Day 2 of the synod
A couple of soundbites from Canadian Archbishop Paul-Andre Durocher ...
*** One was his suggestion that women be allowed to be deacons .... "I think we should really start looking seriously at the possibility of ordaining women deacons because the diaconate in the church's tradition has been defined as not being ordered toward priesthood but toward ministry."
Whenever I see this suggestion I have to sigh :( Oh, the suggestion has been made before, the last time (that I recall) was in 2013 by Cardinal Kasper, though he titled them "deaconesses" and they weren't to be ordained. Even that conditional suggestion was shot down soon after it was made, by Cardinal Marx and Bishop Rudolf Voderholzer.
I understand why the idea keeps coming up - some church leaders actually do want to give women some worthy role in the church, but with the Pope continuously dooming the idea of women as priests, they don't have a lot of other options to suggest.
The thing is, even if women *were* allowed to be ordained deacons (and they won't be) that just will not be enough - no pit stop along the road to full equality of opportunity for women in the church will satisfy justice.
*** The other thing Durocher spoke about was communion for divorced/remarrieds. You have to watch the short video to get the full impact of the byzantine complexity that's been woven by the church around a few of Jesus' words on divorce. What's never asked is 'what did Jesus mean, what was his aim, when he said what he did' (read what Keith Ward wrote on this) ...
*** One was his suggestion that women be allowed to be deacons .... "I think we should really start looking seriously at the possibility of ordaining women deacons because the diaconate in the church's tradition has been defined as not being ordered toward priesthood but toward ministry."
Whenever I see this suggestion I have to sigh :( Oh, the suggestion has been made before, the last time (that I recall) was in 2013 by Cardinal Kasper, though he titled them "deaconesses" and they weren't to be ordained. Even that conditional suggestion was shot down soon after it was made, by Cardinal Marx and Bishop Rudolf Voderholzer.
I understand why the idea keeps coming up - some church leaders actually do want to give women some worthy role in the church, but with the Pope continuously dooming the idea of women as priests, they don't have a lot of other options to suggest.
The thing is, even if women *were* allowed to be ordained deacons (and they won't be) that just will not be enough - no pit stop along the road to full equality of opportunity for women in the church will satisfy justice.
*** The other thing Durocher spoke about was communion for divorced/remarrieds. You have to watch the short video to get the full impact of the byzantine complexity that's been woven by the church around a few of Jesus' words on divorce. What's never asked is 'what did Jesus mean, what was his aim, when he said what he did' (read what Keith Ward wrote on this) ...
posted by crystal | 12:26 PM
4 Comments:
Thank's for reprising Keith Ward's discussion on this. A helpful perspective:)
:)
Crystal, have you read Julia Spencer-Fleming's mystery series about a female Episcopal priest in the Adirondacks? I've enjoyed them.
Hi Susan. No, I haven't heard of them before. I'll look for them at the library - thanks for the recommendation :)
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