Rejection of women deacons is ‘bad day’ for Catholic Church
Twelve women from US the United States lie prostrate during a ceremony in which eight women were proclaimed priests and four deacons in 2006 in Pittsburgh. The ceremony was not recognised by the Church.
Associated Press/Alamy
The decision of the Vatican’s Commission on the Female Diaconate, which rejected the ordination of women deacons, has been described as “a bad day for the Catholic Church”.
Responding to the seven-page synthesis document, Redemptorist Fr Tony Flannery said the outcome had “the same feel” as Humanae Vitae in 1968 which declared the use of artificial contraception was “a serious sin”.
Humanae Vitae, he said, emerged “from a ‘shadowy’ largely nameless group of male clerics in the Vatican” and went against the developing consensus among members of the Church.
The Vatican “with its secretive methods” had now dismissed the views of the faithful on women deacons despite the emphasis on synodality.
The Redemptorist, who was censured over his support for women priests, warned that the large majority of women, especially in the western world, would reject the Commission’s finding and the exodus of young women from the Church would increase.
“Can Synodality survive this development? At the very least it will be damaged,” he said. How can people be expected to continue to give their time and energy to the significant amount of work involved in the Church “if they know that a secret Vatican ‘cabal’ can dismiss the findings with the stroke of a pen”.
Separately, We Are Church International said it is “very disappointed” at the decision. The lay group said it was “shocking” that five members of the Vatican Commission “believe the masculinity of Christ is an integral part of sacramental identity”.
Noting that many women around the world are already performing the work of ordained priests without ordination even as deacons, the group said denial of the diaconate to women exhibited the “deep-rooted misogyny” in the Church.
Meanwhile in an open letter to Synod Group 5, Spirit Unbound has criticised the Commission’s “unloving distinction on the basis of gender” and said the time has arrived to “disregard the broken voices of so manifestly a man-made institution”.
Elsewhere, Dr Luca Badini Confalonieri of the Wijngaards Institute for Catholic Research has said, “the No from the Commission highlights the lack of good faith from the Vatican”.
The entire process, he said, particularly the selection of members of the study commission and study group, has been carried out “without transparency”, to ensure the selection of ‘yes-men’ and ‘yes-women’.
He criticised the outcome as “deeply wrong both historically and theologically” and called for the Commission to publish all the materials it relied on.
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