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.

As a result, some delegates protested - they refused to take their seats and stood at the back of the meeting room.

The Catholic Weekly understands the protest was led by Francis Sullivan AO and John Warhurst AO.

Sullivan is Chair of Catholic Social Services Australia and the Mater Group of hospitals. He was previously CEO of the Truth, Justice and Healing Council. Warhurst is an Emeritus Professor of Political Science at the Australian National University, and chair of Concerned Catholics Canberra Goulburn.

Sullivan told The Catholic Weekly that a "palpable division" in the Plenary assembly room was evident.

"There was a lot of anger and frustration particularly on behalf of women but also the LGBT or rainbow community if you will," Sullivan said.

"This to my mind goes to the deeper issues confronting the Church over this period of listening and dialogue. Lots of voices have come forward and there is frustration that not all those voices are not actually in the room.

"The second thing is, are we actually being attentive to what those voices are saying to us.

"Underneath it all, I have to say, even from my own experience, there is a deep grief I think that we all feel about where the Church is at, not just for ourselves personally, but collectively there are generations of people who are no longer able to identify with the Church."

The Council had been discussing a two-part set of documents called ‘Witnessing to the Equal Dignity of Women and Men'.

One motion, including the consideration of women for ministry as deacons - should Rome agree - received a qualified majority among consultative voters.

However, it fell just short of a qualified majority among deliberative voters - the bishops - and did not pass.

The other motion asked: "That each Australian diocese and eparchy foster new opportunities for women to participate in ministries and roles that are stable, publicly recognised, and resourced with appropriate formation including theological education and commissioned by the bishop.

"These ministries and roles should engage with the most important aspects of diocesan and parish life and have a real impact on those communities."

The second motion did not receive a qualified majority on either the consultative or the deliberative votes, so was not passed.

During Plenary Council assemblies, consultative votes are exercised by the 277 lay, religious and clerical members and deliberative votes are exercised by the Australian bishops.

Acknowledging the embarrassment the result had caused, Plenary council vice president Bishop Shane Mackinlay said: "This is not the way we were anticipating or hoping the process would go.

"It is disappointing and a lot of people - women and men, priests, laypeople and bishops - were very distressed.

"It was clear our members were not ready to put this to one side and move on to other things."

Mackinlay said council members were trying to redraft the motion so that a new version could be approved on Friday.

"Everybody is absolutely adamant we need to say something about the equal dignity of women and men, and the way we recognise this in the life of the Church," he said.

A four-person writing group has been established to receive recommendations from Members for the drafting of revised motions. The new motions are expected to be considered later in the week.

Source

• Catholic Weekly
• The Sydney Morning Herald
• National Catholic Reporter

Speaking to the German catholic journal Communio, Kasper noted that after considerable thought, he believes it "theologically possible and pastorally sensible" for women to be admitted to the permanent diaconate.

"Each local church would be free to decide whether it wants to make use of this possibility or not" he added, referring to national bishops' conferences.

According to Kasper, the argument favouring ordaining women as deacons is that the Western and Eastern churches were familiar with this ministry in the early centuries.

"The fact that - as far as I know - the ordination forms for deacons and deaconesses were the same, also speaks against this" Kasper added.

Question "remains open"

Kasper's statement comes as the Catholic Church faces renewed debates over the role of women, particularly following the recently concluded Synod on Synodality.

Cardinal Kasper's position has surprised some observers, as he has recently adopted a more conservative stance. He is particularly critical of Germany's Synodal Path, a local reform process seeking structural and doctrinal changes within the Church.

The synod did not make a definitive decision on women deacons but acknowledged that the question "remains open". Many had expected Pope Francis and the bishops to explore the topic more thoroughly, but a binding stance was not reached.

Massimo Faggioli, a theologian at Villanova University, suggested that Kasper's comments reflect a growing realisation within the Church that the role of women in ministry is a central issue for its future.

Open for discussion

Meanwhile, Cardinal Victor Fernández, head of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, announced that the question of women deacons will undergo more intensive study.

Speaking to synod members, Fernández clarified that, while Pope Francis believes the topic is not yet "mature", it remains open for discussion.

The cardinal noted that many women seek to serve and lead in the Church according to their charisms rather than through ordination, suggesting that a nuanced approach to women's roles could strengthen community leadership.

Sources

Religion News Service

English Katholisch

Catholic News Agency

CathNews New Zealand

As you know, I belonged to the initial Pontifical Commission for the Study of the Diaconate of Women. We were named in August 2016 and first met in November of that year.

I traveled to Rome several days in advance of the scheduled meeting, so I could recover from jet lag.

As soon as I arrived in Rome, I attended the celebrations honouring the three US bishops—they call bishops "monsignors" in Rome—the three US bishops named cardinals then: Blasé Cupich, Kevin Farrell, and Joseph Tobin.

Arriving in Rome

I resided outside the Vatican at the generalate of the LaSalle Christian Brothers for a few days, and on Thanksgiving Day, 2016, I arrived at the Vatican City gate called Porta Sant'Uffizio, in the Palazzo Sant'Uffizio.

That is the Vatican City gate near the building known in English as The Holy Office, where the business of the Congregation, now Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith takes place.

I presented my passport to the Swiss Guard and was permitted through the gate. I walked past Saint Peter's Basilica on the right and the German cemetery on the left, to the guard booth of the Pontifical Gendarmerie, the Vatican military police.

Again, I presented my passport.

The officer looked at the list of expected guests. He looked at me. He looked again at the list. He looked at me. I asked if there was a problem. No madam, he answered.

But you are listed here as "Monsignor Zagano."

He would not let me take a picture of the list.

I proceeded to Domus Sanctae Marthae, the small guest house where Pope Francis lives, and, as a guest of the Holy Father, was saluted as I entered the building.

The desk clerk greeted me, took my passport, and looked at her list which included "Monsignor Zagano."

She looked at me, looked at her list, looked at me, and we both had a good laugh. She let me get a copy of the list.

That was a Thursday, and my first meal at Domus Sanctae Marthae was Thanksgiving dinner with other guests, including an American Nobel Laureate. This, I thought would be some ride.

My Commission met for the next two days, and again in March 2017, September 2017, and June 2018, for a total of eight days over nearly two years. Of course, there were many, many Zoom meetings and emails during those years.

I suppose you would like to know what we gave to the pope.

So, would I.

I'll get to that.

Women - managers not ministers

The question before us this evening concerns the future of women in the Catholic Church.

Please believe me, the future of women in the Catholic Church is the future of the Catholic Church because the future of the Church depends on women.

Women comprise the largest segment of church-going people in the world, Catholic or not.

In the Catholic Church, women staff the Parish Outreach. Women teach Catechism, Women bring their children to church. Women bring their husbands to Mass, at least on Christmas and Easter.

But women at every level of Church life are restricted to management and cannot perform ministry as it is formally understood.

Let me define the terms.

By "management," I mean all the non-ordained and therefore non-ministerial tasks and duties in Church organisations, from parish centers, to diocesan offices, to episcopal conferences, to the papal Curia.

That includes the parish secretary, the diocesan chancellor, the bishops' conference spokesperson, and every employee of every Vatican dicastery. These, except for the jobs (called "offices") that have legal authority over clerics—over deacons, priests, and bishops—these management positions are jobs that any layperson can have.

I am not saying the people in these jobs (or offices) are not "ministering," for they truly perform "ministry" as the term has been enlarged over the past forty years or so.

Yes, the head of the parish religious education program, the organizer of the diocesan CYO, the employees of the USCCB, and the people in the papal Curia are all "ministering" in a sense. But they are not performing sacramental ministry in the classroom, on the playing field, or behind their desks.

So, by "ministry" I mean sacramental ministry, as performed by ordained deacons, priests, and bishops. You know the differences. Deacons may solemnly baptize and witness marriages.

In addition to these sacraments, priests may anoint the sick (give "last rites"), hear confessions and offer absolution, and celebrate the Eucharist.

Performing confirmations is generally restricted to bishops, who sometimes delegate their authority to confirm to priest-pastors.

All these are "clerics," and as such can legally preach at Masses and serve as single judges in canonical proceedings.

So, "Management" is open to women. "Ministry" is not.

It might be helpful to use the distinctions known in military and business organisations: "management" would be "admin", and "ministry" would be "ops."

That is, "management" handles administrative matters, and "ministry" would be the core operations of the organisation.

The analogy may not be perfect, but the important word here is "admin" or "administration." That is what, in his own words, Pope Francis believes women are capable of.

In November 2022, when the pope met in Domus Sanctae Marta with the editors and writers of America Magazine, the journal's executive editor, Kerry Weber, asked him the following question:

Holy Father, as you know, women have contributed and can contribute much to the life of the church. You have appointed many women at the Vatican, which is great.

Nevertheless, many women feel pain because they cannot be ordained priests. What would you say to a woman who is already serving in the life of the church, but who still feels called to be a priest?

Francis' long and thoughtful answer expanded the notion of "ministry" somewhat.

However, he retained the great divide between the ordained and non-ordained, between those people who are central and those people who are not central to the essential operations of the church, to the ordained tasks and duties of performing sacraments, and (because of their ordained status) of preaching and judging.

That is, Pope Francis clearly distinguished the people who can be ordained—men—from those who cannot be ordained—women.

His comments were based on a theoretical construct presented by the long-dead Swiss priest-theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar (1905-1988), a former Jesuit of whom several prominent theologians are critical.

The Petrine Church and the Marian principle

One theologian central to Vatican doctrine since his appointment to the first iteration of the International Theological Commission (ITC) in 1969, Joseph Ratzinger—the future Benedict XVI- said "[von Balthasar] is right in what he teaches of the faith."

Some of what von Balthasar "taught" is what Francis presented to America Magazine: "the Petrine church" and "the Marian principle.' So, the pope said, "The church is a woman. The church is a spouse."

Specifically, in response to the question about ordaining women, Francis distinguished the "ministerial dimension, [which] is that of the Petrine church" from "the Marian principle, which is the principle of femininity (femineidad) in the church, of the woman in the church, where the church sees a mirror of herself because she [the church] is a woman and a spouse."

The pope continued, describing the church as female, and then said, "There is a third way: the administrative way….it is something of normal administration. And, in this aspect, I believe we have to give more space to women."

Francis went on to extol the "functioning" of women in management, summing up his comments by saying, "So there are three principles, two theological and one administrative."

To sum up his belief, the "Petrine principle" covers ministry and the "Marian principle" presents the church as "spouse" and these two so-called "theological principles" are complemented by the "administrative principle" to which women are suited.

Francis concluded by asking, "Why can a woman not enter ordained ministry? It is because the Petrine principle has no place for that."

The Executive Editor of America Magazine, Kerry Weber (a woman) did not ask a follow-up question.

We can return to the question of women in ministry, but let us examine women in management more closely, the idea that women exemplify the "administrative principle" that Francis presented that late November day in 2022.

Management

The Church has advanced somewhat in its inclusion of women in management, in administrative positions in local dioceses.

For example, in the United States today, 54 women serve as diocesan chancellor, an important, non-ministerial position. (c.f. The Official Catholic Directory, Athens, GA: NRP Direct, 2023. There are 28.73% Latin Rite and 11.11% Eastern Rite female chancellors. In Latin Rite dioceses, 23, or 12.71% of chancellors are deacons, none in Eastern Rite dioceses.)

The chancellor is the senior administrative officer, the highest-placed office manager of a diocese, but the chancellor—in his or her role—is not performing "ministry" as it is formally defined, and the chancellor has no jurisdictional authority.

In Rome, especially in the Roman Curia, the question of women in managerial or administrative positions gets complicated.

We know women have been appointed to positions in the Curia, but these appointments are not to offices with jurisdiction. It is important to remember that only persons with jurisdiction can make decisions.

