"Vatican Tamps Down Expectations Over Women Deacons", But, Scholarship Supports Female Deacons as Equal with Male Deacons, Check it out!

Left to right, Deacon Kathryn Shea is presented for priestly ordination by Program Companion Priest Mary Theresa Streck
www.arcwp.org

Bridget Mary's Response: Scholarship Supports Female Deacons

I am smiling as I write this commentary on the article reporting Vatican back-tracking below. Once the Commission that Pope Francis called for delves into the scholarship, they will have
 a lot to share.

First, according to the 1976 Pontifical Biblical Commission's Report, the Vatican's own scholarship, there is nothing in scripture that supports a ban on women's ordination...."It does not seem that the New Testament by itself alone will permit us to settle in a clear way and once and for all the problem of the possible accession of women to the presbyterate."

Second, the Ordination Rite that was used to ordain women deacons was identical for men and women.  See outstanding scholarship cited  below on the comprehensive  website quoted below: http://www.womenpriests.org/pordain.asp

"Women deacons have been documented extensively for the first nine centuries in especially the Eastern part of the Church." See Romans 16: Paul praises Deacon Phoebe and commends her leadership in the local church. Women deacons assisted in the baptism of women which  required anointing and immersion of the whole body.  We know the exact ordination rites that were used.  They involve the imposition of hands by the bishop,  the invocation of the Holy Spirit to impart the  diaconate and the imposition of the diaconate stole.  Read here one typical example of such a rite.  International Church Councils, such as Chalcedon,  Trullo and Nicaea II endorsed the ordination of  women deacons." Three, there is no evidence whatsoever, that ordination was required to preside at house church Eucharistic celebrations in early Christianity.  Four, the history of ordination evolved  was understood differently in the first  centuries of the church's history then in medieval and contemporary times. See Gary Macy, The Hidden History of Women's Ordination

So my advice to the Vatican Commission is check out the Pontifical Biblical Commission's report in 1976, visit the womenpriests website quoted above that cites years worth of scholarship by John Wijngaards, and read:

     No Women in Holy Orders? The Ancient Women Deacons

by John Wijngaards, Canterbury Press 2002 

In addition they should  consult  experts like Phyllis Zagano,
 German theologian Ida Raming and theologian and archaeologist Dorothy Irvin. 

Indeed, Pope Francis has opened a hornet's nest at the Vatican! 
No doubt the hard liners in the Vatican Curia are irritated by 
opening up this topic for study. 
They fear that it could lead to women priests!

Yet, I believe that Pope Francis' Commission is a positive first step and could lead to the full equality of women as priests, bishops, and decision makers in a more inclusive, egalitarian church.

Our Roman Catholic Women Priests Movement has been ordaining women deacons, priests and bishops to serve in grassroots, inclusive faith communities, thus renewing the church on the margins, one renewed community at a time. Our international movement is  calling on Pope Francis to dialogue with us, lift excommunications, and honor primacy of conscience. (We are 225 members on 5 continents, in 13 countries, serving 81 faith communities in 34 states in the United States)

We are calling on all our supporters to sing a petition of support for women priests worldwide which will be delivered in Rome on June 3rd. https://action.groundswell-mvmt.org/petitions/pope-francis-welcome-all-priests

Bridget Mary Meehan, sofiabmm@aol.com, 703-505-0004

 Associated Press article: Vatican Tamps Down Expectations Over Women Deacons May 13, 2016

VATICAN CITY — "The Vatican is tamping down any expectations that Pope Francis is about to let women serve as deacons in the Catholic Church anytime soon.

Francis made headlines Thursday when he told a closed-door meeting of some 800 superiors of women's religious orders that he agreed with their proposal to create a commission to study the issue. He was responding to a question about what was impeding women today from serving as deacons, who aren't priests but perform many of the same functions as priests, such as presiding over baptisms, marriages and funerals.

Francis replied that he understood that women deacons in the ancient church weren't ordained, as male deacons are today, and he reaffirmed that women regardless cannot deliver homilies during Mass. But he agreed to set up a commission to study the question, especially the role of women deacons in the ancient church.

The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, told Vatican Radio on Friday that the pope "didn't say he had any intention of introducing diaconal ordination for women, much less priestly ordination for women."