Women in the Church

In August, South Africans observe the secular National Women’s Day. Catholics also celebrate their patronal feast day of the Assumption, dedicated to the mother of God. Both days should give us occasion to reflect on the situation of women in society and Church.

In the secular arena, the treatment of women in many sectors of South African society is objectionable, particularly in regard to the prevailing culture of sexual violence and coercion. While women are increasingly taking their rightful places in politics and business, the subjugation of the majority remains a matter of grave concern.

Meanwhile, there is a growing sense among many Catholic women – religious and lay – of alienation within the Church, being excluded from the hierarchy and authority in the magisterium. There are committed Catholic women who feel that their commitment to the Church is not reciprocated.

The Southern African Church has made notable progress in appointing women to important positions. Few Catholic universities, for example, are headed by a woman, as is St Augustine College of South Africa.

The alienation many (though by no means all) Catholic women experience is sometimes expressed in calls for ordination of women to the priesthood.

Pope John Paul in his 1994 apostolic letter Ordinatio sacerdotalis ruled out the notion of women priests, declaring their inadmissability to the priesthood a binding tradition. While this has been hurtful to many women who discern a calling to the priesthood, it is unlikely that this pope or his successors will change this position.

It is regrettable that many in the Church engage with those who favour women priests in a spirit of antagonism instead of open dialogue.

The challenge now is to discern other ways by which the role of women in the Church can be meaningfully enhanced. One such way, some suggest, would be the female diaconate.

The pope and the Vatican have so far avoided saying that the diaconate can be reserved to men only. Indeed, the hierarchy seems to have acknowledged that the idea of deaconesses is not an impossible proposition when it appointed its International Theological Commission to investigate the question. The commission’s conclusion was guarded, leaning towards status quo.

There is evidence of women deacons in the early Church. They are mentioned in Scripture (Romans 16:1-2; Timothy 3:11), and ancients texts indicate that no distinction was made between male and female deacons in their ordination rites.

The central question is whether these deaconesses exercised the same functions as their male counterparts. If they did (and the commission believed they did not), then there is no salient reason why the female diaconate should not be resurrected on the same principle as Vatican II reinstated the male permanent diaconate.

One concern that has been raised is the theory that the female diaconate might provide for what has been called a “slippery slope” towards women priests. This warning can be true only if one accepts that the permanent male diaconate has set the scene for the abolition of obligatory priestly celibacy.

Meanwhile, there is no reason why dioceses and even the Roman curia should not appoint women to positions of influence, at least to those that are open to lay people (as many dioceses, especially in the English-speaking Church, already do).

There are some curial departments that by canon law are not closed to those who lack holy orders. Only one, the Press Office, is headed by a layman, Dr Joaquin Navarro-Valls. None is headed by women.

In his apostolic letter on the 1999 Synod of Europe, Pope John Paul expressed his hope that women would be “entrusted with ecclesial roles reserved by [canon] law to lay people.”

The time is opportune to act on the Holy Father’s wise exhortation.