The easiest way to understand the situation is to look at the Instrumentum Laboris—the working document-for the coming session of the Synod of Bishops this October (2024):

In a synodal Church, the responsibility of the bishop, the College of bishops and the Roman Pontiff to make decisions is inalienable since it is rooted in the hierarchical structure of the Church established by Christ." (IL #70)

Listen carefully: "the responsibility…to make decisions is inalienable since it is rooted in the hierarchical structure of the Church."

And who makes up the hierarchy? The hierarchy is the ordained men of the Church.

The paragraph asserting the "inalienable" right of the clergy to make decisions underscores the "you discern, we decide" fact of ecclesiastical discipline, of church law.

Its roots are in Canons 129 and 274 of the Code of Canon Law. (Can. 129 §1. Those who have received sacred orders are qualified, according to the norm of the prescripts of the law, for the power of governance, which exists in the Church by divine institution and is also called the power of jurisdiction. §2. Lay members of the Christian faithful can cooperate in the exercise of this same power according to the norm of law. Can. 274 §1. Only clerics can obtain offices for whose exercise the power of orders or the power of ecclesiastical governance is required.)

Canon 129 states that ordained persons are qualified for the powers of governance and jurisdiction, and that lay persons can "cooperate" in this power.

Canon 274 states that only clerics can obtain offices requiring the power of orders or governance (or jurisdiction.)

But this same paragraph in the coming Synod meeting's Instrumentum Laboris later goes on to give ample room to the actual process of synodal discernment and it even throws a lifeline to the non-ordained of the Church.

The paragraph ends by suggesting the Code of Canon Law restricting the non-ordained to a "consultative vote only" (tantum consultivum) should be, in its words, "corrected."

It remains to be seen what correction could be made. As the synodal processes in Australia and Germany, for example, have proven, requests for change meet great resistance, and at least in the case of Germany rebuke, from Rome.

Having said all this, we must acknowledge the fact that there are more women in more responsible managerial roles in the Roman Curia than during prior pontificates.

The Roman Curia comprises the staff offices for Pope Francis, each managing a specific part of the Church's organisational needs, for example, the choosing of bishops, matters involving other clergy and religious, oversight of finances, and the operations of Vatican City State, from managing the library and museums to overseeing the pope's representatives (called papal nuncios) abroad, etc.

In the Roman Curia, there are sixteen curial offices called dicasteries.

There are also the Secretariate of State, three Institutions of Justice (Apostolic Penitentiary, the Supreme Tribunal, the Tribunal of the Roman Rota), four Institutions of Finance (Council for the Economy, Secretariat for the Economy, the Office of the Auditor General, and the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See (A.P.S.A.)).

Of these, only A.P.S.A. has a woman undersecretary, Sister Silvana Piro, F.M.G.B

Curial offices with women as senior officers include:

• the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life (Secretary Sister Simona Brambilla, M.C.; Under Secretary Sister Carmen Ros Nortes, N.S.C.),
• the Dicastery for the Laity, the Family, and Life (Under Secretaries Dr. Linda Ghisoni and Dr. Gabriella Gambino),
• the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development (Secretary, Sister Alessandra Smerilli, FMA). These women hold paid professional appointments.

Other dicasteries of the Roman Curia have women who are termed "members," and who, alongside clerics (usually cardinals and bishops), largely act as trustees for the dicasteries' work and who meet in Rome from time to time.

All dicasteries have female staff who assist with day-to-day operations, as clerks, secretaries, and translators, but clerics retain the overall organisational power in the Vatican.

While women are also members of Councils and Commissions, for the most part, these are not full-time professional appointments. For example, one of Pope Francis' initial endeavors was to regularise Vatican finances, and so within one year of his election, he established the Council for the Economy, as mentioned earlier.

The title of Pope Francis's Apostolic Letter establishing the Council for the Economy as a dicastery of the Roman Curia is Fidelis Dispensator et Prudens, (faithful and wise manager).

The fifteen-member Council for the Economy has consistently maintained a clerical majority and is coordinated by a cardinal. However, its website describes seven members as "experts of various nationalities, with financial expertise and recognised professionalism," and six of those seven are women, each a financial professional.

Its deputy coordinator, Dr Charlotte Kreuter-Kirchhof, is a law professor who is also an advisor to the "Women in Church and Society" sub-commission of the Pastoral Commission of the German Bishops' Conference.

As you move down the Vatican's wire diagram to the groups with a consultative role, more women are present in "titled" roles.

The Secretary for the Pontifical Commission for Latin America is Argentinian Dr Emilce Cuda, and the Adjunct Secretary for the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors is American Dr Teresa Kettelkamp.

The Secretary of the Pontifical Biblical Commission is Spaniard Dr Nuria Calduch-Benages, a well-known biblical scholar and professor at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.

Dr Calduch-Benages is the unpaid Secretary of the Pontifical Biblical Commission. I do not know if Dr Cuda or Dr Kettlekamp is paid.

You see, not every Vatican appointment comes with a salary.

The voluntary nature of participation in certain positions in the Vatican increases as the commissions and institutes that are ad hoc, or adjunct, to one or another dicastery proliferate.

While participation is unpaid, travel expenses are covered, including (if needed) a few nights' lodging in Domus Sanctae Marthae. However, budgetary and language restrictions within the Vatican cause a significant default to choosing participants and members already residing in Rome and its environs.

And it is important to recall that women -whether secular or religious women - have no guarantee of ecclesiastical salaries outside their voluntary Vatican work.

So even if chosen, it is sometimes difficult for a woman to accept a consultative Vatican appointment.

So, yes, there are many women involved in Vatican operations. Those central to actual management functions of the Curia are salaried Italian women, including many religious sisters, and others fluent in Italian.

Those in more consultative roles are from a larger pool of qualified individuals. Those in even more peripheral positions, such as the members of the two Pontifical Commissions for the Study of the Diaconate of Women, include more women.

But even the commission I served on was comprised of members of other, more permanent Vatican commissions, or they were members of university faculties in Rome. Except me. I was the only member of my commission with no Roman or Vatican connection.

Ministry

The Commission I served on was about ministry as the Vatican formally defined it then and how the Vatican realistically defines it to this day. If you ask the folks at Merriam-Webster, "ministry" comprises the office, duties, or functions of a minister.

That is, ministry is about the office, duties, or functions of a member of the clergy.

As I noted earlier, Pope Francis seems to depend on categories invented by Hans Urs von Balthasar, categories the pope calls "theological."

He said the ministerial dimension is that of the Petrine church and the Marian principle is the principle of femininity in the Church. That appears to eliminate women.

As grating as these categories are, it is important at this point to recall how Pope Francis has referred to women from the very beginning of his pontificate.

In May 2013, during his first address to the International Union of Superiors General, Francis recommended that the sisters be mothers, not old maids.

His repeated "jokes" and other comments about women have fallen flat time after time.

Who can forget his calling women theologians the "strawberries on the cake"? That was ten years ago, but it signaled one way Francis saw women professionals then.

What about now?

Francis has repeated his feminine analogies about the Church.

Just last March, in an address to participants in a conference entitled "Women in the Church: Builders of Humanity," the pope said, "The Church is herself a woman: a daughter, a bride and a mother."

While the qualities he attributes to women are laudable for everyone, he emphasises two aspects of "women's vocation": style and education. He notes that "style" includes the ability "to bring love where love is lacking, and humanity where human beings are searching to find their true identity."

He speaks directly to the conference participants about "education," expressing his hope that "educational settings, in addition to being places of study, research and learning, places of ‘information,' will also be places of ‘formation,' where minds and hearts are opened to the promptings of the Holy Spirit."

Without digressing to the 1967 Land O'Lakes Statement and its controversy or Pope John Paul II's Apostolic Constitution Ex Corde Ecclesiae on Catholic universities, I must note here the distinction between theology and apologetics, as well as the tasks and duties of the diaconate.

As for Catholic education, the fact of the formative influence of Catholic education cannot be disparaged nor denied, but theology is not apologetics.

As for the diaconate, the deacon is ordained to the ministries of the Word, the liturgy, and charity. If we consider the historical position of the deacon as the principal coordinator of the charity of the Church, then the duty of the deacon to proclaim and preach the Word in the liturgy becomes evident.

If we apply the pope's words to the diaconal ministry of women throughout the centuries, in the West up through the mid-12th century, we can see that it was women deacons who brought love where love was lacking and who provided formation to women and children.

We know women were ordained in Lucca, Italy in the mid-1100s, but realistically in the 12th century, no person who was not destined for priestly ordination could be ordained deacon.

Since by that time, most women deacons were monastics, with few serving as what might be termed "social service" deacons, and because the diaconate as exercised by men had become mostly ceremonial and generally moribund, the sacramental ordination of women to the diaconate ceased in the West.

I spoke at length about women in management. But what about women in ministry?

It is impossible to ignore Pope Francis' emphatic "no" when he was asked in a CBS television interview about the sacramental ordination of women as deacons.

He seemed to support his "no" with his opinion that the "deaconesses" in the early church—and "deaconess" is the word he used—that the "deaconesses" in the early church served diaconal "functions" without being sacramentally ordained.

That understanding is not supported by scholarship.

A little recent history

Since 1971, the Church has, at various times and various levels, directly discussed the ordination of women as deacons.

In 1971, the second meeting of the Synod of Bishops included substantial discussion about women in ordained ministry.

By 1973, Pope Paul VI established a Commission on the Role of Women in Church and in Society, which met intermittently over a period of two years. In that Commission, the question of women priests was immediately off the table.

But at its first meeting, one of the commission's fourteen women members asked to discuss women deacons.

The Commission's president, an Italian archbishop, immediately closed the discussion.

He said the diaconate was a stage of orders directly connected to the priesthood—this argument would soon be termed the "unicity of orders" -and therefore women deacons could not be considered.

Even so, he augmented the commission's final two-page report with a seven-page private memorandum to Pope Paul VI, which was much more positive about women deacons.

Meanwhile, in 1969 the International Theological Commission had been created to address questions of doctrine.

The world's foremost (male) theologians gathered in Rome on occasion to discuss pressing issues for the Church.

Women in ministry soon became one of those pressing issues, and the Secretary of the International Theological Commission, perhaps at the suggestion of the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, named a small sub-group of theologians to study the female diaconate.

Their discussion was quite positive—even Yves Congar thought the ordination of women as deacons was possible—but despite some members urging a positive vote on the question, none was taken, the question was tabled, and the ITC proceeded to write a document that opined women could not be ordained as priests.

The official commentary to that document stated that the question of women deacons would be left for "further study."

Academic debate continued, and there remained no consensus as to whether the women deacons of history were sacramentally ordained.

However, to say the women of history were not sacramentally ordained would be to dispute the intent of the ordaining bishops, who used the same ritual for women deacons as for men deacons.

The formal rituals used to ordain women were performed within the Mass, where the persons to be ordained as deacons—whether male or female—were ordained by the bishop inside the sanctuary, through the laying on of hands with the epiclesis (or calling down of the Holy Spirit); they were invested with a stole, self-communicated from the chalice, and the bishop called them deacons.

That is, both male and female candidates were ordained in identical ceremonies and were called deacons, or, in some languages, the women deacons were called "deaconesses."

So, why could women not be ordained today?

Several reasons are given, all of which fall to either logic, history, or both. They are,

• Women deacons were blessed but not "ordained";
• "Deaconess" always means the wife of a deacon;
• Male and female deacons had different functions;
• The unicity of orders limits ordination to men (cursus honorum);
• Women cannot image Christ (iconic argument);
• Women are not valid subjects for ordination;
• Women are "unclean" and restricted from the sanctuary.

