The Italian newspapers led today with Pope Francis’s remarks about women deacons – which have also been covered in Time (“Pope Francis… signalling the possibility of letting women serve in ordained ministry”); the Daily Mail (“the Vatican stressed decision to allow women deacons would not lead to the ordination of female priests”); and the Washington Post (“a dramatic statement which left unclear what tangible changes Francis is open to making”), and in a host of worldwide news sources. In a restricted meeting conducted with some 900 superiors of women’s religious orders, the pope agreed to a proposal to create an official commission to study whether women can be deacons. “Today, male deacons are ordained ministers who can perform numerous same functions as priests – but cannot celebrate Mass”.
Advertisement
During the meeting, Pope Francis mentioned that the deaconesses of the early church were not ordained as they are today. Since the 1960s, “mature married men” have been allowed to serve as permanent deacons-people who wish to take a vow to serve the Church, but who do not wish to ascend to the priesthood.
In the exchanges, Francis said he had discussed the use of female deacons in the early centuries of the Church with experts on the subject but was not clear as to their exact role and status. The National Catholic Reporter and Catholic News Service were granted access, releasing a few signs that the pope is open to the idea of female deacons (or at least studying the idea more).
While warning that “the devil enters through one’s pocket”, Pope Francis also urged the superiors to choose their treasurers well, be suspicious of “friends” who promise to invest and increase their money and to ensure that their evangelical poverty is a life of simplicity, not misery.
Pat Brown of Catholic Women’s Ordination, which along with Women’s Ordination Worldwide is planning a round table with theologians in Rome in June and days of action and vigils around the world, told Christian Today: “We welcome the challenge from the women religious that brought this about”.
CNA asked the Vatican for confirmation of the Pope’s remarks, but did not receive a response by deadline.
In 1990, then-Archbishop Raymond Hunthausen announced he was suspending the deacons’ training program in his diocese until the issue of women’s service in the church was addressed.
The newest advocate for women empowerment just might be the Catholic Church.
One week ago, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s secretary of state and a close confident of the pope, said that theoretically, there is no reason why a woman could not one day fill his job.
The Pope is to consider whether women can be ordained deacons in the Catholic Church.
CBS2’s Alice Gainer reported the pope talked about creating this commission during a meeting at the Vatican with almost 900 heads of female religious orders and congregations.
Francis has repeatedly surprised Catholics and others with his willingness to question long-standing Catholic traditions.
Campbell said she worries that Francis’s sometimes-admiring language about women can at times seem confining.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops says there are now more than 13,000 deacons in the United States.
Advertisement
It reflected what the professor to whom Pope Francis had spoken said, referring to the Constitutiones Apostolorum, or the Constitutions of the Holy Apostles from around 380, which stressed that deaconesses had “no liturgical function”, but rather devoted themselves “to their function in the community which was service to the women”. To me, that matters less than the fact that in a world where women can be presidents of nations, CEOs of corporations, chancellors of universities and administrators of hospitals, the doors of the diaconate are closed to female Catholics.
