Survey: Religious superiors support possibility of women deacons

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SuscipeMeDomine said:
A survey of both male and female religious superiors in the U.S. found that most believe that the Church can and should ordain women as deacons.
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As i mentioned previously, I suspected that this might be another development coming in the future. However, there was a near unanimous condemnation of what I thought might be possible to happen.
 
It has already happened in the early church. The question is whether the practice will be returned and what is the scope of responsibility that would be provided to a deaconess.

In the early church it seems as if they had some responsibility for providing support for certain ministries. Also, during the early church it was a somewhat common practice for deaconesses to be involved in baptism of women and children.
 
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I think when we get to Heaven, we will be in shock over all the little details we use to squabble about here on Earth.

Imagine Jesus in Heaven:
Catholic Person: “Jesus! Look at all those Jesuits and Dominicans and Franciscans and religious sisters all wanting women deacons! How awful!”
Jesus: “And? Did you serve the poor? Did you feed the hungry?”
Catholic Person: “Uhhh…”
Jesus: “Yeah. Next!”

🤣
 
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Most Catholics I’ve met do not know that deacons receive Holy Orders and can become priests if they become widowed.

Women can not become priests, so ordaining them to the diaconate is not an option.

Jim
 
I think we will all be ashamed of all out failings and falls. Also not serving the poor and not wanting female deacons aren’t necessarily connected. And also we won’t be complaining or asking things like that since we would have been either purified on earth and went straight to heaven or through purgatory.
 
What I have been told, female deacons were required to baptize female, as the custom was to be baptized in the nude. They had no other duties.
 
It’s sad seeing people put down our religious. As if it isn’t hard enough to attract vocations.

Without the context of what the superiors are thinking on the survey, it might boil down to what one Benedictine prior once told me. He said he was not in favour if women’s ordination and didn’t think it possible to ordain women. But if the Church were to some day decide otherwise after profoundly considering the question, he would be duty-bound by his vows to obey the Church and Holy Father.

Here’s a newsflash. The religious are entitled to hold opinions. But they also take obedience seriously and their opinion will rarely ever trump their vows.
 
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Then men better step up to the plate and become priests and deacons and quit whining about celibacy and everything else. Because I guarantee otherwise we will eventually run very short of clergy, and necessity will create all kinds of impetus.
 
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I believe Cdl. Mueller said of women deacons, “not necessary and not possible.”

We will keep driving young men away from considering the priesthood by flooding the altar with women.
 
Yeah, but that is primarily due to canon law, which may be changed in order to place appropriate limits around the ordination rites for the public offices of the church.
 
Tis_Bearself said:
Then men better step up to the plate and become priests and deacons and quit whining about celibacy and everything else. Because I guarantee otherwise we will eventually run very short of clergy, and necessity will create all kinds of impetus.
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Much I agree with here. All I would say is whether it is scripturally necessary for one to give up the God-given vocation as husband or father to serve as a priest or bishop. The concern regarding priests marrying and having children was driven much more by the logistics involved in caring for the widows and children of priests who passed away than it was by scriptural necessity when canon law was changed in the middle ages. Men who have concerns about these things I think have a legitimate disagreement.
 
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No, it will never change.

Well, that’s my opinion, not a conviction. 😉

Jim
 
Related hypothetical: If the subdiaconate were restored, what doctrinal obstacles exist to women serving in that vocation?
 
1Lord1Faith said:
Can you expand on this? I’d love to hear you talk more about it.
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Men look for a brotherhood. Men are called to battle. It is our nature and responsibility to lead. A normal man is not drawn to feminine endeavors. When the altar is flooded with female readers, EMHCs, altar servers, cantors, etc., the young men in the pews view the mass as very feminine. Many priests themselves do not exude aspects of manliness like leadership and sacrifice. Many of them do not know how to direct often bossy women who work at the parish and run the religious ed programs, select (the very often dainty, feminine, and uninspiring music), and otherwise direct other parish activities. And if these roles are not performed by women, many times they are done by dainty men; it is no secret that seminaries were invaded by many homosexuals directly leading up to and following Vatican II. Already in secular society, young men are outcast, and unless they are homosexual are just considered future oppressors of women. There is already a secular narrative in the West that men are the cause of many of the world’s problems. Yes, many men do need to recognize the vocations crisis, volunteer more at the parish level, and lead their parishes. But unless they recognize the crisis, very few want to volunteer to join what is essentially a woman’s liturgical group. Many women on here probably won’t agree or will argue with these observations, which I expect.
 
bobperk said:
. Many priests themselves do not exude aspects of manliness like leadership and sacrifice. Many of them do not know how to direct often bossy women
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It’s always so interesting when men in charge are described as “manly” and having “leadership and sacrifice,” but women in leadership are described as “bossy.”
 
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