Posted on 05/12/2016 5:42:08 AM PDT by ebb tide
VATICAN CITY - In an opening with historic import, Pope Francis has said he wants to study the possibility of ordaining women as deacons, a step that could for the first time open the ranks of the Catholic Church’s all-male clergy to women.
The order of deacons was reinsitituted in the Catholic Church following the reforms of the 1960s, and while deacons cannot celebrate Mass like a priest, a deacon can preach at Mass, celebrate funerals, and perform baptisms.
But in restoring the diaconate, the church also restricted ordination as a deacon to “mature married men” over 35.
Many protested that limitation, saying the earliest Christian texts also speak of “deaconesses” and arguing that the modern church should also allow women deacons.
Saint John Paul II and Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI were both theologically conservative pontiffs who said that such a move was unjustified and could undermine the concept of the all-male priesthood.
But Francis said Thursday (May 12) he agreed the matter should be given more careful consideration, telling hundreds of nuns from around the world that he himself always wondered about the role of deaconesses in the early church.
“Constituting an official commission that might study the question?” the pontiff asked aloud in response to questions from some of the sisters.
“I believe yes. It would do good for the church to clarify this point. I am in agreement,” he said, according to an initial report from National Catholic Reporter.
“I accept,” the pope said later. “It seems useful to me to have a commission that would clarify this well.”
The devil will be in the details, of course.
As Francis’ own questions indicated, there are debates about who the deaconesses were and what they did.
Some will argue that deaconesses played a different role in the early church from that of deacons, an office established by the Apostles to focus on caring for widows and the poor so that the Apostles could focus on preaching.
That could mean that the papal commission could re-establish an order of female deacons that falls short of actual ordination.
Or the commission could say there is no justification for establishing the office of deaconess.
But whatever happens, the fact that Francis has opened the door to the debate and the possibility of ordaining women is groundbreaking.
No
Excellent idea. Women following the example of Phoebe and Dorcas, de facto deaconesses of the early church, would be a great addition to the permanent diaconate. In reality, if not clerical title, many women already fill that role.
Make em altar boys.
First we must become accustomed to the sight of women swarming all over the sanctuary as "extraordinary" Eucharistic ministers. Then comes altar girls. Then comes female deacons......
Every giant step is divisible into 39 smaller steps.
The schism.....when it comes......will be a huge relief.
The camel’s nose under the tent.
This will lead to openly ordained homosexuals and all kinds of perversions as it has with other churches with female leaders/priests/preachers/rabbis.
I know I am a bigot, but the evidence is overwhelming. Females think too often emotionally. Like a mother who loves her child without exception (which is a good thing) they tend to see gays as wayward children, and then wind up accepting their unceasing sin as morally OK.
Some one has to lead, even if it means using tough love and forcing sinners to confront—not accept—their sins.
The camel’s nose has been under the tent for awhile now. Alter girls, women giving the readings (not the Gospel), women routinely giving out Communion, the efforts made to suppress criticism of women who kill their children in the womb, etc..
Anyone paying attention could have seen this coming.
Francis will ordain the first official woman priests if hie lives another couple of years.
Better idea: Suppress the diaconate again.
It’s Bergoglio’s Flap-of-the-Month Club. “Look at me! Look at me. Look at meeeee!”
Gonna need more bathrooms
The consistent teaching of the church for centuries is that Holy Orders is open only to males. If the pope is going to change any of that, he should open the priesthood to married men.
If he opens it to women, half of those who apply will be lezzies.
Women do not want to become nuns anymore. What makes the Pontiff think they would like to become Deacons?
Or he could cut to the chase and establish the “Office of Gender-Fluid Clergy”, an all-encompassing category.
Feminist lust for "power"?
Because deacons must be married. Nuns can't. Nuns generally take a vow of poverty. Deacons don't.
Won’t happen.
Kinda like communion for the divorced and remarried would never happen?
The ancient deaconess was not the same as the ordained deacon. The office of deaconess was not sacramental like that of deacon. Her role was to assist in the baptism of women for the sake of modesty. Deaconesses never performed the role of the deacon at the Mass. The office of deacon, on the other hand, grew out of the office of presbyter (priest) and is part of sacrament of Holy Orders. This was instituted by Jesus Christ and was restricted by him to men.
All of this is known by any trained theologian. The attempt to reinstitute the office of deaconess is a dishonest attempt to blur the distinction between deacon and deaconess and as a prelude to the ordination of women as priests.
God created man as male and female and gave each their own proper characters and roles. To recognize and honor the differences between the roles of men and women is not a case of unjust discrimination. The modern denial of the reality of the proper distinctions between men and women is a revolt against God’s order of creation and should have no place with believing Christians.
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