I cannot and never will challenge the Holy Father but I am concerned about 2 factors that must be addressed by someone other than me. Why are there NO Permanent Deacons on the commission and why is there an unapologetic activist for women's ordination on the commission as appointed directly by the Pope.
And I have a few questions; why now and what is the end game.
The Permanent Diaconate is about to celebrate, with the whole Church I pray, it's 50th anniversary of activation thanks to Pope Paul VI in 1967. In these 50 years, despite the need for Permanent Deacons because of fullness or Orders, and the service of charity provided, the Diaconate is primarily an American thing, with some strength in Canada, Australia and parts of western Europe. Across the rest of the Catholic world, not so much. The reestablishment of the Diaconate as a permanent order is still too new to experiment or mess with.
Make no mistake, Permanent Deacons are still a source of confusion an contradiction for SOME Priests, Bishops and Cardinals. We must not dismiss our own contributions to this confusion. All I know is that the Apostles, in order to be more focused on prayer and liturgy appointed seven men to be present to widows and others in need of charity. Service is the charism of the Deacon and by our Ordination and presence on in the Sanctuary and presiding at certain Sacraments, then that Service itself becomes "sacramentalized". I pray that this be another "move on, there is nothing to see here" moment in the life of Holy Mother Church.
By all means, when praying for our Priests, our Bishops and for and with the Holy Father, please do not forget your Permanent Deacon, the icon of Christ the Servant who came to serve and not be served.
Commission on Women Deacons Has 1st Meeting
Secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith chairing study group
ZENIT - HSM
The Vatican press office reported that today, the first meeting of the Study Commission on the Diaconate of Women took place. This commission was established by Pope Francis on August 2 with the purpose of doing an objective study on the situation of deaconesses in the early Church, mentioned for example in Romans 16.
Chaired by Archbishop Luis Ladaria Ferrer, S.J., Secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Commission members will meet in morning and evening sessions over two days in the offices of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
The Holy Father established the commission after he told some 900 women religious belonging to the International Union of Superiors General (UISG) in May that it would be a good idea to look into the history of women deacons in the Church.
The new commission is set to do further work on the theme, which was discussed in a 2002 document (part iv) of the International Theological Commission.
In June, the Pope spoke of the commission on his return flight from Armenia, in an in-flight press conference. On that occasion, he said he had been “a little annoyed” with the press for how they had handled the news of the commission.
He explained that after he had acknowledged the issue could be studied and that he would “‘tell the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to set up this commission’. The next day [the headlines read]: ‘Church opens the door to women deacons!’
“To tell the truth, I was a little annoyed with the media because this is not telling people the whole truth.”
Chaired by Archbishop Luis Ladaria Ferrer, S.J., Secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Commission members will meet in morning and evening sessions over two days in the offices of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
The Holy Father established the commission after he told some 900 women religious belonging to the International Union of Superiors General (UISG) in May that it would be a good idea to look into the history of women deacons in the Church.
The new commission is set to do further work on the theme, which was discussed in a 2002 document (part iv) of the International Theological Commission.
In June, the Pope spoke of the commission on his return flight from Armenia, in an in-flight press conference. On that occasion, he said he had been “a little annoyed” with the press for how they had handled the news of the commission.
He explained that after he had acknowledged the issue could be studied and that he would “‘tell the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to set up this commission’. The next day [the headlines read]: ‘Church opens the door to women deacons!’
“To tell the truth, I was a little annoyed with the media because this is not telling people the whole truth.”
No comments:
Post a Comment