The International Theological Commission, a body that advises the doctrinal congregation, included the question of women deacons in a study on the diaconate nearly 20 years ago.
Advertisement
The Vatican said Pope Francis came to the decision to create the commission after “intense prayer and mature reflection”.
One of the appointees, Prof. She has spoken at events sponsored by organizations that promote women’s ordination to the priesthood.
In a possible insight to the pope’s thinking, Francis has noted that the deaconesses of the early church weren’t ordained as the male deacons of today are. The church has given reasons why women, although ontologically equal to men, may not be ordained to the priesthood, but the judgment that women cannot be ordained priests does not apply to the question of whether women can be ordained deacons. As ordained ministers, deacons can preside over weddings, funerals and baptisms and they are allowed to marry. Some historians have said that there were female deacons in the early church.
“More generally, Francis lamented that the ‘integration of women into the life of the Church has been ‘very weak”, according to the official news service.
But Francis subsequently complained that the media had blown his comments out of proportion, saying he had not raised the possibility of women serving as deacons.
“Were women ordained as deacons?”
During his visit for World Youth Day last week, Pope Francis made an unannounced stop at the University Hospital in Kraków to talk to doctors caring for the cardinal. It also embraces and promotes the LGBT cause.
The commission was initially promised by the Pope after a meeting with a group of nuns on May 12. It praised the commission’s “gender-balanced” and “lay-inclusive” appointments and mentioned Zagano by name, noting her past participation in the 2015 conference. She said the pope’s commission “could open up some interesting opportunities”. “I accept. It seems useful to me to have a commission that would clarify this well”. “Every debate requires someone to take the pro position and someone to take the con position”. “To give women an official status is, I think, way, way, way overdue”. With or without them, the national discussion continues. Zagano, who has written extensively on the subject of women deacons, is one of six women appointed by Pope Francis to a 13-person “Commission to Study the Women’s Diaconate”.
“It has been three months since he said he was considering this, and he has already formed a commission”, she said. “All of this was condemned by St. Paul”.
Angeline Franciscan Sister Mary Melone, a theologian and rector of Rome’s Pontifical Antonianum University.
It would be up to “individual bishops”, she said, “to decide first if he needs deacons and second if he needs women deacons”.
Deacons had been part of the early church’s leadership structure for centuries, but the role had largely faded away sometime around the fifth century.
He named a dozen members to the commission, including nuns, laywomen and priests.
Advocates of such a move have long argued that women are pitifully under-represented in the Church’s hierarchy and decision-making processes, despite the number of women in religious orders far outweighing the total of priests and monks combined.
Advertisement
“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.
