Commission for Women

Good news about the "Study Commission of the Women’s Deaconate" that Pope Francis talked about back in May (post in my blog about it HERE). The Pope has instituted it with a 12-member group, half of whom are women, plus the leader of the group, Jesuit Secretary of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, Archbishop Luis Francisco Ladaria Ferrer. You can read more about it and see the members at Vatican Radio website HERE.

The good news in my opinion is that Phyllis Zagano is one of the members. She has done much studying and written books on the subject of women deacons in the Catholic Church. Her books include Holy Saturday: An Argument for the Restoration of the Female Diaconate in the Catholic Church (Crossroad Publishing Company, 2000); and Women Deacons? Essays with Answers (The Liturgical Press, 2016). Her short Amazon biography is HERE.

Deaconesses are mentioned in the Bible. In 1 Timothy 3:11 (NIV), as St. Paul gives instructions to deacons in general, he singles out women deacons:

In the same way, the women are to be worthy of respect, not malicious talkers but temperate and trustworthy in everything.

I won’t add a lot more, since I've written about this before (see Deacons Label at bottom of this post for all links). I’m sure we will hear more as the commission gets going. I hope they don’t take too long until they come to a conclusion—one which Phyllis Zagano has already studied and found: that there were indeed women deacons in the Church in the past and should be now.

Mary Magdalene

In this post I mostly want to give you a link to a story about the change from what is called a "Memorial Day" of Mary Magdalene to a higher honor of "Feast Day" for her in the Catholic Church. Apparently Pope Francis requested this, and it is very fitting. As related by Ines St. Martin, "New feast touts Mary Magdalene as 'paradigm' for women," Crux (June 10, 2016), the Virgin Mary had been the only woman honored by a Feast Day, while the male Apostles and some other men were given this tribute. Since St. Thomas Aquinas (13th Century), Mary Magdalene has been known as the “Apostle to the Apostles” because she had seen the Risen Lord first and was commissioned by Him to tell the Apostles of His Resurrection.

The above article mentions a decree by one of the Vatican's Congregations which said we should treat Mary Magdalene as a paradigm, which in this case means a model. That is what many women have been trying to do: to follow the Lord as completely as they can. Some women feel they are being called by God to service as Deacons, but Church leadership denies that call. It is heavy-handed of these leaders to think they know how God is calling all individuals. Pope Francis said in his Apostolic Exhortation, Amoris Laetitia, Section 37:

We [Church leadership] also find it hard to make room for the consciences of the faithful, who very often respond as best they can to the Gospel amid their limitations, and are capable of carrying out their own discernment in complex situations. We have been called to form consciences, not to replace them.

Though Pope Francis was referring to married couples in his Exhortation, his statement applies to leadership and laypersons in general.

It takes wise leaders and laity to get the right balance and that is about impossible except with God's help. Discernment should be done together, not separately.

Perhaps as Church leaders realize Mary Magdalene is deserving of a Feast Day, they will recognize women are deserving of being heard.

Deaconess

The Pope made world-wide news Thursday by announcing he would set up a commission to study women deacons in the Catholic Church. What a historic move! His decision came about after an international meeting with consecrated women and International Union of Superiors General. An article about the circumstances is HERE at the Crux website.

The women had written questions for the Pope (4 main topics) which more or less asked why women still do not have a say in the Church and why we are barred from being deacons. The questions can be read HERE.

I am excited for a few reasons. I have said before that women should be deacons. They should be ordained as deacons. Married men are ordained as permanent deacons, and if the Church leadership insists on only male priests, women can at least be permanent deacons. It is just not right for the Church to have seven sacraments for men and six for women. Another reason they should be named deacons is that many do the work of deacons anyway. But men can be ordained and women not. It is just plain discrimination. I know many will say there are reasons to keep women out, but there were rationalizations to keep African-Americans out of seminaries at one time. We all know of the terrible prejudice against African-Americans in general, but not so much about how this carried over to Catholics (see the book by Cyprian Davis, The History of Black Catholics in the United States).

Of course, the question of who will be on the commission for women deacons is next. Obviously, if the members are all conservative bishops, women will not have a chance. The pope has been fairly astute about these things. He has been placing more progressive persons in critical roles. However, the current prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith at the time this post is first published, Gerhard Cardinal Muller, is conservative. Perhaps the Pope hides behind him a bit. After a previous commission’s look into the female diaconate, Muller made a statement along the lines that women will feel discriminated against if they are allowed to be deacons but not priests or bishops. Zenit reports this HERE.

Apparently the consecrated women who asked the Pope to become deaconesses do not have that problem. Nor do some others. A link to the organization called Catholic Women Deacons is HERE.

The Internet is buzzing, including the website I follow, Catholic Answers Forums (CAF). I think it is a topic that will not go away. We should all pray for discernment into what is best for the Church and especially for doing the Lord's will.

Sisters Surveyed

There is a Vatican-ordered review of American Catholic women religious going on now. Catholic News Service reports that a questionnaire has been given to religious orders to describe their activities. One general question concerns the doctrine and teaching of women religious.

One factor in this questioning is the demand of women to be ordained. There are some outspoken nuns who speak about ordination. The clash is inevitable for those women who think it is wrong that there is no ordination of women in the Catholic Church. But clouding this subject is whether women religious are staying on track with other doctrine.

Unfortunately in my experience, in writings and teachings, many religious women are drifting off, often to universalism where it doesn't matter in their opinion what people believe. To them, God loves everyone, and everyone will get to heaven. How we would get along with those who never repented, I don't know. (Though I can't know their hearts at their ends, I give Hitler and Stalin as possible examples.) However, I find this mindset to be true with writings of male religious also. And I'm sure there are many religious women who are deeply committed to orthodox Christianity. I don't want to go into details of this now, but I write of these themes in my book, Unto Others. (My book is a mystery and so I hope entertaining, but takes on themes of today's Catholic Church and life in general.)

