Were women ever deacons?

[Yomic]

I was reading the NAB Bible translation from the USCCB’s site (www.usccb.org) and came across this in a footnote on 1 Timothy 3:11:

Women: this seems to refer to women deacons but may possibly mean wives of deacons. The former is preferred because the word is used absolutely; if deacons’ wives were meant, a possessive “their” would be expected …

This seems to suggest that women were once deacons. Is the USCCB wrong in this interpretation or is this a tradition (lower-cased “t”) that has since changed? And if they are wrong, what can be done to correct this error?

 

[Leonie_Ambrose]

Yomic,

The following links should assist you in better understanding the Catholic Church’s teaching on whether women were deacons. If you have any further questions or concerns that are not answered by these links, please [contact Catholic Answers (http://www.catholic.com/home/contact.asp) directly.

**Recommended Reading:
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• Have women ever been allowed to be deacons?
• ** Why were women called deaconesses?**
• ** Pope Benedict & Deaconesses** [a debate]