Since the 17th century, scholars have argued over the history of women deacons, one or another questioning whether the women deacons of history were sacramentally ordained.

In the 17th century, one scholar, Jean Morin, studied all the existing liturgies in Latin, Greek, and the languages of Syria and Babylonia.

He determined that the liturgies met the criteria for sacramental ordination set forth by the Council of Trent.

A century later, another writer disagreed.

When we arrive at the 1970s, the question of women in the church, especially the question of women priests, was in the air.

Nothing came of the work of the ITC sub-commission, except one member, Cipriano Vagaggini published a long and dense article stating his positive view.

Vagaggini was so well thought of, that the 1987 Synod of Bishops asked his opinion on women deacons, which he freely shared.

After reminding the assembled bishops that in 1736, when Pope Benedict XIV approved ordained women deacons in the Catholic Maronite tradition, he permitted them to administer the sacrament of extreme unction within their monasteries, Vagaggini continued:

If that is the case, one senses the legitimacy and urgency for competent authorities to admit women to the sacrament of order of the diaconate and to grant them all the functions, even the liturgical functions that, in the present historical moment of the church, are considered necessary for the greater benefit of believers, not excluding—as I personally maintain—if it is judged pastorally appropriate, equality between the liturgical functions of men deacons and women deacons. (- Cipriano Vagaggini, "The Deaconess in the Byzantine Tradition" in Women Deacons? Essays with Answers, Phyllis Zagano, ed. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2016, 96-99, at 99.)

His recommendation went nowhere, and around that time I was told in Rome by the highest placed women in the Curia that "they can't say ‘no'; they just don't want to say ‘yes'".

The discussion continued and was picked up by the 1992-1997 ITC, which again formed a subcommittee and again found in favor of restoring women to the ordained diaconate.

Their 17-page document was printed, numbered, and voted on, but not promulgated. The ITC president objected. He was then the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. He was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger.

So, the question went to yet another ITC subcommittee, which in 2002 published a paper stating that the question was "up to the Magisterium" to decide.

Nothing happened.

Until, in 2016, the International Union of Superiors General (UISG) asked Pope Francis to form another Commission. And so I went to Rome that following November in 2016.

There was another pontifical commission, which met twice for one week each, in September of 2021 and July of 2022.

The Synod on Synodality

The first session of the current Synod on Synodality asked for the reports of each Commission because in synodal discussion some felt ordaining women as deacons would restore a tradition, while others disagreed.

The Synod stated that questions about women were "urgent," and so, one of the ten "study groups" charged by the pope and the Synod office to provide detailed reports to Synod members was charged with the question of women deacons.

Meanwhile, as I mentioned, in his televised interview with CBS-TV's Norah O'Donnell, the pope said "no" to women deacons.

Specifically, he denied the possibility to Norah O'Donnell, who asked him:

Norah O'Donnell (23:05): I understand you have said no women as priests, but you are studying the idea of women as deacons. Is that something you are open to?

Translator (23:15): No. If it is deacons with holy orders, no. But women have always had, I would say the function of deaconesses without being deacons, right? Women are of great service as women, not as ministers. As ministers in this regard. Within the Holy Orders.

That could be the end of it, or not. I am attempting to get the Spanish recording or the Spanish transcript.

What did the pope understand?

Was he being asked about the diaconate as a preliminary step to the priesthood?

On the face of it, his response is wholly incorrect.

There was no distinction between women deacons and deaconesses throughout history. It is a fact that some, if not all, were sacramentally ordained.

What the Church has done the Church can do again.

And the Church has done it.

On May 2, the Greek Orthodox Church of Zimbabwe ordained a woman deacon—they prefer the term "deaconess"—using the liturgy it uses for ordaining men as deacons.

The ordaining prelate, Metropolitan Seraphim, just changed the pronouns.

We know that Synod reports from every corner of the world ask the Church to recognise the baptismal equality of all people.

While women are increasingly added to church management, the only response to requests for women deacons has been Pope Francis' televised "no."

We sit and wonder what the future holds.

I cannot tell you what my Commission did.

Despite my three requests to the Commission president, then-Archbishop Luis Ladaria, twice in writing and once in person, I have not seen what he gave Pope Francis in the name of the Commission I served on.

I can tell you one thing, however.

After our first meeting formally closed, I asked to say just one more thing, to the group and to the Commission president.

I said: "When I arrived at the Vatican, I was listed on the guest list as ‘Monsignor Zagano.'"

One member asked: "If she's a monsignor, what are we doing here?"

Exactly.

• Phyllis Zagano, Ph.D. is senior research associate-in-residence and adjunct professor of religion at Hofstra University, Hempstead, New York.
• Transcript from Rita Cassella Jones Lecture at Fordham of September 17, 2024.

They see it as a wasted opportunity to address the gender divide in the Church, and ask if God did not create men and women in his own likeness. They feel confused by an outdated theology that continues to reflect the relationship in terms of a masculine God to a feminine Church.

Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández, prefect of the Vatican's Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, says the time is not right. However, "Can't they (the Vatican) read the room? When will the time be right?" asks Matthew.

Synodality needs defining

"I hope the Holy Spirit is blowing," Paul told CathNews.

"I know I'm not directly addressing the topic but it seems to me there is an issue with Synodality, of raising people's hopes only to shatter them seems an abuse of their voice," said Paul.

"This sort of thing happened at the Amazon Synod when there was talk of ordaining approved married men; it went nowhere.

"I guess this happens when the boss takes topics off the synodal table.

"We've heard a little about what Synodality isn't, but little if any about what Synodality is. I just wish someone would define it. In his feedback from the first session, not even Archbishop Martin who was at the Synod was able to give a clear view.

"It's a bit chaotic; how do we aim for something that seems in a fog?

"Francis wants behaviour changes from bishops but, as Bishop of Rome, doesn't he have to give witness to these behavioural changes?

"I really like Pope Francis; he's a breath of much-needed fresh air, and he regularly asks for our prayers. I'm praying for him," he said.

Anthony, a married man and father of three young women, writes - "In the context of the much-vaunted synodality, such secrecy and male authoritarianism is simply inconsistent with a new, listening, discerning and collaborating Church.

"At best it's not a good look - at worst it's deeply cynical and dismissive."

Women deacons not the issue

Some correspondents suggested the issue is larger than women deacons and has gone on for a long time.

"I was absolutely gutted when the opportunity arose to have liturgical language inclusive and it wasn't. I truly felt discriminated against.

"I read the divine office and it's all he and men.

"I fail to understand how priesthood stemming down through the generations from Jesus has become this male hierarchy," writes Trish.

Jo, another correspondent, writes "I think that the diaconate for women is a distraction from the real issue which is the reform of our priestly/leadership model which is beset with clericalism.

"Ordaining women deacons would be just another layer of clericalism which is, for many Christians, the weight under which the church is sinking into the mire of irrelevance.

"However, of more concern is the reason for this latest decision. It shows once again that a majority of the hierarchy - at least those with the power of global decision making - have an inadequate theology of baptism.

"Baptism admits people to full membership of the church so that there is 'neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus'. Galatians 3

"And we could of course rehearse again the evidence of the Second Testament about the place of women in the early church which shows that equal membership was their theological understanding and in many places dictated their practice."

Come Holy Spirit

Other ‘good' Catholics want to be hopeful but feel despondent.

"I still read at Mass, visit the sick and am involved in the wider community, but I'm kind of over what the Catholic Church will or won't do," writes Mary.

Anthony again, writes - "Where are the hierarchy's concrete proposals (or even suggestions) regarding recognising women's contributions and improving their influence and status within the Church's governance?

"The clerical hierarchy has had decades, generations, centuries to come up with solutions and proposals that recognise and keep apace with women's out-sized contribution to the Church's life. It has signally failed to offer anything that might persuade many women to linger within the fold.

"In the meantime, we are a Church that is wheezing along with one lung!

"As a husband and father of women I'm now beginning to feel like the last godwit on the beach! Patience is not unlimited. The time for actions rather than words is long overdue."

New Zealand reaction not isolated

New Zealand women and men are not alone in their perspective.

Katharina Goldinger is a theologian, a religion teacher at a grammar school and a pastoral worker in the diocese of Speyer, Germany.

Writing in Katholisch.de she says that the Synod on Synodality was actually supposed to open up the space for consultation, however a man has the last word, even when it comes to the position of women in the Church.

"The many voices around the world that had spoken out in favour of putting the issue of gender equality on the agenda have fallen silent. Instead, a separate room was opened as a diplomatic echo chamber...

"In a word, Brother Francis: it is dishonest to launch a synod that is supposed to open up the space for dialogue and consultation when the message expressed in concrete actions is the opposite...

"Women are not worthy to represent the incarnate God and the literal dominance of men is a brand essence of the Catholic Church."

Protests promised

A coalition of progressive reform groups has announced plans to stage protests, describing the handling of questions about the role of women in the church at the current Synod of Bishops on Synodality as "catastrophic".

"I see no desire on the part of the Vatican to seriously address the issue of women in church offices," said Regina Franken, European chair of the Catholic Women's Council, in remarks to KNA, the official news service of the Catholic bishops in Germany.

Franken labelled the Vatican's response as a "delaying tactic" and said "Women are no longer willing to accept these strategies".

Happy with the Vatican's response

However, some are pleased with the Vatican's response.

"No, to women deacons? Has it worked in the Anglican church?" asks Eileen.

"Catholic women should imitate Mother Mary and the female saints, not the Cows of Bashan or Barbie.

"Generally, XX and XY chromosomes exist for a reason.

"As Shakespeare wrote in The Merchant of Venice, 'In the end, the truth will out'. And he was a baptised cradle Catholic as well."

Sources

• Supplied: Various
• Katholisch.de
• Crux

The announcement came from Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández, head of the Vatican's Doctrine Office.

It came after a year-long study by a specially appointed unnamed synod group.

"We have concluded that there is still no room for a positive decision by the Magisterium regarding the access of women to the diaconate, understood as a degree of the Sacrament of Holy Orders" said Fernández, speaking to the Synod of Bishops.

Synod study group's secrecy raises questions

After last year's synod gathering the Vatican formed ten study groups to address various theological matters.

The group focusing on the potential for women deacons was the only one that remained shrouded in secrecy, with no official disclosure of its members.

Unlike other groups which identified participants with photos and names during presentations, the women's diaconate group was represented by only two group photos.

While the report did not dismiss the possibility of further study, it echoed concerns previously raised by Pope Francis.

"We know the public position of the Pope, who does not consider the question [of women deacons] mature" said Fernández.

In May, when CBS journalist Norah O'Donnell asked Francis if women will ever have "the opportunity to be a deacon and participate as a clergy member in the Church", the Pope said "No".

"If it is deacons with Holy Orders, no" the Pope said.

Discernment, not rushed decisions

The Vatican reiterated the need for "discernment" before making decisions on expanding roles for women in the Church.

Fernández noted that rushing into the ordination of women deacons would be premature and could detract from the broader debate on women's ministries in the Catholic Church.

"The opportunity for a deepening remains open, but in the mind of the Holy Father, there are other issues still to be deepened and resolved before rushing to speak of a possible diaconate for some women" he said.

"Otherwise, the diaconate becomes a kind of consolation for some women and the most decisive question of the participation of women in the Church remains unanswered."

Patience test for some churches

Before the Synod convened for a second time, theologian Tomáš Halík urged caution against expecting swift synodal reforms in the Church.

"It is unrealistic to anticipate visible, mainly external, institutional changes immediately following the two synod meetings in Rome" Halík wrote in the October issue of "Herder Korrespondenz".

According to Halík, synodal reform is a "more profound and demanding task" than merely transforming a rigid clerical structure into more open communication within the Church.

