Conservative Cardinal Walter Kasper sees ordination of women deacons as possible and sensible Portaluz November 2, 2024

 https://portaluz.org/fe-y-cultura/413767057/El-conservador-cardenal-Walter-Kasper-considera-posible-y-sensata-la-ordenacion-de-mujeres-diaconos.html

Can women become deacons? The Synod on Synodality marked the question as open, subject to review by the Pope.

Deacon Loan Roacher ordained on Tiber on October 17  2024

Newly ordained ARCWP deacons:
Loan Rocher , from Spain : Maria Teresa Ribeiro Rosa, and 
Txus Garcia Pascual  

“Cardinal Walter Kasper considers the ordination of women as deacons to be theologically possible and pastorally significant. In an interview with the magazine "Communio", the former Vatican official responsible for ecumenism said that he had struggled for some time looking for the answer to this question. "Each local church would be free to decide whether or not to make use of this possibility," Kasper continued. The cardinal stressed that he was talking about permanent deaconesses, not the ordination of deaconesses as a transitional stage to priestly ordination.

According to Kasper, the argument in favour of ordaining women as deacons is that both Western and Eastern churches were familiar with this ministry in the early centuries. Nor can it be said that the ordination of deaconesses was a sacrament at that time, as these theological concepts were only developed later. It would be inappropriate to view ordinations of that time merely as symbolic blessings: "The fact that, as far as I know, the forms of ordination for deacons and deaconesses were the same also speaks against this."

The unity of the sacrament of ordination is not an argument

Kasper was also not convinced by the argument that women cannot be ordained as deacons because the ordinations of deacon, priest and bishop are a sacrament inseparable from the "ordo." Pope Benedict XVI (2005-2013) made it clear that deacons, unlike priests and bishops, do not represent Jesus Christ as head of the Church. On the other hand, the ordination of bishops was not definitively recognised as a sacrament until the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965). "Therefore, there have been and are not insignificant differences within the single sacrament of the ordo, as well as historical developments that have been oriented towards pastoral needs," Kasper stressed. 

The question of whether women can be ordained as deacons has been a contentious issue within the Catholic Church for years. Various commissions set up by the Popes have already dealt with the issue without reaching a clear conclusion. A decision by Pope Francis is also pending. In 1994, Pope John Paul II (1978-2005) merely declared that the Church had no authority to ordain women as priests. The document did not contain a statement on women deacons. The Synod on Synodality, which concluded last Sunday, described the question of the ordination of women deacons as open in its final document.”