The Holy Father will travel to the Umbrian town on Thursday, to mark the eight centenary of the “Pardon of Assisi”. The Vatican released the transcript of the remarks on Tuesday.
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Not till 1987 was a woman ordained a deacon (rather than made a deaconess) in the Church of England.
It would be up to “individual bishops”, she said, “to decide first if he needs deacons and second if he needs women deacons”.
Zagano said local needs and customs would have to inform any decision about women deacons.
In May, Zagano spoke at a teleconference sponsored by FutureChurch, a group that rejects the Catholic Church’s teaching that Jesus ordained his disciples at the Last Supper. “I will speak to do something like this”. “To give women an official status is, I think, way, way, way overdue”.
The church does have a history of female deacons, from Phoebe in the First Testament to the Middle Ages, when the diaconate faded as a separate order, writes Dr. Zagano, in a 2015 article for Harvard Divinity School’s summer bulletin. Of the six women, two are nuns and four are laywomen. As a result, the ordination of women to the diaconate is possible.
Another woman on the panel, Italian Sister Mary Melone of the Franciscan Sisters of Blessed Angelina and rector of Rome’s Pontifical University Antonianum, has been a champion of the role of women in the church, the Catholic news site Crux reported.
The pontiff replied: “It would do good for the church to clarify this point”. It also expressed hope its conclusions would lead to “a new reality for women in our Church: one that models equality and inclusion”.
Francis then brought up a conversation he had with Pope Benedict, who, it turns out, isn’t locked away at Shady Pines but rather is still squatting at The Vatican since stepping down in 2013. Pope Francis has said in the past that the door for women to serve as priests is closed. Some say they were ordained to minister only to other women, such as at immersion rites at baptism.
‘I wish he would say what he means, ‘ she told Gay Star News. The Catholic Church has long held women’s ordination is an ontological impossibility because Jesus ordained only men and their masculinity is essential to their priesthood and their ability to act in the person of Christ (in persona Christi).
Last month, Francis said he was surprised at reports that he was paving the way for women to become deacons and possibly priests.
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Those who support the notion of women deacons frame the argument as readmitting women to the diaconate rather than expanding the ministry to include women.