The notion that major changes should come primarily from the hierarchy reflects a form of clericalism and an overestimation of the hierarchy's role, Halík argued.

While the synodal reform does not undermine the competence and responsibilities of official authorities like bishops, it seeks to broaden the involvement of other Christians in the decision-making process, which he believes is essential before any significant decisions can be made within the Church.

Halík suggests there will be a "significant test of patience" for some local churches that await change.

Other study groups

Announced by the synod's organisational team in March, the synod study groups have been assigned the following subjects:

• The relationship between the Eastern Catholic Churches and the Latin Church
• Listening to the Cry of the Poor
• The mission in the digital environment
• The revision of the Ratio Fundamentalis Institutionis Sacerdotalis in a missionary synodal perspective
• Theological and canonical matters regarding specific ministerial forms
• The revision, in a synodal missionary perspective, of the documents touching on the relationship between bishops, consecrated life and ecclesial associations
• Some aspects of the person and ministry of the bishop (criteria for selecting candidates to episcopacy, judicial function of the bishops, nature and course of ad limina apostolorum visits) from a missionary synodal perspective
• The role of papal representatives in a missionary synodal perspective
• Theological criteria and synodal methodologies for shared discernment of controversial doctrinal, pastoral and ethical issues
• The reception of the fruits of the ecumenical journey in ecclesial practices.

Sources

• America
• Crux
• ETWN
• NCR
• USCBC
• Katholisch

The "Instrumentum Laboris," or "working document," is an initial plan for the second and final stage of the synod that Pope Francis called in 2021.

His aim was to promote dialogue in the Church and beginning with months of listening sessions at the parish and diocesan levels.

Among the most mentioned concerns were LGBTQ acceptance, combating sexual abuse, fighting poverty and violence, and women's roles in the Church.

"The contributions received at all stages highlighted the need to give fuller recognition to the charisms, vocation and role of women, to better honour this reciprocity of relations in all spheres of the Church's life," Tuesday's document stated.'

What's happened since last year

After last October's synod meeting, bishops and lay representatives met to produce a report on the synod that was sent to local churches for feedback and reflection.

Male and female religious organisations, 108 national bishops' conferences as well as nine participating Eastern rite churches then sent their reflections back to the Vatican's synod office.

A team of 70 experts, including canon lawyers and theologians, collaborated to draft the document released on Tuesday.

But while the topic of female participation and leadership is prevalent in the latest document, highly anticipated questions about allowing women to serve as deacons — ordained persons who can perform some of the sacraments and preach at Mass — will not be discussed at the gathering.

The Vatican has made that clear.

Asked about women in the diaconate in a May interview with CBS News, Francis pushed back, saying that women have functioned as deaconesses without ordination in the past, providing "a great service" to the Church.

Off the agenda

On Tuesday, Cardinal Mario Grech, secretary general of the Vatican synod office, confirmed that women deacons would not be on the agenda at the synod.

"I read what the Holy Father said and so far it's a ‘no,'" Grech said at the news conference presenting the document on Tuesday.

"But at the same time, the Holy Father said that the reflection and in-depth theological analysis must go on."

Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, who leads the European bishops' conference, also clarified that the synod will not be making a final decision on such matters.

"The synod will entrust its conclusions to the Holy Father," he said.

A synodal Church in mission

Indeed, Francis has already asked that this October's meeting focus on the question of "how to be a synodal church in mission," pushing off other hot button topics, including the welcoming of LGBTQ people, priestly celibacy and women's ordination, for study by 10 small groups, which will issue a single report in 2025.

The "Instrumentum Laboris" instructed participants to consider practical actions to realise Catholic women's "untapped" potential and to develop new possibilities for women at every level.

The document suggested creating new spaces where women may share their skills and insights, allowing for more women in decision-making roles, expanding religious women's roles and responsibility and increasing the women's leadership in seminaries and Church tribunals.

The document urged acceptance and embrace of diverse communities in the Church more generally.

It calls calling for greater lay participation, accessible liturgies and for the welcoming of marginalised groups.

The document also asked that language and images used in churches be "more inclusive."

Synod participants were asked to strengthen the role of councils of lay and religious people that assist parish priests in managing the community.

"This is one of the most promising areas on which to act for a swift implementation of the synodal proposals and orientations, leading to changes with an effective and rapid impact," the document read.

The authors of the document appear to recognize that the financial and clerical abuse scandals of recent years have tarnished the Church's reputation.

They call for more scrutiny of local churches to ensure transparency and accountability, suggesting that laypeople with experience in financial planning and audits be more involved.

To combat abuse, the authors proposed that Catholic congregations explain how they have implemented safeguards.

All these issues, the "Intrumentum Laboris" said, could be better dealt with through closer collaboration between dioceses and the national bishops' conferences.

If the Vatican can't solve the most contentious disagreements in the Church, the latest document seemed to project a softer approach on these issues.

"Sure, there have been tensions and conflicts," said the Rev. Giacomo Costa, special secretary of the synod.

He adds: "the Church is not homogeneous but harmonious."

On Tuesday, Costa said at the news conference: "It would be nice if everyone were able to put harmony first, and not ideas, ideologies or interests, that end up destroying what we claim we want to preserve."

Source

• RNS

She refers to the pope's interview for a CBS "60 Minutes" show in May.

In it Francis said he was opposed to women deacons if it involves the sacrament of Holy Orders.

The "women deacons" question has been raised repeatedly during the Synod on Synodality process she says. "Francis's speech caused some perplexity, but an interview is not the magisterium of the church."

"We're living through the second stage of a synod on synodality, and I know that it won't resolve all the necessary issues of change in the church.

"But it will open up ways for us to continue the conversation and for all of us."

Conversion needed

Pereira Manso is the vice president of the Ecclesial Conference of the Amazon (CEAMA).

"We have important changes underway in the Church" she says.

Before many of the specific doctrinal questions can be considered, a "conversion" of the Church's way of being is needed she says.

"This includes the pope, the laity and everyone in between."

The Church in the Amazon

For years, Pereira Manso and other religious sisters have worked in remote parts of the Amazon. There are few priests. Many faithful lack regular access to the sacraments.

While the pope may be hesitant to back the restoration of the female diaconate, much of the work that these sisters already do is that of diaconal ministry.

CEAMA is the first-of-its-kind ecclesial assembly to include women in a leadership position.

This will continue regardless of what is officially decided during the Synod Pereira Manso says.

"I continue to believe in the service that we women offer the Church and the mission of being bridges and not letting prophecy fall.

"This is how we will continue to serve the people of God, who live on the margins, on the peripheries and in the cellars of humanity, in defence of life, the earth and rights."

Pereira Manso was an auditor at the 2019 Amazon synod. We have "reinvented ourselves" as a Church in the Amazon through a range of new proposals she says.

These include an Amazon liturgical rite, expanded ministries, intercultural dialogue and bilingual education.

Women's ministries

Women's ministries were discussed explicitly last year during a CEAMA meeting with the pope.

"He told us that there was no turning back from the changes underway."

He noted work is continuing for the Church to have a fuller discernment on these questions.

As she looks ahead to the next synod on synodality meeting, Pereira Manso has a particular prayer.

She prays for increased openness on the "topics where the Church still lacks consensus and transparency, so that they are in fact the action of the Divine Ruah and not the fear of moving into deeper waters".

Source

• NCR Online

There are undoubtedly many reasons for this authoritative decision, and it can be legitimately reduced to the pope's personal conviction formed in prayer, which suffices.

However, at least three reasons can still be considered.

Church unity

The first reason is the pope's responsibility as the ultimate guardian of the Church's unity.

It is his role to assess the Church's "elasticity" in its vast geographic, historical, cultural, and ideological diversity.

The reception of the document Fiducia supplicans on blessings showed the extreme difficulty of now having a single audible word across all continents, given the diversity of societies and the church's relationships with each of these societies.

The specificity of the synodal dynamic in our Catholic Church is to be "with Peter under Peter."

The pope is both a member of the Synodal Assembly and in a position of authority relative to it.

It is an advantage to feel, in each Synod, the Holy Father's will to steer the church in a given direction.

But on this path, we must walk together, often at the pace of the slowest. The appreciation of this pace falls under the pope's own responsibility.

Regarding the burning issue of women's place in the life of the church and the gap with their place in society worldwide, Pope Francis's pontificate has shifted lines that were difficult to imagine being moved.

The horizon unfolds as we walk, and what seemed unimaginable yesterday, like the appointment of women to the highest responsibilities in the Roman Curia, has become natural today.

Likewise, what seems unimaginable today will become natural tomorrow.

The Sacrament of Holy Orders

The second reason concerns the central question of the Sacrament of Holy Orders.

It is the backbone of the ecclesial body we form.

Does this backbone limit the body's growth, or does it hold it upright in its uniqueness?

Deep divisions over the answer to this question are not hard to foresee.

We all aim to change our bodies, to slim them down, to strengthen them, but we know that we cannot change bodies without changing our identity.

In opening the Sacrament of Holy Orders to women through diaconal ordination, does it represent a healthy work on our ecclesial body, or does it amount to an impossible body change?

The Holy Father seems to have opted for the latter.

One thing is certain: no substantial evolution on this issue, as on others, can dispense with in-depth reflection on the Sacrament of Holy Orders.

Is everything in it intangible and set for eternity? A backbone accompanies the growth of the human body. If it blocks growth, it renders the whole body disabled.

The risk of clericalism

The third reason may be the Holy Father's intention to combat the risks of deviations inherent to what he calls clericalism, to which male exclusivity is not unrelated.

The composition of the synod and its way of working, as well as its expression, invalidate any idea of a third Vatican Council modeled after Vatican II.

With Vatican II, the major directions for our church for the coming decades would be developed among bishops alone.

This (r)evolution has profound implications for the role of the laity, and thus also of women, in the Catholic Church.

Moreover, while women are currently barred from accessing Holy Orders, the distribution of missions between clerics and non-clerics is not immutable.

In his response to the American journalist who questioned him, the Holy Father reminded us that "women have always had the function of deaconesses without being deacons!"

Indeed, women have not waited for the sacrament of the diakonos, the servant, to assume the bulk of the minor and major services in the Church!

Opening the service of the Word

However, one service is still denied to them — preaching the Word in its most precious and most common setting, the Eucharist (Mass).

Many women have an education equal to or superior to that of clerics.

We know perfectly well how to maintain the symbolic link between the altar of the Word and that of the Eucharist when the main celebrant does not preach.

How can we then justify expressing only male sensibility in the commentary on the word of God during the Mass?

How can we justify denying women the opportunity to hear this Word resonate in their hearts?

I hope the time has finally come to open this service of the Word to trained laypeople and, thus, also to women.

• First published in La Croix
• Jean-Paul Vesco OP  is the Archbishop of Algiers (Algeria).

The Western media has gone a bit mad, calling it "breaking with tradition" and a radical new step forward.

Ordaining women deacons

The usual suspects have trotted out the usual creaky arguments about female diaconal ordination being just a matter of days away in the Catholic church.

But some of our Orthodox brothers and sisters would beg to differ.

I've been reading conflicting news accounts from different Orthodox news services about how the process was approved, what for, and how it was done.

It's made me heave a sigh of relief that the Catholic church is moving in geological time on this issue.

The Orthodox churches have a range of views on deaconesses, and when and how they should be deployed, and what they can and can't do. So far, they can't agree with each other.

There's also a group of Orthodox women - the St Phoebe Centre for the Deaconess, based in the United States - with a familiar feminist twist.

They want women deacons to be fully involved in the Orthodox liturgy and equivalent to male deacons.

But this isn't how most Orthodox churches see it.

Orthodox differences

It seems that the Catholic church isn't the only one with a wealthy, educated and privileged minority who think the church should be re-made in their own image.

