Translate

Wednesday, November 27, 2024

"On women deacons, the Catholic Church has to remember its own history" by Phyllis Zagano, National Catholic Reporter

 


Pope Francis listens as he meets women participating in or assisting the Synod of Bishops in the Apostolic Palace at the Vatican Oct. 19, 2024. (CNS/Vatican Media)

Pope Francis listens as he meets women participating in or assisting the Synod of Bishops in the Apostolic Palace at the Vatican Oct. 19, 2024. (CNS/Vatican Media)

"....For more than 1,000 years, women served as deacons (or deaconesses), depending on the language. The only person in Scripture called a deacon is St. Phoebe, who traveled to Rome as an emissary of St. Paul, carrying his Letter to the Romans.

As the church matured, women deacons were ordained during Masses, just as men deacons were. The ordination liturgies bishops used over the centuries to ordain women to the diaconate meet the standards for sacramental ordination decreed by the 16th century Council of Trent. These women are named in literary documents and their names are inscribed on tombstones across the lands of early Christianity..."


No comments: