The Vatican announced Wednesday that Pope Francis has created a new commission to study the question of a female diaconate in the Catholic Church, after some members of the 2019 Amazon synod requested the pope re-establish a 2016 commission on the subject.
Among the 10 theologians making up the new study commission are two permanent deacons, three priests, and five lay women. They hail from Europe and the United States.
Pope Francis first created a 12-member commission in 2016 to examine the historic question of the role of deaconesses in the early Church.
In May last year, he said that the commission had not reached any consensus which would soon lead to a plan of action, but would continue its study.
Speaking aboard the papal plane returning from North Macedonia and Bulgaria, the pope said “for the female diaconate, there is a way to imagine it with a different view from the male diaconate,” but added that “fundamentally, there is no certainty that it was an ordination with the same form, in the same purpose as male ordination.”
“Some say there is doubt, let’s go ahead and study,” he said in May 2019.
The institution of the new commission also follows the discussion of the female diaconate during the 2019 Amazon synod.
At the end of the Oct. 6-27 meeting, synod members recommended to Pope Francis that women be considered for certain ministries in the Church, including the permanent diaconate, which is an order within the sacrament of Holy Orders.
Pope Francis said in his closing remarks for the Amazon synod Oct. 26 that he would re-open the 2016 commission, possibly adding new members, based on the synod’s request.
But in his apostolic exhortation on the Amazon, published Feb. 12, Pope Francis called for women in the South American region to be included in new forms of service in the Church, but not within the ordained ministries of the permanent diaconate or priesthood.
Francis wrote in Querida Amazonia that when considering the role of women in the Church, “we do not limit ourselves to a functional approach.”
The subject of women deacons has previously been studied by the Church, including in a 2002 document from the International Theological Commission (ITC), an advisory body to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF).
In the document, the ITC concluded that female deacons in the early Church had not been equivalent to male deacons, and had neither a “liturgical function,” nor a sacramental one. It also maintained that even in the 4th century “the way of life of deaconesses was very similar to that of nuns.”
According to the April 8 Vatican announcement, Cardinal Giuseppe Petrocchi, the archbishop of L’Aquila, Italy, has been named president of the study commission. Fr. Denis Dupont-Fauville, a CDF official, was named secretary.
One of the two US-based members is James Keating, a permanent deacon and the director of theological formation at the Institute for Priestly Formation (IPF) based at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska.
A theologian, he leads the IPF’s retreats for seminary faculty and seminary formators. Keating is the author of several books and articles on holy orders and the diaconate.
The second American member of the commission is Dominic Cerrato, a permanent deacon and director of diaconal formation in the Diocese of Joliet, Illinois.
In the past Cerrato has taught theology at the Franciscan University of Steubenville, where he established the Distance Learning Masters in Theology program. In 2014, he published a book on the theology of the diaconate based on the personalist thought of Pope St. John Paul II….
The above comes from an April 8 story on the site of the Catholic News Agency.
Interesting that there is no bio info or names of the lay women.
The women’s bios are in the article (linked). It seems the two deacons are the only ones currently living in the U.S. Dr. Catherine Brown Tkacz is an American, but currently teaching, it appears, at the Catholic university in Ukraine. From my perspective, it’s interesting that she wrote a book of our (Ruthenian) Byzantine Catholic Liturgy. Also, Fr. Manfred Hauke is also on the study commission. His book, Women in the Priesthood?, is published by Ignatius Press and is very comprehensive. That said, one critic of Fr. Hauke’s book wrote, “it is a painstakingly thorough presentation of the arguments against the ordination of women to the priesthood.” I hope the commission clarifies the history and current status of deaconesses, who are not the same as deacons.
I assume the picture of Abigail Eltzroth is a subtle hint that the moderators might be suggesting that this is the first step toward Abigail’s fantasies being realities somewhere down the road, or am I mistaken?
The very fact that the commission even exists, and with the many statements of Pope Francis these last years with so many ambiguous opinions, show a movement toward a new situation. If I were in charge and did not want a particular outcome, I would not establish a committee to investigate what already is settled. “Danger, Will Robinson, Danger!”
Dan (and others), Church leaders and others need to be honest about what is on their agendas. Many, if not most, it seems, who want to further this discussion of “women deacons” also want women priests and to abolish mandatory celibacy for priests (in the Latin Church). Direct, respectful questions should be asked and honesty answered. “Your Excellency, do you favor or are you open to the ordination of women to the priesthood?” Bishop Krautler, one of the Amazon Synod bishops, was, to his credit, honest about that, before he was whisked away from reporters. See for yourself at https://youtu.be/-4vaId87tm4
Please, no hidden agendas. Christians value honesty and truthfulness.
And, as I’ve noted repeatedly, deaconesses in the Church were not (and in the case of Orthodox Christians, are not) the same as deacons. Just look at the significant differences in the ordination rites. Deaconesses were ordained to a minor order and functioned differently than deacons. Deacons, like priests and bishops, are ordained to a major order, Holy Order(s), one of the seven sacraments.
Bishop McElroy is very honest about his priorities.
This commission is stacked against “deaconesses”. Read the bios and you’ll understand. Why he’s doing this is anyone’s guess.
The very fact that the commission even exists, and with the many statements of Pope Francis these last years with so many ambiguous opinions, show a movement toward a new situation. If I were in charge and did not want a particular outcome, I would not establish a committee to investigate what already is settled. “Danger, Will Robinson, Danger!”
Again, deaconesses are not the subject matter of this study commission apparently, “women deacons” are. A restoration of the office of deaconess for the Latin Church, as happened with the (so-called “permanent”) diaconate and consecrated virginity is another issue entirely. That said, it would be helpful for the commission to (hopefully once and for all) clarify that deaconesses and deacons have never been (in or of) the same Order.
Recently I attended “Mass” celebrated by a “woman priest”. She led the celebration in a solemn and holy manner. I must say her homily was one of the best I’ve heard in recent years…much better than the homilies preached by many men Catholic priests.
I am sure it was filled with feminist tropes and worship of “the goddess” that is supposedly in all women…You couldn’t pay me enough money to go to some faux mass lead by some clipped haired “priestess.”
There is no such thing as a “women priest”. The so-called “mass” that she led was not a legitimate Mass. And whether she preached a good homily is irrelevant. She is a “wolf in sheep’s clothing”!
I’ve been to some Protestant services with better preaching, which were led well and solemnly. (They often do the best they can without the fulness of the faith.) It is a free country and people can attend Episcopalian, Lutheran or other services. No one is forced to be a practicing Catholic or attend Mass. Yet, unless it’s presided over by a validly ordained priest, one is not receiving Jesus Christ in the Eucharist.
I sense more polyester is in store for the Church
A lighter version of the traditional vestments would be more slimming for the more portly priests (male) out there who serve in hotter climates. instead of those “tents” that look like bats wings when the arms are lifted. Perhaps some young designer can start such a business, or an order of nuns can do so. I think some of the Anglican Rite Catholics (forgot their official title) already have some of those types of vestments.
To be clearer, many of the more traditional priests wear a closer fitting white alb made of linen or good cotton with a cincture. It seems more slimming and cooler than those polyester tents. Something like a light weight chasuble (with its straight lines) could be put over it if needed.
I watched part of one of these “ordinations”. I only saw a bunch of women, one man and no children.. If you want the Church to die, just make it “matriarchal.” And so many of these women who are larger but on “vestments” that make them look even larger instead of using something that slims them down.
Correction to the last words in my second line. I should have written “put on”.
Actually, after watching it again, there was more than one man but no children.