"Pope Says More Study Needed on Role of Women Deacons in Early Church" by Philip Pullela, My Response The Full Equality of Women Is the Voice of God in All Times

http://news.trust.org/item/20190507201519-lp409/
Scholars have done the research and concluded that women deacons were validly ordained and served God's people for 1200 years. 

See scholarly books such as "Women Deacons in the Early Church: Historical Texts and Contemporary Debates" by John Wijngaards. The real problem has been and is still sexism in the institutional Church.  Pope Francis' decision that more study on women deacons is needed is disappointing. It is obviously a stalling tactic to block women from taking their rightful place as spiritual equals in ministry. I believe that the full equality of women is the voice of God in our times. The wind of the Spirit propels our Roman Catholic Women Priests Movement to follow Jesus' teaching that all are the beloved of God and welcome at the Table. Bridget Mary Meehan ARCWP, https://arcwp.org, sofiabmm@aol.com, 703-505-0004

THE PAPAL PLANE, May 7 (Reuters) -
Pope Francis said on Tuesday more study was needed on the role of women deacons in the early Christian Church, which eventually could affect decisions on the role of women today.


Speaking to reporters on the plane returning from a trip to Bulgaria and North Macedonia, Francis was asked about the results of a commission he set up nearly three years ago on the topic.


Deacons, like priests, are ordained ministers, and as in the priesthood, must be men in today's Church. They may not celebrate Mass, but they may preach, teach in the name of the Church, baptise and conduct wake and funeral services.


Scholars have debated the precise role of women deacons in the early Church.


Some say they ministered only to other women, such as at immersion rites at baptism and to inspect the bodies of women in cases where Christian men were accused of domestic violence and brought before Church tribunals.


Others scholars believe women deacons in the early Church were fully ordained and on a par with the male deacons at the time.


"All the conclusions were different. They (the commission members) worked together but were in agreement only up to a certain point. Each has their own vision and it is not in accord with that of others," Francis said.


"So they stopped working as a commission and they are studying how to move forward (individually)," he said.


The commission was made up of six women and six men under a president who is a bishop. Nearly all of the members are theologians and university professors. Of the six women, two are nuns and four are lay women.


The Church did have women deacons in the early part of its history but the pope said it still was not clear if they had been sacramentally ordained, as male deacons were.


"That's still not clear," he said. "Some say there are doubts, and more study should be done. So far there is nothing (definitive)."


The Church did away with female deacons altogether in later centuries.


Francis and his predecessors have ruled out allowing women to become priests.


But advocates of women priests say a ruling that women in the early Church were ordained ministers might eventually make it easier for a future pope to study the possibility of women priests. (Reporting by Philip Pullella Editing by Tom Brown )


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