In the frustration of being treated as second-hand Church members, some women may get off the track altogether. However, being treated unfairly is not an excuse to leave the Christian faith. For one, we expect hardships in this life.

Even more importantly, we find dignity for women emanating from the Scripture. For example, in Galatians 3:28, NIV (BibleGateway link HERE) we find there is "neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ."

Concerning the issue of "Jew or Gentile," the original Apostles already knew (after some discussion and visions) that Christ's sacrifice was made for all, and that any person can accept the salvation He gives.

(2019 Update: the following Wikipedia information was accessed in August 2009. It is now under "Christian views on slavery" HERE, Text, links and reference numbers have undergone changes.)

The slavery issue took longer to sort out. Even Popes were divided. While some condemned it, others didn't. Among the facts given in Wikipedia under Christianity and Slavery:

The papacy itself increasingly hardened its attitude. The 7th century Pope Martin I condemned unjust slavery, but in doing so implicitly suggested that he believed a just slavery to exist. In the early thirteenth century, official support for slavery and the slave trade was incorporated into Canon Law, by Pope Gregory IX[80][81], who had also introduced the Inquisition, trials for witchcraft, and the judicial presumption of guilt (rather than presumption of innocence). Roughly a century later, Gregory's namesake, Pope Gregory XI, excommunicated the Florentines and ordered them to be enslaved if captured[82].

and,

In 1917, one hundred and ten years after the official abolition of the slave trade in most of the rest of the world, the Papacy finally abolished the Canon Law support for the slave trade.

Today we finally know how wrong slavery is. Why is the "male-female" problem so stubborn?

I have written about prejudice before. Prejudice is subtle and though I think it is a temptation, it is often one we are not even aware we have given into. There are all kinds of reasons not to be fair. A person needs prayer and deep soul-searching to come to the right place.

Yes, Christ chose 12 Apostles, but He also had many women helping him. Women were with Christ at the cross and He first appeared to women when He arose from the dead. Would Jesus deny women the dignity of being ordained Deacons? I really doubt it. Would He ask that any other sacrament of the Church be given to men and not women? No.

Jews learned that Gentiles were to be included in Christianity. Slaves and others fought for the end of slavery. Though it may be a divisive issue with the Church, we must do what is right. Women are speaking out because we must, but we must not stray from the Truth. We pray for all eyes and hearts to be opened.

Deacons 2

The picture to the left depicts the Apostle Paul with Phoebe. She is mentioned in the Bible in Romans 16:1-2. (I was pleased to discover this morning that the USCCB website has the full text of the New American Bible, found HERE.) Paul asks that she be received by the Christian community to whom he is writing and given all the help she needs, since she was a Christian minister. Many have said she was a deaconess.

The Roman Catholic Church had permanent deacons in the first millennium, but the practice faded and the diaconate became simply a step along the way for men to become priests. There is evidence that the deacons were both men and women. The Council of Chalcedon in 451 has a section which states: "A woman shall not receive the laying on of hands as a deaconess under 40 years of age, and then only after searching examination" (from: New Advent Church Fathers, Council of Chalcedon, Canon 15, (link HERE).

The second Vatican Council in 1964 spoke of the need for the office to be restored "not for the priesthood but for the ministry" (Lumen Gentium, 29). The tasks of the deacons include administering Baptism and the Eucharist, presiding over worship and prayer, officiating at funeral and burial services, and visiting shut-ins among other activities. Pope Paul VI restored the office in 1967 on this recommendation of Vatican II. The deacon is ordained by the bishop of the diocese. The USCCB has a Diaconate section on its website HERE with access to the PDF file, National Directory for the Formation, Ministry and Life of Permanent Deacons in the United States.

Phyllis Zagano, author and university professor, wrote about the restoration of women to the diaconate of the Catholic Church. This book is Phyllis Zagano, Holy Saturday (Crossroad Publishing Company, 2000). She has a vast knowledge of Church history and law and sets out a very good argument for this restoration. As she says, women are doing the work of the Church but "there is still no way for the bishop of a diocese, on behalf of the local church, to formally call forth women servants of the Church, to recognize and to ratify their service through orders" (p. 69). Wikipedia also has a lot of information on the subject of Deaconess, which I will not re-write here but direct you HERE if you are interested.

In a homily given by Pope Benedict XVI, reported by David Uebbing, "In Jordan, Pope Benedict praises 'prophetic role of women,'" Catholic News Agency, May 10, 2009, the Pope exhorts others to pay attention to the "prophetic role" of women. Well, in the Old Testament lands which the Pope visits, many prophets cried out and no one listened. Women 'prophets' cry out today. They beg, they plead, they pray, but the Church authority does not listen. They are saying: women are to be treated with dignity. Sacraments should not be withheld from women because of their gender. Women should be ordained as deacons!

Deacons 1

To the left is a picture by Jean Fouquet of St. Stephen. I assume Stephen is the one holding the Bible and stone, since he is one of the first Christian deacons and also the first Christian martyr (by stoning). I had not heard of Etienne Chevalier, but apparently he wrote a book of hours (Wikipedia  HERE), which is a medieval illustrated devotional. More on St. Stephen at Catholic Online HERE.

Deacons were assigned by the original apostles to make sure that the goods of the early Christian community were distributed fairly. The Christians gave their worldly goods to the Church and tried to live equally. But widows of Greek-descent Jews were grumbling that their needs were not met (Acts 6, NABRE). The apostles realized that they couldn't both preach and be food distributors. They therefore assigned the tasks of stewardship to others.

I didn't mean to post this blog today, but am having some technical difficulties saving it, so I'll keep it short and continue history of Deacons next week.