What I've now learned is that many—but not all—Orthodox communities have accepted that deaconesses were part of the early church.

This doesn't include a group called "The Church of Greece", who are part of the Greek Orthodox church. They say they've never had deaconesses and aren't about to start now.

But for the others, if it's a matter of reviving something ancient for modern times, what might that look like? Even the Patriarchate in Africa admits that this is still a work in progress.

There's a nice distinction in the Orthodox church between chirotony (what we'd call ordination) and chirothesy (‘the laying on of hands').

Deaconesses were traditionally appointed through chirothesy.

The Orthodox liturgy is also different from the Western rite of Mass.

There's already been a row because Deaconess Angelic assisted with the distribution of holy communion at her ordination ceremony, which wasn't meant to be part of her role.

But in the West, we've already introduced women readers at Mass, and women as extraordinary ministers of holy Communion.

Women as readers are still quite rare in the Orthodox churches, so we're streets ahead.

Baptism in Orthodox churches is full immersion. It's usually for children aged about three, and they also make their first communion and are confirmed at the same time.

In Africa there's a lot of adult converts to Christianity, including Orthodoxy.

Deaconesses could well assist there with adult female baptisms in a way that's consistent with their role in the early church.

Deaconesses in Africa could also go into women's homes and visit them pastorally without causing trouble in male-dominated communities.

So maybe this old practice could work in this specific pastoral situation.

Changing need

The Orthodox authorities are very aware that the role of women deacons became obsolete as things changed.

Like the Catholic church, they moved to mostly child baptisms, and women gradually gained more freedom of movement.

Most of us would recognise that in the Western Catholic church, there's no urgent pastoral call for women deacons.

We don't do full immersion baptisms, there's no stampede of adult female converts, and women have full social equality with men.

We're already a female-dominated church in the pews—around two-thirds of all regular Mass-goers in Australia are women.

Most of these are feisty souls who come and go as they please and aren't trapped at home by a patriarchal husband.

We've got plenty of priests to manage our very small Mass-going population, even if we do need to spread them out a bit more.

We have extraordinary ministers of holy Communion to help with Sunday Masses and sick calls.

And if you absolutely must preach, get yourself a YouTube channel or a TikTok account. Or a Catholic newspaper column.

Vatican II gave us back the lay vocation and the personal call to holiness.

Thousands of lay people in Australia have already embraced it willingly, and their work in their parishes and communities is bearing fruit.

Reviving women deacons in the Catholic church in the West is pointless—they're already obsolete. What on earth could they do that isn't already done competently by lay men and women?

• First published at The Catholic Weekly
• Philippa Martyr is a Perth-based historian, university lecturer and academic researcher.

She made the comments to Dr Joe Grayland from Tubingen University, Germany. in an interview for CathNews.

Deacons bring Gospel into action

Zagano, a leading scholar on the diaconate, argues that women deacons could be a tonic for the Church, revitalising it by bringing the gospel into action.

Asked why the Church needs deacons at all, Zagano said "The diaconate is really about bringing the gospel in action to the people of God".

Temporal and spiritual

Clarifying that the role of a deacon is both temporal and spiritual, Zagano said that historically deacons managed charity and performed weddings, baptisms and funerals.

She told Grayland that deacons' actions were crucial in spreading the gospel and restoring the diaconate, especially for women, and that they could help the Church address modern challenges.

"If we recover the diaconate today, I think the deacon would be the one to help get the chequebook out of the pastor's hands, spread the wealth around and take care of the poor" she said.

Diaconate - not an apprenticeship for priesthood

Zagano however has some reservations about the role of transitional deacons, those ordained as a step before priesthood, as they were serving as apprentices.

Questioning the necessity for this, she said there is one diaconate and that many people have said there's no reason to ordain anyone a deacon before that person is ordained a priest.

Clarifying, Zagano said being a deacon is about service and is the opposite of having power.

"I was asked the other day about power and women asking to be deacons so they could have power.

"My answer is simply that if you want to be ordained to have power, you should probably do something else.

Grayland asked Zagano whether having power is the issue. Zagano said that it is, but an individual will not get much or any power.

"Certainly an individual who comes to be a deacon just because he or she can't be a priest or a bishop will be shown the door; they are two separate questions."

A global perspective

Zagano acknowledges cultural differences within the global Church.

She acknowledges that some regions may be more receptive to the idea of women deacons while others face different challenges.

"If your territory does not need or wish for women in the diaconate, it will not have it" she says.

"But if Austria and Germany find that the diaconate can include women and the Church can accept it, and there is a need for it, then that's what it is."

She argues that the Church's mission should include all its people and that justice for women in the Church means recognising their equal humanity and ability to proclaim the gospel.

Zagano's advocacy for women deacons continues to spark significant debate within the Catholic Church.

Her call for justice and equality resonates with many, but the path forward remains contentious.

As discussions continue, the Church must balance tradition and modernity in its mission to spread the gospel and serve its global community.

Personal journey and advocacy

Zagano's interest in the diaconate stems from her own experience.

Archbishop Jean Jadot, Papal Nuncio to the US, encouraged her to pursue her studies and advocacy despite challenges.

During their conversation Jadot told her "Don't quit".

Today she continues her advocacy, emphasising the historical precedent and modern necessity of women deacons.

Read more on deacons in the Church

What is a Deacon?

Ten-year-old Beth asks her parents about the new deacon in the parish.

They explain the diaconate and she is surprised.

She quickly finds out that her classmates do not know what a deacon is or what a deacon does.

She and her and her friend Carol ask their CCD teacher, who explains what a deacon is today and helps them to begin to think about the future.

What is a Deacon by Irene Kelly

Just Church

Just Church engages the reader in the synodal pathway to a "Just Church" that can and should reflect its social teaching.

An important measure of justice is an ecclesiology open to participation by others beyond celibate clerics, especially in consideration of competing Catholic ecclesial bodies and methods of membership.

Just Church study guide - Phyllis Zagano's free Study Guide.

Cupich told O'Connell about his experience of the meeting and the synod's synthesis document, published Oct. 29.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

O'Connell: What is your overall take on the synthesis document?

Cupich: The document is not as important as the experience that we had. I think the document tries to convey that experience. And it does a good job.

But my hope would be that we are able to take that experience back home and share it with our people because that really is what the synod is about. It's a new way of being Church.

At the same time, the document does call for a codification of synods in the future [being] done along these lines, rather than going back to what we did before.

That's a very important statement, made loud and clear in this document.

We were aware that there are people in the life of the Church and in synod hall who had their doubts about synodality itself as a model for Church life.

There were calls to develop [that model], theologically, so that we're clear about this.

But there was no doubt whatsoever that this is not only a new way that the Church is going to function, but, in fact, [that it is] tapping into the roots of our tradition.

The Church has been synodal from the very beginning. What we're doing is recapturing something that can serve us well in this moment.

O'Connell: You participated in past synods. How has the fact that you have non-bishops voting changed things?

Cupich Instead of having bishops say, "This is what our people are saying," in the old synods, which we tried to do our best to do, we actually had people there.

Young people, elderly people, religious men and women, who, in fact, were on the ground in pastoral ministry, who gave voice in ways that were fresh, were challenging, and in ways that maybe a bishop could not say before.

There was an actual paragraph that was passed overwhelmingly about non-bishops being a part of this: Does it in some way take away from the understanding that it's a Synod of Bishops?

And there was a resounding acceptance that non-bishops should be a part of it because it's not a threat.

It allows the bishops to have that immediate interaction with the voice of the whole church.

That's important. It was pointed out to me that if you look at the votes and you strip away all of the non-bishops who were a part of the synod, the propositions still pass by 75 percent.

O'Connell: But even in this document, they talk about the need to clarify whether this is a Synod of Bishops or an assembly of bishops. Some people raised objections.

Cupich: They did, but I think that there were some propositions that said very clearly that non-bishops should be a part of [the process] going forward in the future.

O'Connell: So you see no going back.

Cupich: I don't think there's a need to go back. We have made some real progress here, and the bishops enjoyed having lay people there.

It wasn't [simply] tolerating it. Maybe there were some voices that had difficulties with it because they wanted it to be all bishops [but] very few.

By and large, the bishops interacted really well with lay people at the tables.

O'Connell: One of the big developments in this document is the role of women in the church.

Cupich: We're talking about a real paradigm shift here.

We recognise the fact that women, de facto, carry the life of the Church, on so many levels, to make it operational on a day-to-day basis.

But I think it's more than recognising that; it's dealing also with how you include women in important decision making, how you place them within the life of the community so that their leadership is regarded, respected and protected.

[The document] talks about different ministries that might be created to do that. I know that there was a lot of discussion about women deacons, and that was not resolved here.

But it was very clear that the assembly called for a study and hopefully that we would have the results by the next [synod meeting]. I imagine it's going to be taken up again.

But it's not only about [making] everything about women deacons.

There has to be another way in which we respect that women bring a particular gift to the life of the church, that if absent, impoverishes the church.

How do we take advantage of their gifts and charisms? That's an agenda that's not complete yet. Continue reading

This first pope from the Americas has breathed new life into the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, refashioned the Vatican's staid bureaucracy, and pushed the Catholic Church to focus on the needs of the environment and global peripheries.

One especially interesting turn: Only 22 years after Pope John Paul II claimed the church had "no authority whatsoever" to ordain women as priests, Francis in 2016 created a first-of-its-kind papal commission to study the history of the ordination of women as Catholic deacons.

Even more, in 2020, after that commission had wrapped up its work, the pope created another.

For an institution known for thinking in terms of millennia, this is something akin to lightspeed.

And Francis deserves special applause for listening to the voices of Catholic sisters, long neglected or, worse, mistreated by the Vatican, who bravely asked him to create the first commission.

What's particularly frustrating, then, is the near-complete lack of transparency about the work of the commissions.

Asked by NCR's then-Vatican correspondent Joshua J McElwee in 2019 about the first group's research, Francis said the 12 members of that commission had been unable to find consensus about the role of women deacons in the early church.

A few days later, the pope announced the group had written a report.

He formally handed the text over to the Rome-based umbrella organization of Catholic sisters around the world, the International Union of Superiors General, or UISG.

The document has never been released publicly.

The UISG and the commission members have kept almost total silence about what it said.

But as Phyllis Zagano, a recognized global expert who served on the commission, has surmised, the pope said he gave only a portion of their text to the sisters.

The rest presumably remains with the Vatican's powerful Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith.

The work of the second commission is even murkier.

Although one Catholic news outlet reported that it had met together for the first time in August 2021, more than a year after the announcement, the Vatican has released no other information about its operations.

It is officially unknown how many times the group has met, if they are still meeting, or if they have written a report of their own.

The lack of information is egregious. Continue reading

PC vice president Bishop Shane Mackinlay says he believes "in time we will look back on this as an extremely significant event in the life of the Church in Australia".

The initial failure of the motions about women deacons and opportunities for women was a "terrible look" for the Church, he says. "It was perceived as a rejection of the legitimate concerns women and men in the Church have had for so long."

John Warhurst, a church reform advocate calls it "an encouraging step forward from a group of men who wield ultimate power in the church and have resisted any effective recognition of ministries for women in the past".

"Now we have some hope that the Australian Church can move towards meeting the ideal of gender equality accepted in other parts of society."

While Catholic feminist Marilyn Hatton says she's delighted the Church sees it must improve gender equality, she's disappointed the motion on female deacons has been "watered down". "It would be much better if our bishops were on the front foot on this issue", she says.

Conversely, Maeve Louise Heaney from the Australian Catholic University says the revised motions are superior to the originals.

After two motions were redrafted, 18 of the 19 PC motions were passed.

