On the other side, those opposed say that deacons today are understood to be part of the church’s ordained ministry-a role that is thus closed to women.
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“Right now, the Catholic Church doesn’t officially doesn’t recognize women as equal to men”.
In a possible insight to the pope’s thinking, Francis has noted that the female deacons of the early church were not ordained, as the male deacons of today are.
He said “women are the strawberry on the cake and there is need for more of them”.
In May, the Pope joked that he felt like a goalie fielding shots – with women calling him out, asking why they can’t preach at Mass or be ordained as deacons.
The Vatican announced Tuesday that Francis, “after intense prayer and mature reflection”, established the “Commission of Study on the Diaconate of Women”.
Marianne Schlosser, professor of spiritual theology at the University of Vienana and a member of the International Theological Commission. Of the six women, two are nuns and four are lay people.
“I hope that the spirit of the Olympics can inspire everyone, both participants and spectators, to fight the “good fight” and finish the race together”, he said, citing a phrase from the bible about unwavering faith and the struggle against evil. “He is respectful of his colleagues and of his predecessors but he’s not shackled by them”.
That was warmly welcomed by Catholic feminist groups such as the US-based Women’s Ordination Conference (WOC).
They argue that there is a historical precedent for women to be made deacons, as they performed similar duties in the early years of the Church.
Deacons are one rank below priests in the Catholic clergy.
The pope’s comments came during a private meeting with bishops last week, the transcript of which was released by the Vatican on Tuesday.
Kelsey Louie, CEO of Gay Men’s Health Crisis, said he was “saddened and disturbed” by the Pope’s remarks. Without specifying, he blamed this on textbooks supplied by “persons and institutions who donate money”. Pope Francis is praying that recent U.N.-backed peace agreements for Syria and Libya will quickly end the suffering of their people while praising the generosity of those countries that have taken their refugees in. (Some, of course, do not identify with a binary gender.) However, many in the nontrans world, including the pope, would probably say that undergoing hormone therapy or gender-affirming surgery, or simply living as a different gender than the one assigned at birth, amounts to choosing gender.
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This time, though, he volunteered that he has discussed the gender issue with Benedict, who has lived at the Vatican since retiring in 2013.
