Posts Tagged ‘women deacons’

Another expert commission to study idea of women deacons

Thursday, April 16th, 2020

A new expert commission has been appointed to examine the possibility of women deacons. 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 Read more

Door still open on married priests, women deacons

Monday, February 17th, 2020

The door is still open on married priests and women deacons. Although Pope Francis’s exhortation on the Amazon bypasses making decisions about women deacons and married priests, there is still room to move, say number of the pope’s close advisors. In the post-synodal apostolic exhortation, Querida Amazonia (Beloved Amazon), Pope Francis released last week , Read more

Married priests, a female diaconite and a new rite

Thursday, October 31st, 2019

Three issues coming out of the Amazon synod’s final document include ordaining married men to the priesthood, the female diaconate and creating an Amazonian Rite. Two-thirds of the 180 bishops at the synod approved all the 140-paragraph document’s findings, which they voted on paragraph by paragraph. One of the document’s main focuses further including laity Read more

Support for women deacons ‘substantial’ at synod

Thursday, October 24th, 2019

The need to recognize the ministry of Catholic women deacons has become a key topic at the Amazon synod. Many of the 185 prelates at the synod approve of ordaining women as deacons to address a lack of ministers in the region. Bishop Derek Byrne, who is from a Brazilian diocese, says the support is Read more

Women deacons served for a millennium

Monday, March 4th, 2019
women deacons

Women served as deacons in Europe for about a millennium in a variety of ministerial and sacramental roles, according to Phyllis Zagano, an author and professor of religion at Hofstra University, and Bernard Pottier, S.J., a faculty member at the Institut D’Études Théologiques in Brussels, in an interview this week with America. “They anointed ill Read more

Most religious superiors support women deacons

Monday, August 6th, 2018
women deacons

Most US Catholic religious superiors believe women should be allowed to serve as ordained deacons. The results of a study released last week by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University in Washington support women being given greater roles in the church. Seventy-seven percent of male and female superiors in the Read more

Women deacons on the cards

Thursday, April 20th, 2017

Women deacons could be permitted says top theologian Cardinal Christoph Schonborn. Although Shonborn says there is a chance for this to happen, he  cautions waiting until the group Pope Francis commissioned last year to study the mater of female deacons. Shonborn says there is a precedent for women undertaking deacons’ roles in the Church. He Read more

Catholic Women Deacons

Friday, August 12th, 2016
Women deacons by Phyllis Zagano

The Vatican seems poised to publish a theological investigation into the diaconate that does not look kindly on women deacons. On the other hand, reports that the Vatican has outlawed women deacons are not true—at least not yet. The International Theological Commission approved a study on the diaconate during its meeting in Rome from Sept. Read more

Pope surprised at reaction to deaconess study commission

Tuesday, June 28th, 2016

Pope Francis has expressed surprise at the reaction to his decision to have a commission study the role of deaconesses in the early Church. The Pope fielded a question on the topic during a press conference on his flight to Rome from Armenia on June 26. Francis offered to have a commission after he was questioned at Read more

Women deacons in the Catholic Church?

Tuesday, May 24th, 2016

Much of the world may be charmed by Pope Francis, but what has he done to include women as decision makers in the Catholic Church? More to the point, what can he do? Francis has, of course, been busy with other things. The seventy-eight-year-old Jesuit now in the third year of his papacy seems quite Read more