Study Commission: no evidence women were ordained to the diaconate

At LifeSite there is a story related to the final report of the study commission set up by Francis to look into the historical issues of female deacons, deaconesses, deaconettes, whatever.

It was not the job of the commission to make a recommendation about the possibility of reviving deaconettes. They were simply to look into historical questions.

The commission found that there is no evidence that women were ordained to the diaconate, in the same way that men were ordained.

We knew that. And we know that ordination of women to the diaconate is not possible because of the harmony of the three grades of the Sacrament of Holy Orders. Only men can receive that sacrament.

Of course the inflexible hard-line dissenters, such as the darling of Beans, Peter Hünermann, will continue to press for deaconettes.

In vain. It’s not going to happen.

Professor Manfred Hauke [commission member], in recent comments to LifeSiteNews, further strengthened this position when he said: “We cannot identify the consecration of deaconesses with the ordination of deacons. It was not sacramental ordination that can be identified with the Sacrament of Orders (for bishops, priests, and deacons).” He added: “The history of the institution of deaconesses offers no solid basis, therefore, for the introduction of a sacramental female diaconate. The ancient Church was unacquainted with a female diaconate equivalent to the male diaconate.”

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. Z is the guy who runs this blog. o{]:¬)
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8 Comments

  1. Sawyer says:

    Coincidentally, Phyllis Zagano is speaking on this very topic at the Three Days of Darkness. Begins at 1:00 p.m. Pacific Time today. Links to watch this and other events:

    Live arena workshop/event/Mass viewing and schedule:
    http://recongress.org/live/home-REC.htm

    YouTube videos of particular workshops and events and Masses, uploaded later in the day or the following day:
    https://www.youtube.com/user/RECongress/videos

  2. VP says:

    All good enough, but with Francis and those around him, it’s all about the foot in the door.

    Perhaps next year, they will organize a synod in some out-of-the-way place with a few Catholics, where “local custom” or “the needs of the faith community” have not been adequately considered, and where a “pastoral solution” can be proposed for their “accompaniment” in this difficulty. It may be that the German bishops have a sloution outlined in a desk drawer someplace.

  3. Gaetano says:

    If ever there was an event begging for a Downfall parody video, this is it.

  4. Gab says:

    Lack of evidence? I doubt that will stop our dear pope. It seems to me, although I have no evidence, that he is more interested in being popular with the left than with God. I pray I am wrong.

  5. matt from az says:

    We are lucky such findings were reported during this pontificate. The leftists, even the hardest core leftists, cannot say that the result was predetermined by a “conservative” pope. It’s their boy in the driver’s seat, so they have to ride along.

  6. Suburbanbanshee says:

    I do not think that Pope Francis is interested enough in throwing bones to feminists, to destabilize his own power base of crazy male liberals. To be brutally functional about it.

  7. Pius Admirabilis says:

    Manfred Hauke is known to be a faithful and tradition-minded Catholic. It is good that he is on the commission. If I am not mistaken, he writes for German theological magazines, and defends the traditional teaching of the Church.

  8. JustaSinner says:

    But this is SO unfair. Men can be admitted to the priesthood AND they can have babies…what do women get? /sarc off

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