Posted on 08/02/2016 6:14:03 AM PDT by marshmallow
Following up on comments made in May, Pope Francis has instituted a 12-member commission to study women and the diaconate.
Archbishop Luis Ladaria Ferrer, SJ, the secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, will serve as the commission’s president.
Among the members of the commission are Father Robert Dodaro, president of the Patristic Institute Augustinianum; Sister Mary Melone, rector of the Pontifical University Antonianum; and Phyllis Zagano, a National Catholic Reporter columnist and author of several books on women and the diaconate.
Istituzione della Commissione di Studio sul Diaconato delle donne (Holy See Press Office)
Discussed in this 2002 document:
The Russian Church has always had deaconesses, so far as I know. The order was officially restored in Greece in 2004, though deaconesses had served for centuries in monasteries. I think there are some in other Balkan countries. I met one from Roumania once.
The role of deaconesses in the Liturgy died out hundreds of years ago, I expect as a result of the Mohammedan conquest of The Empire.
I honestly don’t think this is anything to be afraid of. I mean, we Orthodox are hardly what you would call innovators and I assure you the Orthodox Church hasn’t collapsed because of deaconesses.
I miss having a Catholic Pope.
I agree with you. This won’t happen.
What can you expect from a Jesuit? Dominicans rule!
IIRC, Paul VI appointed a commission to study the use of artificial birth control, and this did indeed raise expectations; I believe most or all of the commission came out pro artificial birth control, and there was much discussion. Paul VI, of course, went against the commission and produced Humanae Vitae, but much damage had been done. I hear Sean Hannity (something of an idiot IMO) said on his radio show that the Church allowed it now; likely many other Catholics are under the same misapprehension.
What they do not have is a liturgical role, though I suspect that is just the way the tradition developed after the fall of Constantinople. Now deaconesses work in monasteries, hospitals and some rural areas where there are no priests. Earlier, say when +John Chrysostomos was Patriarch, there were hundreds of female deacons in The City alone and they did have a liturgical role, or so some of the records seem to indicate.
Interesting fact about the women clamoring to be female deacons and priests..They are all “pro choice”. I find it odd that God only wanted baby killing women to be priests.These women will say God is calling them.. To do what? Tell the rest of the Catholic world that it`s okay to murder babies?
Which is exactly the reason for all the clamor from the Catholic progressives.
Call us when the Orthodox put vestments on women and invite them into the sanctuary.
Aaaaannnnd the fix is in.
Francis is a disgrace. We are going to have to get Honorius I on his sorry behind.
I went to a Jesuit college and I am EXTREMELY GRATEFUL to them for not putting up with any of my nonsense
You had to work to get a good grade there- they accepted no sloppiness or laziness.
I never got any feeling of any religious indoctrination from them at all. Just a first-rate education- I don’t understand why there is animosity here towards Jesuits.
Can someone clue me in? Have I missed something?
We don't have any established, formed tradition of it in the West. We don't have centuries of church life to teach us what role they should play or not play. It is, to us, a concept from so long ago that we are not even sure what was clearly meant by the term.
Why are learned Eastern hierarchs not on the commission? Why are Orthodox deaconesses not on the commission? All I see are Italian, Spanish, French, German names. That should tell you something right there. And I don't know these names but I do know Phyllis Zagano is an infamous heretic.
Basically, the folks who put this together want to smuggle in heresy in the Trojan Horse of an ancient practice the same way they did with the liturgical insanity post-Vatican II.
Franciscus deponendus est.
“Call us when the Orthodox put vestments on women and invite them into the sanctuary. “
They actually do have their own, unique vestments and do administer sacraments, unction and baptism for example and maybe others but they do not go into the altar so far as I know and likely haven’t for hundreds of years.
“Why are learned Eastern hierarchs not on the commission? Why are Orthodox deaconesses not on the commission?”
Likely because this is your discipline, your praxis, your tradition and your call. You know, it’s not much of an issue with us and whether you folks reintroduce the order or not really is up to you. Our feelings won’t be hurt either way.
I understand. Including Orthodox wouldn’t so much be for you, it would be for us.
Anyone who values tradition would naturally look to the East to show the way on how deaconesses could work. If we really wanted to do this right we should be sitting down and talking to people who have an unbroken tradition of it and who still live it.
I suspect though, that that won’t happen because the people involved know that the Eastern example won’t provide them what they really want: ordination to the priesthood and the episcopacy.
Really.......
My reading of Orthodox literature indicates that your church is on high alert for precisely the sort of innovation which will be discussed by the commission described in this article and the role of deaconesses in Orthodoxy is essentially non-existent, even in a non-liturgical role.
See HERE for example.
“I suspect though, that that won’t happen because the people involved know that the Eastern example won’t provide them what they really want: ordination to the priesthood and the episcopacy.”
I suspect you are right. The mindsets of the Latin and Eastern Churches are sooooooo different. I don’t envy you folks potentially ending up with a bunch of “priestesses” the like of which we have all seen on line over the past few years. Shrill, dramatic, too holy for words, like our convert priests who are oh so much more holy than us “cradle” types and who carry with them a “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” phronema!
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