A Sunday Morning Thought About Women Deacons
We've been talking about evangelizing at work these last two weeks in the weekday posts. But it's not just non-Catholics who are need of the authentic Good News, but many Catholics as well. Catechesis has been abysmal for decades, and too many Catholics are clueless about their Faith.
Recently, I had an exchange with a fellow Catholic that started with some comments he made about Pope Francis. As a "progressive" or "liberal" Catholic, who also harbors a deep devotion to St Francis, his comments about our new Holy Father were generally positive. At some point, he did, however, express a hope that Pope Francis would - in fact he felt he should - enable women to become deacons.
We subsequently exchanged some e-mails on this particular issue, in which he claimed that women were deacons in the early Church, also claiming they have a "right" to become deacons. While he established no logical or necessary causality nor even a connection between these two claims (I should think because there is none), I came across this excellent commentary about the whole subject of women deacons. As I have run into this on other occasions, I found these comments from a real (read: authentically Catholic) theologian helpful in understanding why the claim that women were deacons does not imply in any way that they have a right to, nor even were at the time, the recipients of holy orders - the real crux of the matter. (As you may know, those who push for women deacons ultimately want women priests.) Please take a moment to read this. I hope you find it as enlightening and helpful as did I.
(Click HERE for link. )
In this Year of Faith, I'm making every effort to expand and deepen my knowledge of our Holy Faith. I hope you are too.
Recently, I had an exchange with a fellow Catholic that started with some comments he made about Pope Francis. As a "progressive" or "liberal" Catholic, who also harbors a deep devotion to St Francis, his comments about our new Holy Father were generally positive. At some point, he did, however, express a hope that Pope Francis would - in fact he felt he should - enable women to become deacons.
We subsequently exchanged some e-mails on this particular issue, in which he claimed that women were deacons in the early Church, also claiming they have a "right" to become deacons. While he established no logical or necessary causality nor even a connection between these two claims (I should think because there is none), I came across this excellent commentary about the whole subject of women deacons. As I have run into this on other occasions, I found these comments from a real (read: authentically Catholic) theologian helpful in understanding why the claim that women were deacons does not imply in any way that they have a right to, nor even were at the time, the recipients of holy orders - the real crux of the matter. (As you may know, those who push for women deacons ultimately want women priests.) Please take a moment to read this. I hope you find it as enlightening and helpful as did I.
(Click HERE for link. )
In this Year of Faith, I'm making every effort to expand and deepen my knowledge of our Holy Faith. I hope you are too.
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