Let’s bring equality to the Church
The category of “Instruction” under which the June 10 article about women and holy orders resides should better be titled “Conservative Propaganda.” Deacon Cerrato gives a one-sided opinion on the question of women being ordained to the diaconate.
The role of deacon was recognized in the early Church by St. Paul (Rom 16:1). Do we conveniently ignore him?
Deacon Cerrato has omitted any of the academic, exhaustively researched works by Dr. Phyllis Zagano, senior research associate-in-residence in Hofstra University’s religion department. Recognized as an expert in this area, Zagano was on the first commission, The Study Commission on the Women’s Diaconate, called by Pope Francis in 2016 to study the possibility/feasibility of ordaining women to the diaconate. The report has never been publicly released. Curious. Maybe because the pope didn’t like the results, he called for a second study in 2020, results not released.
I have two questions for those proponents of an all-male diaconate:
- Why is it acceptable for the Eastern churches to ordain women to the diaconate?
- Are you saying that women are not equally due the grace that God freely gives to all the baptized by denying them the grace of ordination? You would deny women their baptismal identity of priest, prophet and king?
I would encourage CV readers to get the whole story by reading a Phyllis Zagano book on the women’s diaconate. The Church could be so much more if she allowed the other 50% of the faithful to grow into their fullest potential by bringing equality to the Church. Start with ordaining women as deacons.
— Dana Hlusko, Virginia Beach
Editor’s note: In May, the Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria and All Africa ordained a Zimbabwean woman to the diaconate in the Orthodox Church. The Orthodox Church is not in communion with the Roman Catholic Church and does not recognize papal authority.
Jesus calls women, but not to be deacons or priests
This is in response to the article in the June 10 issue concerning women and holy orders.
I read this article with great care and interest. Being a professional woman Catholic, this issue has been very important to me. At the onset, I agree with the Holy Father’s decision, that the “consecration of women as deacons and priests are not supported in the New Testament” and, for that matter, in the Old Testament.
I have done my own study of the Bible searching for events when God in the Old Testament and Jesus in the New Testament chose any woman, including his Holy Mother, to do anything close to what is demanded of deacons and priests. Putting it simply, Jesus chose 12 men, calling them by name to be his apostles, sending them in pairs to preach and spread the Word to the world.
Certainly, there were very pious women who accompanied Jesus and his chosen apostles and provided support to them.
The most important event that convinced me that women were not chosen the same way as men was the Last Supper. There were no women invited to Jesus’ last meal – the meal in which he consecrated the bread and wine into his body and blood. No woman was present, even his beloved mother. The words, “This is my body. This is my blood,” cannot be said by a female about a male God.
We, women, know that our Redeemer loves us and that he died for us, too. He has asked us to do a lot, but being priest and deacon is not one of them.
— Irma Silva-Barbeau, Order of the Secular Discalced Carmelite, Blacksburg
Be Catholic in speech
Pope Francis’ use of a pejorative term for gay men was shocking. Almost as alarming was the Vatican’s less than full-throated apology for the pope’s use of the term. When is the Catholic Church going to understand what it means to be “catholic”?
— Philip L. Russo, Jr., Virginia Beach