Could there be women deacons?

by Michael Shackleton · March 5, 2013

A friend returned from the United States tells me there is much debate there about the possibility of the Church allowing women deacons. I have a difference of opinion with my parish priest about this. Please comment on whether it is likely that the Church may allow women into the order of diaconate. �SV

Phoebe, a deaconess of the early church

There has been speculation, especially in the United States of America, about ordaining women as deacons. A committee set up by the bishops there decided in 1992 that admission to the diaconate was among the concerns of women, and the issue needed continuing dialogue and reflection on the meaning of ministry in the Church.

The International Theological Commission issued a statement in 2002 upholding the unity of the sacrament of orders as embracing bishops and priests on the one hand and deacons on the other. It remarked that the ordination of women to the diaconate has not been authoritatively decided by the Church, leaving the question an open one.

Then in 2009 Pope Benedict issued an apostolic letter Omnium in mentem, in which he added a paragraph to canon 1009 of the Code of Canon Law. The canon stated that the orders of episcopate, priesthood and diaconate are conferred by the laying on of hands and the prayer of consecration.

The new paragraph says: �Those who are constituted in the order of the episcopate or the priesthood receive the mission and capacity to act in the person of Christ the Head, whereas deacons are empowered to serve the People of God in the ministries of the liturgy, the word and charity�.

The reason for this amendment seems, firstly, to reinforce the clear distinction between the priest who acts �in the person of Christ� and the deacon who acts, as some have said, �in the image of Christ�, and secondly, to stress that the permanent diaconate is an order in its own right, and not merely a stepping stone to the priesthood.

Consequently, some conclude that women deacons remain a possibility. They argue that the amendment to canon 1009 excludes deacons from acting �in the person of Christ� (therefore male) and refers to them only as ministers (male and female?) to the People of God.

The obstacle to women deacons at present is canon 1024: �Only a baptised man can validly receive sacred ordination�. How the Church�s understanding of the permanent diaconate, as reintroduced by Vatican II, will evolve in future remains an open question.