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Can women be Catholic deacons?

September 8, 2012 12:10 am

BY MANYA A. BRACHEAR

CHICAGO TRIBUNE

CHICAGO

Growing up, she never gave ordination a second thought. But then she learned that, unlike the church's verdict barring women priests, the question of women deacons has never been resolved.

That open question has led Mapes-Riordan, 49, and her fellow parishioners at St. Nicholas Catholic Church in Evanston to seek an answer. If the church finds in favor of female deacons, she could become one of the first women ordained since the 12th century.

After meeting last winter with members of the parish, including Mapes-Riordan, Chicago's Cardinal Francis George reportedly promised to raise the question in Rome during his visit earlier this year.

Scholars say women deacons wouldn't be a novel or new idea, but the restoration of a tradition abandoned centuries ago.

The idea of female deacons "is being talked about very slowly," George said earlier this year

Mapes-Riordan, a lawyer, wife, mother of two and longtime parishioner at St. Nicholas, does not take a position on whether women should become priests. The church has made it clear that's not permitted. Ordaining women as deacons is not the same, she said.

"In a strange way, I don't see this being about women," Mapes-Riordan said. "I see it as being about church and mission."

She continued: "We have this part of a puzzle, this piece, that I'm not going to say is missing, but we could have a fuller picture if this [letting women become deacons] was added. I don't see it as a women's issue. I see it as a matter for our church."

At a time when critics have accused Catholic church leaders of declaring a war on women by restricting insurance coverage for contraceptives, rebuking American nuns and maintaining an all-male priesthood, a renewed discussion about ordaining women as deacons indicates high-profile church leaders such as George want to give women more opportunities for church leadership.

"It's a message of hope. It's a way to stay within the boundaries of Catholic teachings and have women with real preaching authority within the system," said Phyllis Zagano, one of the American church's leading researchers on the subject of women deacons. "I think the bishops need to address this issue directly."

In the Catholic Church, there are three levels of ordained clergy: bishops, priests and deacons. Deacons can't celebrate Mass, hear confessions or anoint the sick, but they can baptize, officiate at weddings or funerals, and preach.

A handful of scholars, including Zagano, argue that the diaconate of the early church included both men and women. In fact, they say the Apostle Paul tapped a woman deacon, Phoebe, to deliver his most important epistle to the Romans, explaining the concept of salvation through Jesus Christ.

Historians say in an attempt to accommodate societal norms, the church ceased giving women public leadership roles.

The permanent diaconate vanished until the Second Vatican Council asked Pope Paul VI to reinstate it in the 1960s. Even then, the pope asked what role women should play, but the question reportedly never got a public answer.

In 2002, the International Theological Commission of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a report that didn't rule out the possibility of women deacons.

Seven years later, Pope Benedict XVI issued an apostolic letter that distinguished between the role of bishops and priests and the purpose of deacons. While bishops and priests act as icons of Christ, deacons act as Christ's servants, he wrote.

As Mapes-Riordan waits for permission to answer what she perceives as a call to the diaconate, she is working on a master's in liturgy at Catholic Theological Union.

George declined to answer specific questions from the Tribune, reiterating through his spokeswoman that the matter of women deacons was still an "open theological question" for the church.