - it would have to be in order to live and practice it a little differently.

Otherwise, it's all about power and competition.

There are many places where women need to be active today in exercising authority and inspiring new governance, such as parish authorities, episcopal councils and the pope's council. Why not?

Similarly, why not include women in the college of cardinals?

The truth that needs to be heard is that ministerial priesthood cannot be the sole authority to decide on the life and governance of the Church.

If women were already teaching ecclesiology in seminaries, the Church could have another face.

Would the ordination of women deacons allow women to find a better place in the Church?

It would undoubtedly have a strong symbolic value.

But the question is more complex than it seems.

It all depends on the profile of this diaconate, its attributes, its mode of institution.

A lesser version of the male diaconate would only confirm the inequality between men and women.

This is not an illusory risk since some have a great fear that women are getting too close to the sacrament of Holy Orders.

Moreover, to focus too much on this issue risks obscuring the true extent of the problem.

It is the overall question of ministries in the Church that needs to be reopened, as they affect both sexes and the different states of life.

Women write to me to tell me of their expectations of a real conversion of outlook and mentality, a prerequisite for esteem and equality.

They question their legitimacy to proclaim the Word of God, they ask that credit be given to their experience, that their voice is included in the word of the Magisterium.

Where exactly are we on the question of the diaconate?

In fact, it has consistently been raised - by women, as well as by bishops - since Vatican II and the re-establishment of the permanent diaconate.

The historical work has increased.

In 1997, the International Theological Commission was asked to formulate an opinion.

The general tendency was in favour of women's diaconate, but it dodged this conclusion. Continue reading

It will be the first time a New Zealand church has been tested as an employer under human rights law, and if successful could prompt wholesale changes in the hiring and training of ministers.
Continue reading

The question of the theology of ordination to the priesthood just isn't going to go away.

First, in a meeting with Italian priests in Rome in February, the Pope, they tell us, said that he is going to put the topic of the ordination of married men "into his diary."

Meaning on his list of subjects to be — what? Addressed? Discussed? Opened to consideration? Promised? The possibilities are tantalising.

In countries where some Catholic communities never see a priest more than once a year, the implications of a new and developing clergy — a married clergy as well as a celibate clergy — conjure up images of a church choosing to be vital and viable again.

In the United States itself, as well as in far off rural outposts, parishes are closing at a great rate.

In fact, the very superstructure of the church of the '50s — its community-building impact, its services and ministries, its vibrant witness — is dimming.

People drive miles to go to Mass now or don't go at all.

They volunteer in civic agencies now rather than in parish ministries because there are few or no church projects impactful enough to demand their commitment.

Instead, the church, where there is one, has become a private devotion.

But if Pope Francis takes the question of married men seriously, that could, for a change, lead to real change.

The annual number of candidates for the priesthood might actually rise, for instance. The number of priestless parishes might be reduced.

The Church's ministry to families, itself embodied in a model of family life, might become more credible.

Sex would become both a male and a female thing rather than a prescription for the control of women.

And, oh yes, the place and role of women in the church might very well change, too, once women began to be seen as integral to the parish and its activities. Continue reading

• Benedictine Sr Joan Chittister is a best-selling author and international lecturer on topics of justice, peace, human rights, women's issues and contemporary spirituality in the Church and in society.

"We must not allow ourselves to be drawn into the murky waters of cynicism, passivity, and bitterness. However, nor must we don the rosy spectacles of illusory optimism." Tomas Halik, Czech priest and author of "Night of the Confessor: Christian Faith in an Age of Uncertainty."

Firstly let me say how grateful I am to Rosemary Flannery and the Camino committee for inviting me here tonight. This parish is my spiritual home. I first learnt about the faith through this community; I have returned here over many decades and have felt here in conscious and real ways that that here is where I learnt what a community of faith is; and it was here more than 28 years ago that I celebrated my first Mass. Thankyou Rosemary and team. I'm so glad to be here to address something that is important to us all and central to my life - ministry. Continue reading

Sources

• Michael Kelly SJ in Eureka Street
• Image: Smell the Color Nine