{"id":296209,"date":"2019-03-02T18:44:49","date_gmt":"2019-03-02T23:44:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/?p=296209"},"modified":"2019-03-02T19:46:58","modified_gmt":"2019-03-03T00:46:58","slug":"could-men-and-women-work-together-in-the-diaconate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2019\/03\/could-men-and-women-work-together-in-the-diaconate\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Could Men and Women Work Together in the Diaconate?’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a>
Pixabay<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

That\u2019s the question Rita Ferrone asks \u2014 and answers \u2014 in this piece from Le Croix:\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

At a recent symposium on \u201cThe Future of Women Deacons\u201d held at Fordham University, Fr. Bernard Pottier, SJ, made a comment that I found particularly refreshing.<\/p>\n

He said that when men and women work together in the church it enriches the ministry of both. He said it is\u00a0not<\/em>\u00a0a question of complementarity\u2014\u201dyou can do something I can\u2019t do, and I can do something you can\u2019t do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rather, the collaboration of women and men creates \u201ca sort of promotion, a dialectical promotion\u201d in which both (male and female) become more fully themselves through their interaction with the other.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am more a man when I work with women\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

It is perhaps the first time I have heard it proposed in a Catholic setting that women and men have a beneficial effect on one another that is neither confined to the marital relationship nor rooted in biological function.<\/p>\n

The thought of John Paul II, which has dominated papal teaching on the subject of the sexes, relies heavily on the idea of complementarity.<\/p>\n

In his \u201ctheology of the body,\u201d he draws a straight line from biological differences between men and women to their distinct social roles and even their very being.<\/p>\n

\u201cComplementarity\u201d expresses a conviction that many people share: \u201cmen and women are different\u201d and this difference is a good thing, a manifestation of the order of creation that must be respected.<\/p>\n

But what frequently happens in Catholic discussions is that those \u201cdifferences,\u201d whether real or imagined, end up being defined in such a way that traditional sex roles are reinforced: in order to \u201cprotect\u201d woman\u2019s \u201cessential nature\u201d she has to be kept \u201cfeminine\u201d\u2014mostly by being celebrated in the domestic sphere.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

She concludes:<\/p>\n

Could women and men work together in the diaconate? For societies like the present-day United States this is a no-brainer. Of course they can. If the idea of \u201cdialectical promotion\u201d is correct, they will be more themselves rather than less.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Read it all.\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The article was also published in Commonweal,<\/a><\/strong> which may be more accessible to some if you don\u2019t have a subscription to Le Croix.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

That\u2019s the question Rita Ferrone asks \u2014 and answers \u2014 in this piece from Le Croix:\u00a0 At a recent symposium on \u201cThe Future of Women Deacons\u201d held at Fordham University, Fr. Bernard Pottier, SJ, made a comment that I found particularly refreshing. He said that when men and women work together in the church it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":132,"featured_media":296212,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-296209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-deacons"],"yoast_head":"\n'Could Men and Women Work Together in the Diaconate?'<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"That's the question Rita Ferrone asks \u2014 and answers \u2014 in this piece from Le Croix:\u00a0 At a recent symposium on "The Future of Women Deacons" held at Fordham\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2019\/03\/could-men-and-women-work-together-in-the-diaconate\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" 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