A Question of Female Deacons: Let’s Not Get Ahead of the Church.

Boy howdy, has this been an interesting topic. It is easy to get caught up in the emotion of the argument and not take the time to take a step back and examine what is really going on. But let’s do just that. Let’s take a step back and take a look.

First, just so my biases are crystal clear, let me answer a question that has been posed to me more than once over the course of the last few days, “Do you think [expect/hope] that women will be ordained priests someday?!” To this, I answer, No. Not only do I not think that women will be ordained to the priesthood someday, I know that they never will be. How?

“Wherefore, in order that all doubt may be removed regarding a matter of great importance, a matter which pertains to the Church’s divine constitution itself, in virtue of my ministry of confirming the brethren (cf. Lk 22:32) I declare that the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that this judgment is to be definitively held by all the Church’s faithful.” – St. Pope John Paul II from his Apostolic Letter “Ordinatio Sacerdotalis”

Roma Locuta Est and all that jazz. Both Benedict XVI and Francis have reiterated that the matter is closed, in a “not ever going to be reopened” kind of way.

So, if he spoke that so clearly, why are we even asking the question about female ordination again?!

Let’s look again. “…the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women…” Words have meaning, and the Catholic Church is well practiced in using precision in language. St. John Paul II could have easily left out the word priestly and this current question would have been answered. But he didn’t.

Probably because the Church has had female deacons in history. This is historical fact, and not really a matter of inquiry. What is a matter of inquiry is what function did female deacons play in the early church. Did their practice of deacon match the clerical state that the diaconate has become today? These are matters worth investigating. And these are precisely the matters that the commission is going to be investigating.

But We Already Had a Commission!