How they voted

Women deacons

New opportunities for women

The equal dignity of women and men ... including "enhancing the role of women in the Church" and "overcoming assumptions, culture, practices and language that lead to inequality"

Hearing women's perspectives: Ensuring "the experiences and perspectives of women, including women who exercise ministry, are heard, considered and valued at local, diocesan and national levels"

Implementing documents: Previous Australian bishops' documents will be implemented "more fully"

New English Mass translation

Lectors, acolytes and catechists: Formation ministries to be promoted

Reviewing guidelines on preaching: "For lay people to participate in a formal ministry of Preaching in the Latin Church, as provided for in canon 766 of the Code of Canon Law."

Lay homilies: The assembly rejected a motion seeking "an amendment to canon 767 to permit ... those entrusted ... to in the Eucharistic assembly ..."

Catechesis on confession

General absolution

Youth ministry: "Ongoing support and strategies for those who minister to young people", the promotion of "the rich variety of spiritual and devotional traditions of the Church" and "synodal practices such as encounter, accompaniment, listening, dialogue, discernment and collaboration"

Strategic policies: to "Identify and support ministry and leadership formation"

Cooperation: to "Help develop formation programmes"

Working group on formation

Working group on Catholic social teaching

Five-year review: plus interim reports in 2023 and 2025 with final in 2027

Review of previous decrees: "To determine those whose validity may endure" following Vatican II and changes to Church law

Closing the council

Source

• Pillar
• Sydney Morning Herald

In Catholicism, the argument against ordaining women to any grade of order rests in the intimation that women cannot image Christ, the Risen Lord.

But in 2021, Pope Francis modified Canon Law to allow women to be formally installed as lectors and acolytes, each required for diaconal ordination.

In Orthodoxy, in 2017, five women were consecrated as deaconesses (or as subdeacons) in Kolwezi, Democratic Republic of Congo, by the Orthodox Patriarch of Alexandria. Other Church leaders eventually convinced the patriarch to suspend the practice in 2020.

Both facts — women lectors and acolytes in Catholicism and deaconesses or female subdeacons in Orthodoxy, point to the restoration of the tradition of women ordained as deacons.

Each brings to mind two events.

Some time ago, a colleague asked Bartholomew I, the Patriarch of Constantinople, about restoring women to the diaconate. His response was: "We don't want to get ahead of the Catholics on that."

Soon after, another woman reported the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Boston, Cardinal Sean O'Malley, was asked the same question.

"What about women deacons?" He responded: "We don't want to get ahead of the Orthodox on that."

Despite historical evidence, despite theological anthropology and the crying needs of the People of God, Catholicism and Orthodoxy seem wedded to the argument that women cannot be ordained to major orders.

Other ecumenical discussions aside, it appears the leadership of each tradition agrees that one thing is necessary to ensure the stability and order of religion: women must be kept away from the altar.

Except that each of two recent developments — women lectors and acolytes in Catholicism in 2021, and deaconesses (or female subdeacons) in Orthodoxy from 2017 to 2020-apparently promote altar service, if not ordination, for women.

Roman Catholicism

On January 10, 2021, the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, by the "motu proprio" Spiritus Domini and in response to a direct request made in the Final Document of the 2019 Synod on the Amazon, Pope Francis changed Canon 230 § 1 of the 1983 Code of Canon Law to allow women, as well as men, to be formally installed as lectors and acolytes.

The change is not insignificant. Although many commentators correctly point out that many women already perform the functions of these lay ministries, installing women in them is a relatively major step.

Formerly, each was a minor order and a stage in the now-abandoned Roman Catholic cursus honorum.

Solidified and codified in the thirteenth century, the cursus honorum or "course of honor" first led male candidates from tonsure through the minor orders of lector, porter, exorcist, and acolyte, and then through the major orders of sub-deacon, deacon, and priest.

In 1972, when Pope Paul VI suppressed the four minor orders and the major order of sub-deacon, he stated that the functions of these five orders would henceforth belong to the installed lay ministries of lector and acolyte.

The 1983 Code of Canon Law decreed that, should the bishop deem it necessary, any layperson could perform these functions, but only males could be so formally installed.

Formal installation into each of these ministries is required prior to diaconal ordination.

Does the formal installation of women as lectors and acolytes portend women deacons in the Roman Catholic Church?

To be clear, the question is about ordination (cheirotonia) to a major order, not "blessing" (cheirothesia) to a minor order.

For Rome, ordination to the subdiaconate was the ordination to a major order, as was and today is the diaconate. It is important to remember that ordinations of Roman Catholic subdeacons and deacons were to major orders.

The Subdiaconate and Deaconesses
In Orthodoxy, however, the sub-diaconate is the highest of the minor orders, ranked between the reader and the deacon.

There are interesting facts about the subdiaconate in the Eastern Churches.

First, when vested, the Eastern subdeacon wears the orarion, or stole, over the inner and outer cassocks and alb.

Second, the Eastern subdeacon has care of the altar, including of altar cloths and clergy vestments. For these latter purposes, the Eastern subdeacon has a specific blessing to touch the altar.

In the West, the now-suppressed subdiaconate comprised individuals who assisted the deacon while vested in an alb, with a maniple, cincture, and tunic.

Unlike in the East, the Western subdeacon did not wear a stole. In the West, the use of the maniple signified the major order of subdeacon.

Each Church's tradition of the subdiaconate may give hope to those seeking the restoration of the female diaconate.

The events in the Democratic Republic of Congo and their aftermath point to significant advances in the quest for the restoration of the tradition of women deacons at least in Africa, and perhaps elsewhere in Orthodoxy.

The Congolese ceremonies, by the Patriarch of Alexandria and All Africa, seem to have been consecrations or blessings to the Orthodox minor order of subdeacon, as evidenced by their manner and location.

Specifically, the women received a laying on of hands at the throne, not at the altar during the liturgy.

Further, while ancient canons limit diaconal ordination of women to those above the age of forty, photographs of the ceremonies depict five women apparently under the age of forty.

Each woman holds a basin and ewer, items often carried by the subdeacon when taking blessed water to the people so they may bless themselves with it.

Both the photographs and the description of the ceremonies support an assumption that the new "deaconesses" were brought into the minor order of subdeacon, although the patriarch is thought to have intended diaconal ordinations.

In Catholicism, there is no discussion about restoring women to the subdiaconate, because it has been suppressed.

When viewed through the lens of Querida Amazonia, Pope Francis' response to the Final Document of the 2019 Amazon Synod, the restoration of women to the diaconate can seem far off.

However, Francis has pointedly stated that the two documents, the Synod's Final Document and his own Querida Amazonia, must be read in tandem. That is, the one does not replace the other.

At first glance, two paragraphs (102 and 103) of Querida Amazonia seem dismissive of the fact that women can and do image Christ, the Risen Lord.

When read against the backdrop of history's derisive commentary about the place of women in society and in the Church, these two paragraphs seem to present more of the same.

And the imago dei is distorted when Mariology is stressed over the teaching that we are all made in the image and likeness of God.

But what Francis wrote may not be so dismissive:

In a synodal Church, those women who in fact have a central part to play in Amazonian communities should have access to positions, including ecclesial services, that do not entail Holy Orders and that can better signify the role that is theirs.

Here it should be noted that these services entail stability, public recognition, and a commission from the bishop.

This would also allow women to have a real and effective impact on the organization, the most important decisions and the direction of communities while continuing to do so in a way that reflects their womanhood. (QA, 103)

Pope Francis may here be referring to a more pressing need in the Amazon: to regularize the service of women who are de facto Canon 517 § 2 Parish Life Coordinators.

Women, including women who do not have the vocation to the diaconate, are already managing parishes and other ecclesial groupings.

With or without ordination, they can receive and in fact deserve, as he says, "stability, public recognition and a commission from the bishop."

No matter how off-putting his remark about "womanhood," the paragraph does not eliminate the possibility of restoring women to the ordained diaconate.

In fact, responding to the Final Document of the Amazon Synod, Pope Francis acted quickly to modify Canon 230 § 1 to allow women to be installed as lectors and acolytes, which protocol replaced the four minor orders and the major order of subdeacon nearly fifty years ago.

The question arises: If women can now be admitted to installed lay ministries that replace these clerical states, including the major order of subdeacon, how can women now be restricted from joining the ordained diaconate, in which historical documents they have already served?

Arguments against ordaining women as deacons often claim "unicity of orders," calling to Inter insigniores (On the Question of Admission of Women to the Ministerial Priesthood) (15 October 1976).

That is because women cannot be ordained as priests, either can they be ordained as deacons.

In large part, this papally-approved declaration by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith depends upon the so-called "iconic argument" in its presentation against the ordination of women as priests.

The principal argument in Inter insigniores, however, is the argument from authority. Simply stated, the Church says it does not have the authority to ordain women as priests because Jesus's apostles were male.

The force of Inter insigniores and the subsequent Ordinatio sacerdotalis (1994) is underscored by the new Book Six of the Code of Canon Law, which goes into effect this December 8. One innovation in this new Book Six is Canon 1379 § 3:

Both a person who attempts to confer a sacred order on a woman and the woman who attempts to receive the sacred order, incur a latae sententiae excommunication reserved to the Apostolic See; a cleric, moreover, may be punished by dismissal from the clerical state.

But neither Inter insigniores nor Ordinatio sacerdotalis mentions the diaconate. The assumption that there is some relation between the diaconate and the priesthood runs counter to magisterial and conciliar teachings, and canon law, all of which clearly distinguish the two.

While the law may seem to close all possibility of women being restored to the ordained diaconate in the West, the bishop who presented it in the for the Vatican Press Office said in response to a question: "If the teaching changes, the law will change."

As it is, this law is what is termed a "merely ecclesiastical law," such as the recently changed Canon 230 § 1 regarding lectors and acolytes.

(The Congregation for Divine Worship is apparently re-writing the installation liturgy to emphasize the baptismal connection to lay ministry, although in some countries women are already being prepared to be installed using the current liturgy, with the necessary adjustments to pronouns.)

Orthodox Churches

The situation in the East is more complicated, and perhaps more volatile.

The initiative taken by the Patriarch of Alexandria and All Africa to consecrate women caught the rest of Orthodoxy by surprise.

The patriarch appears to have based his decision to act unilaterally on the documents of the Holy and Great Council attended by twelve of the autocephalous Churches on Crete in 2016.

Complaints and applause for the patriarch's actions attempted to drown each other out.

The situation is confusing. While the ceremonies appear to have been consecrations to the subdiaconate, the women were called deaconesses.

There is a needle to be thread here. In some historical lists of orders, "deaconess" appears after subdeacon and before deacon.

Some argue this indicates the "deaconess," belongs to an order distinct from the deacon, and is member of a minor order. Some argue that "deaconess" was a major order.

No matter which, the deaconess (if indeed in a separate order) is on the cusp of both minor and major orders.

However, it was the widely known intent of the patriarch to ordain these women as deacons, not as subdeacons, although his plan was scotched by donors' threats to cut off financial support to the Patriarchate.

Even so, his repeated consecrations of women as "deaconesses" until 2020 solidified his intention to grant the women, whom he determined were already performing diaconal ministry, diaconal (and thereby clerical) status.

Whether as "subdeacons" or as "deaconesses" it seems the patriarch considered these women, these "deaconesses" to be in major orders.

It appears that forces outside Africa are deeply concerned about allowing women to be in major orders, or even in minor orders as subdeacons, perhaps because of the possibility of subdiaconal altar service.

The patriarch's greeting to a 2020 Zoom-hybrid conference on women in the diaconate in Thessaloniki indicated he had ended his practice of consecrating women as deaconesses.

No doubt, the combination of anger and money may cause other Orthodox bishops to hesitate before bringing women into the clerical caste in any grade of order.

But the ministry of women in Orthodoxy, or at least in Africa, underscores the fact that women perform significant tasks and duties proper to the subdiaconate and the diaconate.

In many places in Africa, for example, women assist in the baptism of women and girls, teach catechize, lead services where priests are not available, and proclaim the Gospel in church.

There is no talk about whether these are "womanly" tasks and duties. They are functions, yes, but they are now carried out, at least by a few, with the charism of consecrated mission and ministry.

Conclusions

In Querida Amazonia, Pope Francis calls for "itinerant missionary teams" (98) and "other forms of service and charisms that are proper to women and responsive to the specific needs of the peoples of the Amazon region at this moment in history." (102).

The Patriarch of Alexandria specifically consecrated his "deaconesses" as missionaries.

Combine this with the known facts of other ministries by Orthodox women in Africa and Catholic women in the Amazon, and we might see that the two traditions are not colliding, but rather moving in tandem.

While not necessarily directed at diaconal ordination these events, East and West, seem to belie the assumption that women cannot perform altar service, even as they demonstrate an ongoing resistance to women near the altar.

Western Church history documents claim that women are de facto unclean and cannot be near the sacred. Neither can a Western priest marry.

But the East does not so fully accept these arguments.

As its married priesthood demonstrates, the East does not completely subscribe to the concept that touching a woman renders a man unclean.

Such taboos, better inscribed in Western Church history, are the root of Pope Gelasius's Fifth Century criticism of women's altar service in what were most probably Eastern Church celebrations in Sicily in his time.

Even so, there is some movement toward recognizing women as able to represent Christ in both traditions.

The changes to Roman Catholic Canon Law formally allow women's altar service. The African consecrations of women, whether as the separate order of deaconess or to the order of subdeacon, may allow the same.

What is most interesting is that from the outside at least, it appears that one Church is not in front of the other.

In fact, it could appear that they are operating in tandem.

• Phyllis Zagano holds a research appointment at Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY and is the author of several works on women deacons, including Women: Icons of Christ (Paulist Press, 2020).
• This article was a talk given, via Zoom, to a November 21 seminar on women's ordination sponsored by the American Academy of Religion inSan Antonio, Texas.

But as a Catholic woman she could not represent her church there in any official capacity.

The state of North Carolina requires chaplains in its state prison system to be ordained. And the Catholic Church does not ordain women — neither as priests, nor as deacons.

Stanton, who is 35 and holds a master of divinity from Duke Divinity School, is not seeking to become a priest, which canon law forbids. She would, however, jump at the chance to be ordained a deacon — a position that would allow her and other women to serve as Catholic chaplains in prisons, hospitals and other settings.

"I'd like to be able to represent the church in these places where I feel like we're called to go," Stanton (pictured) said.

She tried the Veterans Affairs hospital next. But there too, she found a similar obstacle to full-time chaplaincy.

"I thought I could find some workaround," she said. Instead, she added, Catholic chaplaincy "felt like a dead-end."

In April, Stanton co-founded Discerning Deacons, an organization that urges conversation in the Catholic Church around ordaining women deacons. Stanton hopes it might add to ongoing efforts on multiple continents to restore women to the ordained diaconate, which the church in its early centuries allowed.

On Monday (Sept. 13), a new commission set up by Pope Francis to study women in the diaconate began meeting for one week in Rome. It is the fourth group since the 1970s to discuss ordaining women deacons, and many are hoping they will release their recommendations publicly so the church can lay the groundwork for restoring the order.

Francis has repeatedly called for a greater female presence in church leadership, and while he has continued church teachings against women priests, he changed church law to allow women to be installed as lectors and acolytes.

Up until the 12th century, the Catholic Church ordained women deacons, although by then their service was mostly restricted to women's monasteries. Some Orthodox churches that split from the Catholic Church in the 11th century still do. In the New Testament Book of Romans, the Apostle Paul introduces Phoebe as a "deacon of the church at Cenchreae." He also names Priscilla and Junia and several other women leaders.

In the 1960s, the Second Vatican Council reinstated the role of deacon for men. (It had previously reserved the diaconate as a transitional ministry for men studying to be priests) but not for women.

Partly due to the shortage of priests, there is growing momentum to restore women to the diaconate. At the 2019 Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazon region, a large number of bishops requested the permanent diaconate for women. Many are now hoping the next synod, which will culminate in Rome in 2023, will take up the issue again.

"If the church expresses its need, the Holy Father would have an easier time restoring women deacons," said Phyllis Zagano, senior research associate-in-residence at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York, and the foremost expert on women deacons in the Catholic Church.

The work of the deacon as defined by canon law is to minister to the people of God in word, liturgy and charity. Though not a paid position in most instances, it does require a person to undergo a course of study and a laying on of hands through ordination.

"Typically, the deacon manages the charity on behalf of the bishop or pastor in any given parish. That would include managing the food bank, taking care of the poor, visiting the sick," said Zagano.

Deacons may also proclaim the Gospel, preach, witness marriages, baptize and conduct funeral services. They cannot lead a Mass, consecrate the Eucharist or hear confessions.

The Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate estimates there are about 19,000 male deacons in the United States today, a 1% drop from last year. Formation programs for deacons reported a 2% drop in enrollments. Perhaps most troubling, the share of deacon candidates in their 30s and 40s has declined to 22% in 2020, down from 44% in 2002, a June report found.

In some parts of the country, Catholic laywomen are already serving as administrators in lieu of priests, ​often as parish life coordinators, but without ordination.

"Right now, when you are a woman serving in any capacity, there's often a cloud of suspicion hanging over your work, the sense that your work would be better done by a man or a priest," said Anna Nussbaum Keating, a Catholic writer living in Colorado who supports restoring the diaconate for women. "There's a sense she is inferior or maybe she's there because she wants to change the church, versus understanding that there have always been women in ministry in the church and that their contributions are holy and valid and good."

The coronavirus, which has killed more than 650,000 Americans, has only accentuated the need for more Catholic hospital chaplains as people died alone and without the comfort of a priest or a deacon during their final days.

On Sept. 3, the feast day of St. Phoebe, the group Discerning Deacons held a Zoom prayer service celebrating the legacy of the 1st-century saint with some 500 women from across the world. It included videotaped stories of women who were passionately called to serve the church and hurt by their inability to do so formally.

Documentary filmmakers Pilar Timpane and Andrea Patiño Contreras have filmed "Called to Serve" about some of the U.S. women now pushing the church for ordination as deacons. A longer documentary, with producer Christine Delp, is now in the works.

"We're looking at the needs of the church today," said Stanton, who lives in Durham, North Carolina. "Might including women in this order help further the church's mission in the world?"

• Yonat Shimron is an RNS National Reporter and Senior Editor.

Although he announced the new members' names in April 2020, their meetings have been delayed as a result of COVID 19.

On Monday, however, the new commission confirmed it will hold its first meeting in Rome in the middle of next month.

The meeting comes just ahead of the global synod's launch. The synodal process will bring lay people, priests and bishops in local churches together to discern new pastoral priorities. Female deacons are likely agenda items, says Tablet commentator Christopher Lamb.

He says an analysis of the new commission members suggests an even split between those for and against female deacons. This leads to the danger of repeating the first commission's impasse, where members were said to be unable to reach agreement.

Lamb notes, however, that although those on that commission presented their evidence, they didn't see what Cardinal Luis Ladaria, who had overseen their work, presented to the Pope.

"A critical issue is the precise question the new commission will be asked to discuss," Lamb says. "No one is disputing the presence of deaconesses in the early Church, but those opposed to reinstating women deacons argue they were not ordained and only carried out tasks related to women, such as helping with their baptisms. Some of the commission members have expressed scepticism that the roles carried out by female deacons had roles similar to men."

Alternatively, the new commission could be tasked with examining the nature of ordained diaconal service and which tasks carried out by male deacons are impossible for women to perform, Lamb suggests.

Rather than seeking a female priesthood, the Second Vatican Council stressed the diaconate is a "ministry of service," he notes.

Furthermore, Benedict XVI changed canon law in 2009 to reinforce the distinction between the ordained priesthood and deacons.

Lamb says he sees the key questions as concerning ecclesial service, not doctrine, which could be addressed by local synods, along with the new commission.

In the push-pull of those for and against, female deacons will be fiercely resisted by some in Rome, curia Cardinals are believed to have been opposed to any opening for the female diaconate at the Amazon synod and central; to maintaining the status quo.

A potential game-changer is the Pope's choice of Cardinal Giuseppe Petrocchi - a person outside the curia - to lead the new commission, says Lamb.

He will work with Fr Denis Dupont-Fauville, former overseer of the Archdiocese of Paris's permanent diaconate.

When asked whether Francis had given any instructions about the new commission's upcoming meeting, Dupont-Fauville explained he couldn't comment as the work is covered by the pontifical secret.

The Amazon synod's final document called for "the Church in the Amazon to promote and confer ministries for men and women in an equitable manner." This year, Francis changed Church law to allow women to be formally instituted into the roles of lector (reader) and acolyte (server) while establishing the ministry of catechist which will be open to men and women.

Source

• The Tablet
• Image: Vatican News

The general perception that "they" (clerics) do not need "us" (women) seems to be fading. Or is it?

The great diversity of the "church workers" on which the Catholic Church depends fall into two main categories: paid and unpaid.

The great majority of paid professional positions are held by clerics. The great majority of volunteer, unpaid positions, whether professional or not, are filled by women.

Of course, there is cross-over, but the exploitation of women in what is loosely referred to as "church work" is a scandal that Francis seems ready to repair. For sure, restoring women to the ordained diaconate may be part of the answer, but it is not the only one.

Let us look at three points:

1. Francis' emphasis on lay involvement in the Church;
2. the problem of clericalism;
3. the possibilities for women deacons.

Francis' emphasis on lay involvement in the Church

The Synod of Bishops' special assembly on the Amazon in 2019 held great promise for women.

Its twelve language groups spoke forcefully: lay persons should be more involved in governance; the Church should allow women to be formally installed as lectors and acolytes, and the Church must continue to consider ordaining women as deacons.

Reportedly, nine of the twelve language groups asked for women deacons, but the language softened as it travelled through drafts of the Final Document.

Francis' responses came fairly quickly. Yes, he said to the Synod assembly, he would pick up the gauntlet thrown down over women deacons.

But Querida Amazonia, his response to the Synod's Final document, struck a different chord. In that post-synodal apostolic exhortation, the pope emphasized the fact that parishes could indeed be led by lay people, and that in fact many already were.

So, instead of mentioning installed lay ministries or women deacons in his response to the Final Document, he emphasized Parish Life Coordinators, as described in Code of Canon Law (can. 517§2).

Recalling Francis asked that the Final Document and Querida Amazonia be read in tandem, we can see his emphasis on laity is really emphasis on women. After all, two-thirds of parishes in the Amazon region are led and managed by women, mostly women religious.

In Querida Amazonia, Francis asks that they be recognized as Parish Life Coordinators (can. 517§2).

He asked that they have set terms of office. He asks that they be professionalized. He implies they should be paid.

Why? Recall the other major request of the Amazon Synod: ordaining viri probati (married men of proven virtue) to the priesthood, most probably those already permanent deacons.

Now imagine the Amazon parish led by a woman, which includes a married deacon. If the married deacon becomes a priest, would not the current way of thinking about Church automatically see him as pastor?

With Querida Amazonia, Francis deflected the question of married deacons becoming priests while emphasizing the point of the community. And, in emphasizing the point of community he specifically called for Parish Life Coordinators (can. 517§2).

That is, he called for an expansion of that office, which can be filled by lay men and women, religious or secular, as well as deacons. In so doing, he cut the tie between parish leadership and clericalism. Or at least he cut that tie in theory.

