JP2 was going to allow women to be priest?

[Artemidora]

It’s pretty clear that JP II would not have ordained women.

However, it is very clear that women were ordained in the early church, and some functions continued to be filled by women into the 1200’s. John Bradshaw published a book of rites of the early church, including the simultaneous ordination of male and female deacons, with lay on of hands for both.

Women were once deacons, priests, and bishops. And the evidence is now published, if not widely known.

Atemidora

 

[ChurchTorch]

I do sort of wonder why the Church has not clearly and dogmatically slammed the door once and for all on the potential for a female diaconate as they did with the potential for an ordained female priesthood via Ordinatio Sacerdotalis?

Seems like a huge amount of energy is spent discussing this matter. If the magisterium is certain that no female may be ordained a deacon, why not say so as it did with regard to the priesthood?

 

[ChurchTorch]

It’s pretty clear that JP II would not have ordained women.

However, it is very clear that women were ordained in the early church, and some functions continued to be filled by women into the 1200’s. John Bradshaw published a book of rites of the early church, including the simultaneous ordination of male and female deacons, with lay on of hands for both.

Women were once deacons, priests, and bishops. And the evidence is now published, if not widely known.

Atemidora

Not in the Catholic Church.

They were certainly deaconesses at one point, but a deaconess does not equate to a deacon.

 

[Aramis]

It’s pretty clear that JP II would not have ordained women.

However, it is very clear that women were ordained in the early church, and some functions continued to be filled by women into the 1200’s. John Bradshaw published a book of rites of the early church, including the simultaneous ordination of male and female deacons, with lay on of hands for both.

Women were once deacons, priests, and bishops. And the evidence is now published, if not widely known.

Atemidora

Not in the Catholic Church.

They were certainly deaconesses at one point, but a deaconess does not equate to a deacon.

It’s also explicit that female priests and bishops were Anathematized in the 3rd and 4th centuries… along with the men who ordained them.

The Gnostic churches seem to have had female priests, and perhaps bishops, but they were one of the earliest ecumenical council anathemas issued.

 

[otjm]

I do sort of wonder why the Church has not clearly and dogmatically slammed the door once and for all on the potential for a female diaconate as they did with the potential for an ordained female priesthood via Ordinatio Sacerdotalis?

Seems like a huge amount of energy is spent discussing this matter. If the magisterium is certain that no female may be ordained a deacon, why not say so as it did with regard to the priesthood?

Part of the answer may be that the Church does not necessarily go out and make decisions and statements unless and until they perceive a need for it.

The whole issue of women’s ordination is one that I do not hear a lot about except occasionally in personal conversations - that is, I don’t see a lot in the press about it. That does not mean there is nothing being said, but the issue seems to have died down at least in my perception.

I have not heard much discussion about deaconesses, and that may be why the Church is not publicly addressing the issue. It may well be under consideration in one or more of the dicasteries, but neither do I hear any public calls for deaconesses. And since it appears that legitimately there were women referred to as deaconesses, then I don’t see the Church saying that such could not be done again (unlike priesthood, which the Church has definitively said cannot be done, based on no power to do so).

 

[Palaeologos]

What would happen if an Anglican priest, being a woman, decided to convert to Catholic. I have heard that the Catholic Church guarantees all Anglican priests, who decide to convert, to preserve their clerical status.

The Catholic teaching which says that women cannot be priests trumps the pastoral provision here. The same thing would happen if a same-sex couple who had been “married” converted; their marriage is impossible, in the same way that WO is impossible. You can’t confect the Eucharist with pizza and beer, you can’t marry your car, and you can’t ordain a woman to the ministry.