A followup on "Women Deacons"

With people starting to wander afield, and the conversation growing increasingly acrimonious, I decided to close comments on this thread about ordaining women as deacons.  I’m passing the baton to one of the authors of the book in question, Deacon Bill Ditewig, who was more than happy to continue the conversation over at his joint.  He notes:

After the fantastically positive experience of writing the book itself and the equally positive reception at the launch at Loyola University, Chicago, it was quite disheartening to see the almost unbelievable venom and vitriol levied at Deacon Greg, the three of us authors, and anyone who would even consider picking up our book.  We were even criticized for our pasts; for example, I was mocked as a former senior staff member of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB); you know, that rabid liberal cabal who lead our country’s bishops around by the nose to get them to do dangerous, liberal things, like defending religious liberty, Catholic social teaching, and so on.

Be that as it may, I encourage you to read all the comments.  Greg has felt compelled to close off comments and I respect his decision.  On the other hand, while I hope that such behavior will not migrate to this blog, I still wish to respond to a couple of points raised on his blog.

Visit his blog, Deacons Today, to see what else he has to say, and address any questions or comments directly to him.   So go ahead!  Pay him a visit.  He’s setting out extra chairs and removing the fine china from the shelves, so it won’t get damaged when people start hurling the crockery …