The problem of clericalism

The problem of clericalism is real.

Of its many facets, what points to our concern today is the connection between clericalism and law. That is, the Code of Canon Law places ordained clerics, predominantly priests and bishops, above the laity and, it seems, above the law.

There is virtually no way, at least no legal way, for any lay person, to have governance and jurisdiction in the church at the parish or diocesan level.

Even the newly reworked Book VI of the Code of Canon Law, while heavy on penalties, is equally heavy on secrecy and clerical (read episcopal) self-policing.

Five-hundred years ago, Martin Luther called clericalism a destroyer of Christianity. Luther wrote:

Yea, the priests and the monks are deadly enemies, wrangling about their self-conceived ways and methods like fools and madmen, not only to the hindrance, but to the very destruction of Christian love and unity.

Each one clings to his sect and despises the others; and they regard the laymen as though they were not Christians. This lamentable condition is only a result of the laws.(Martin Luther, Works of Martin Luther, Philadelphia: A.J. Holman, 1915, p. 295)

How does clericalism affect women and church work?

Women, and anyone else not ordained a priest, are automatically lower-ranked members of the Catholic Church. Lower-ranked members — be they secular or religious, male or female — are not the first to find professional respect or support in Catholic parishes and chanceries.

Think back to the proposition from the Synod assembly on the Amazon regarding the priestly ordination of married deacons. Is it not the way of the Church to call the ordained priest the pastor, no matter his qualifications?

And, if the former deacon is now the pastor, would the current way of thinking about Church automatically grant him a salary, housing, vacation, retreat, a housekeeper, a cook, transportation and food? Would he not merit a sacristan, a secretary and one or two days "off" per week?

Of course, that scenario paints clericalism in the broadest strokes, and we can assume the parishes and parish groupings in the Amazon region cannot afford well-paid clericalism.

But if we transfer that scenario to other parishes in other countries, is this not the case? In some parishes, the bulk of parish donations go to support the pastor and his personal needs and staff.

Women, where they appear at all, are volunteer catechists and sacristans, and perhaps part-time cooks and secretaries.

I am not even discussing the question of what amount of parish donations goes to the poor. If there is parish support of the poor, at least in the United States, a substantial amount of the funding comes from government sources and in-kind donations.

And parish ministries to the poor are staffed predominantly by women. And by and large, those women are volunteers, or at best part-time workers without benefits.

The possibilities for women deacons

So, what is the problem with volunteerism?

Many years ago, when I began serious work on restoring the tradition of ordained women deacons, a friendly monsignor in my archdiocese said, "Oh, so you want to be a volunteer?"

In fact, the larger portion of deacons in the US Church are volunteers, now retired from their "day jobs," who volunteer in the very ministries we think of when we think of "Church."

They visit the sick, they bury the dead, they manage soup kitchens and food banks, they teach catechism, they hold marriage classes. But in many places, the bishop or pastor prefers to hire a deacon (full- or part-time) for positions from the coordinator of religious instruction to the chancellor of a diocese.

So, women are effectively shut out of jobs for which they are eminently qualified, except for their gender, which restricts their ability to be ordained as deacons.

Then there is the fact that, on the feast of the Baptism of the Lord this year, Pope Francis changed canon law to allow both men and women to be installed as acolytes and lectors, which in 1972 effectively replaced the suppressed minor orders of lector, porter, exorcist and acolyte, and the major order of subdeacon.

Experience in each installed office is required for ordination as deacon.

Until now only the most conservative of bishops have installed men as lectors and/or acolytes, principally — it would seem — to eliminate the possibility of women's altar service and women reading during Mass.

More recently, the pope also established the installed permanent ministry of catechist. This would seem, in part at least, to professionalize catechetical ministry.

These events can both help and hurt the prospects of women achieving paid parish employment, professional or otherwise. These roles have traditionally been filled by lay volunteers, so nothing seems added here except the requirement for training leading up to the installed ministry.

The "but," and it is a large but, is that each of these three installed ministries is connected to diaconal ordination.

The installation as acolyte and lector is, as I said, required prior to diaconal ordination. The ministry of catechist has an even more direct relation to the diaconate.

One reason, or justification, for the restoration of the diaconate as a permanent vocation stemming from the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) was to strengthen the ministry of catechists with the charism of order.

That was because catechists in developing nations were often serving as today's Parish Life Coordinators (can. 517§2) and performing other diaconal ministries.

The recent trajectory of events seems to bring women closer to the diaconate, and therefore closer to preferential treatment for employment.

The deacon can be the single judge in an ecclesiastical trial. The deacon can witness marriages. The deacon can solemnly baptize.

Do the changes to canon law and the creation of the installed ministry of acolyte mean Pope Francis is about to ordain women as deacons? Probably not.

While he changed canon law regarding lectors and acolytes with a simple motu proprio and did the same in creating the newly installed ministry of catechist, he also recently promulgated a new Book VI of the Code of Canon Law.

The new book repeats language first presented in 2007 by Cardinal William Levada, then-prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Repeated by Pope Benedict XVI in 2010, it imposes latae sententiae excommunication on anyone who "attempts to confer a sacred order on a woman" as well as on the woman ordained (can. 1379§3).

While the pope could change that canon—indeed the bishop presenting the new book to the press said as much—there is not likely to be much movement before the Synod of Bishops' assembly on synodality, which has been postponed until October 2023.

This brings us back to women and work.

What difference does it make if a woman is installed as lector, acolyte, or catechist, or appointed as a Parish Life Coordinator?

What difference, indeed, if a woman is ordained a deacon?

In the United States, the Church depends principally on female "church workers" - in pastoral, service, and support positions - in its mission of proclaiming and living the Gospel.

Yet female workers are exploited.

They are assumed to be volunteers, no matter their professional training for pastoral or service ministries. Where they do find church employment, often part-time and without benefits, it is service or support work that supports clericalism.

The ethical challenges to the ways "church work" is organized are real and laid bare when the institutional exploitation of such workers - especially women - is examined.

One response, some might say a Gospel-driven response, causes both religious and secular laity to work outside or at least around the traditional structures to provide ministry.

These trained professionals serve as spiritual directors, remunerated by retreat centres and directly by their directees.

They gain employment as chaplains in prisons, hospitals and other secular institutions.

More indirectly, they work in community organizations and advocacy groups, or they write and speak and teach outside any Church-affiliated structure and strictures.

That they carry the Gospel to the people is to be applauded.

That this is so hard to do within Church structures is sad.

• Phyllis Zagano is senior research associate-in-residence at Hofstra University (New York). This article also appeared in La-Croix International and is reproduced with permission.

On June 1, Pope Francis promulgated revisions to the Code of Canon Law detailing crimes and punishments.

The new "Book VI: Penal Sanctions in the Church" takes effect on December 8.

Most of the revisions have to do with crimes of sexual abuse and the responses (or non-responses) of bishops and religious superiors.

Some have to do with financial crimes.

And then there is the one about women's ordination: "Can. 1379 § 3.

Both a person who attempts to confer a sacred order on a woman, and the woman who attempts to receive the sacred order, incur a latae sententiae excommunication reserved to the Apostolic See; a cleric, moreover, may be punished by dismissal from the clerical state."

While the folks on the right can barely contain their glee, and more folks on the left are heading for the door, there is nothing new about this tiny sentence in a much longer document.

In fact, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith presented the same wording and the same penalty in a 2007 General Decree.

Then, in 2010, Pope Benedict XVI presented nearly identical modifications to legal norms regarding "grave delicts."

Francis now presents an entirely new law book.

On the whole, he repeats or strengthens the ways canon law can chasten, punish or even dismiss offenders in a broad variety of crimes. And he includes laity as well as clerics.

Francis also codifies some interesting concepts. For example, drunkenness is not a defence.

In fact, one is doubly responsible if the crime occurs during willful drunkenness, and the penalty for a drunken crime must reflect that greater responsibility.

Then again, there are a lot of loopholes: It seems that ignorance of the law is indeed an excuse.

Finally, there is some new language: Twice "means of social communication" are mentioned, once for exciting contempt for religion or the church, another for recording confessions and releasing the information.

"Technology" also makes an appearance, in relation to pornography and grooming vulnerable individuals.

The revisions to this particular book of canon law actualize things Francis has spoken about; in particular, they more clearly describe sexual abuse crimes and the punishments thereof.

Some complain he has not gone far enough, and others complain about an apparent favouring of secrecy, but on the whole, the revised and new canons seem a step in the right direction.

But then there is that new canon about ordaining women, which seems dropped in from nowhere.

Maybe so, maybe no.

Recall, the wording duplicates the CDF's 2007 decree and Benedict's 2010 modifications to legal norms.

Proponents of women moving into the clerical ranks may be disappointed, but there is nothing new.

However, the new canon specifies "a sacred order."

That could be just priesthood, at least if history is to be respected.

By the time the canonist Gracian collected canon laws in the 12th century, few women and fewer men were ordained to the diaconate as a permanent vocation.

The law developed so that no (man) could be ordained a deacon unless he was destined to become a priest.

Only more modern arguments conjoin the diaconate and the priesthood, such that that the diaconate is part of the priesthood.

It is not.

The Orthodox have no such confusion, and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I has said nothing bars the ordaining women deacons.

In fact, to conjoin the two orders is to argue for women priests, because there is a long and documented history of women sacramentally ordained as deacons.

What the church has done, it can do again.

The important thing to remember is that the now codified restriction against ordaining women, at least as deacons, is a "merely ecclesiastical law."

That is, it can be changed.

Recall, if you will, that Francis modified canon law to allow all laity — male and female — to be installed as lectors and acolytes.

That represented a development of doctrine. And the current discipline is that all persons who are ordained deacons must first have served in these two installed lay ministries.

We know "merely ecclesiastical laws" can be modified. So does Francis.

The best news in all this came at a press conference when Bishop Juan Ignacio Arrieta, secretary of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts, answered an interesting question.

Catholic News Service asked why the revised canon does not specify priestly ordination, thereby leaving open the question of women deacons.

After all, there is now a second study commission on women deacons.

Arrieta said that law reflects current church teaching, and "If we come to a different theological conclusion, we will modify the norm."

• Phyllis Zagano is a senior research associate-in-residence at Hofstra University, in Hempstead, New York. Her most recent book is Women: Icons of Christ, and her other books include Women Deacons: Past, Present, Future. Study guides for both books are available for free download at sites.hofstra.edu/phyllis-zagano/.
• First published by ncronline.org. Republished with permission.

Pope Francis approved the 10-member commission, which is the second one he has appointed during his pontificate.

The commission members include equal numbers of men and women representing the United States and six European countries.

Deacons are ordained ministers who can preside at weddings, baptisms and funerals. Although they can preach, they cannot celebrate Mass.

At the moment married men can be ordained as deacons. Women cannot, though historians say women served as deacons in the early Christian church.

The first commission Francis established in 1916 sought to respond to women demanding greater roles in the 21st century.

The members failed to reach a consensus and the group effectively ended its work.

At last year's Synod on the Amazon region, the question of women deacons was again brought to Francis's attention.

The region's bishops called for the question to be revisited given the shortage of priests in the Amazon.

The new commission appears to be Francis's response to the bishops' request.

Unlike the 2016 commission's mandate, which was limited to the early church, Amazonian bishops wanted the new commission to focus on a wider brief.

They wanted the real-life experiences of their region's Catholic faithful to be taken into consideration in any new evaluation.

Advocates for women deacons say women could help priests in the ministry and governance of the church. They could also help address priest shortages in several parts of the world.

Opponents say allowing women to be deacons would become a slippery slope toward ordaining women to the priesthood a ministry reserved for men.

Source

• Religion News Service
• Image: Catholic Philly