As the Margaret Beaufort Institute in Cambridge hosts a new conference on women and the diaconate, some still say there is enough evidence in history to ordain women, at least to the diaconate. For others, irrespective of history or Catholic theology, it is more simply about equality or justice towards women today. What is evident from the vast literature on the subject is that the conclusions depend on just two different interpretations of the same facts; one interpretation is in accordance with the magisterial Tradition of the Church, the other is not.
Let us be clear about some of these historical facts. The word “deaconess” appears in a few, not insignificant, documents of the Eastern arm of the Church from the third century. In a few early instances, the rite of installation for such a role was called “ordinatio”, along with other lay “orders” such as for the order of widows, virgins or abbesses, before the word “ordination” became reserved for the always distinct sacrament of Holy Orders.
It is also clear in the historical documents that these rites for consecrating women were never the same as for the male diaconate. The place of a deaconess was never at the altar or even in the sanctuary as for male deacons. Deaconesses were to serve other women and children, especially teaching them, preparing them for baptism and bringing Holy Communion to them when sick or distant from a church.
There is a vital difference between history and Tradition. Many things occur in the history of the Church which are not part of Tradition. This is not simply “old customs”. Theological-ly, it means that which is established by the enduring guidance of the Holy Spirit “into all the Truth” (Jn 16:13) for all time, promised by the Lord. Neither a true sensus fidei nor gen-uine development of doctrine reverses this work of the Holy Spirit in Scripture and Tradition.
Two thousand years of Catholic doctrine holds that the Blessed Trinity established for women a different and complementary place in the Church from that of the male ordained ministry which re-presents the Son of God incarnate as a man. There is no inequality in human or baptismal dignity because of the natural, necessary and fruitful differences between men and women.
In Genesis the word “helpmate” for the woman (ezer in Hebrew) in its original meanings is significant. As many know, this word is used most often for the “help of the Lord” and not, therefore for an inferior. “Mate” is Old English for “meet” meaning appropriate, fitting, of the same calibre. Help that is “fitting” does not replace or take over but rather strengthens, supports and encourages the other. The “valiant woman” in Proverbs is a marvellous example of such women in the Bible and the Church.
Any new conference on “Women and Diakonia” has potential to be exciting and helpful if, as Pope Francis says, it “summons us” to go beyond the Church’s “functional structures”, and stop believing that “women would be granted a greater status and participation in the Church only if they were admitted to Holy Orders … [T]hat approach would in fact narrow our vision; it would lead us to clericalise women … and subtly make their indispensable contribution less effective” (QA 100). After 50 years of arguments penetratingly refuted by theologians of the calibre of Dr Sara Butler, it is time to move on and cease urging women down a “narrow”, “functional” and clericalised path. There is new, fascinating research, such as that of Dr Catherine Tkacz, appointed to the most recent Pontifical Commission after Pope Francis said the previous Commission’s conclusions were like “toads from different wells”.
Instead of returning repeatedly to those wells, it is time to take up the vision of Pope Francis (November 2022), when he insisted “that the woman does not enter into the ministerial life is not a deprivation. No! Your place is that which is much more important and which we have yet to develop.” An ecclesial catechesis for this “more important” place for women in the Church is overdue.
In other words, for women to be ordained (as deacons, priests) is the wrong kind of “help”: an ill-fitting replacement rather than the marvellous ezer example of Mary at the marriage feast in Cana where she brought to her Son the needs she had seen of the bridal couple (Jn 2:3) and prompted the servants to obey unhesitatingly his words.
What is needed is an ecclesial catechesis of the Virgin Queen and Mother; of Mary’s adherence to the Word of God; her faithful-ness and goodness; her attentiveness, guidance and wisdom as a mother not a father. This has already entailed, in France for example, directing girls in the parishes differently, not as altar servers where they replace boys at the altar, but “serving the altar” by helping to prepare the Church according to the needs of the congregation for the sacrifice of the Mass.
In the Litany of Loreto Mary, and thus the Church, is called “Mirror of Justice”: God’s justice. To seek the ordination of women as an “act of justice” is like looking at this mirror, disliking the image there and being determined to change it. The mirror would be broken into shards, as would the current Church as the “Seat of Wisdom” and “Cause of our Joy”.
Dr Caroline Farey is a member of the second Pontifical Commission on women and the diaconate, initiated by Pope Francis in 2021. Women and Diakonia is hosted by the Margaret Beaufort Institute in Cambridge on March 31 and April 1, 2023.
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