In a move that has energized those who have been advocating for women’s equality in the Catholic Church, the Vatican announced Tuesday that Pope Francis has set up a panel to study whether women could serve as deacons, a role long reserved for men. “God created man and woman, God created the world this way, this way, this way, and we are doing the opposite”, Francis told the Polish bishops shortly after his arrival in Krakow at the start of a five-day pilgrimage.
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Deacons are one rank below priests in the Catholic clergy.
In May, meeting with 900 leaders from congregations of women religious, Francis was told that women served as deacons early in the life of the church. The Church eventually ended the practice. But subsequent news reports, that the pope was paving the way for the ordination of women deacons – and potentially even women priests – drew a clarification.
“Now, it opens a wonderful door and possibilities for a lot of women”, she said.
Thomas Reese, a Jesuit priest and Vatican analyst with the National Catholic Reporter, said he too welcomed the decision, but hopes that the church would consider expanding the role of deacons, of which there are many more, particularly in the USA, than priests.
Almost all of the panel’s members are theologians and university professors. “We are blessed here in New Orleans that women religious have been part of or local church for almost 300 years and that many lay women have committed themselves in service to God’s people”. The pope wittering on about something like this is the equivelance of a presidential candidate in America that says things that he knows will play to an audience.
In order to be a deacon, men must be married or celibate and older than 35.
“From the earliest days of the church, women rightly served in key leadership roles”, Cupich said. She has rejected the argument that female deacons will lead to female priests but speaks “less [openly]” about the topic, Crux reported. As president of the Commission, Pope Francis has appointed Archbishop Luis Francisco Ladaria Ferrer, SJ.
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Pope St. John Paul II wrote in his apostolic letter Ordinatio Sacerdotalis, “the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that this judgment is to be definitively held by all the Church’s faithful”. Phyllis Zagano of Hofstra University, is an American who has written in favor of female deacons.
