Just don’t call them “lay” deacons, IYKWGFY
Growing up, there were two men in my Roman Catholic parish who became “permanent deacons.” Typically, being a deacon is a step on the way to becoming a priest. With the drop in vocations to become priests, the Church empowered a group of “lay” deacons (i.e. from the laity, not clergy) to assist a local priest in many ways, including some (but not all) Sacraments and actually preaching from the pulpit. Think of them like physicians’ assistants in areas where doctors are scarce: the PAs of God.
These men could be married, although if their wife died, they would not be free to re-marry. OTOH, at that point they were free to continue their studies and become priests.
As always, these roles were strictly for men, although there were other roles that women could play in the Church, including Lector, a reader of scripture at Mass, and Eucharistic Minister, handing out the Body and Blood that just minutes before had been transubstantiated from mere Bread and Wine, thanks to a miracle that is performable only by men.
As President of my Parish Council, a Lector and former Acolyte (a.k.a. “Altar Server” or “Altar Boy”) I tried my best 25 years ago to broaden the role of women in my Parish by opening up the ranks of servers to young girls. An attorney, former Marine and convert to the Faith (i.e. a triple hardass) consistently blocked us on that score, arguing for tradition and gender roles assigned by yadda yadda yadda. Our charter specified that we must make all such changes unanimously, so he had me stymied until one day he missed a meeting. One 8-0 vote later, and the ranks of the servers tripled over night. Hello, Altar Girls!
Today, new (old) ground is being broken by Papa Frank, the greatest Pope since God knows when.
The Dream Team: Ebony and Ivory
Pope Francis the First (and best) has formed a “Commission of Study on the Diaconate of Women.” It turns out that my nemesis, Brother Jarhead, Esquire, was a little wrong on his traditions. In the earliest days of the Church, women deaconesses were EVERYWHERE. Fully half this commission is, appropriately, made up of women.
And so, with baby steps and a lot of love and good old common sense (“one cannot make a good and proper decision without listening to women” quoth he) Papa Frank is taking an important step in the evolution of the clergy. Maybe nothing will come of it. Maybe it’s too little, too late. Or maybe it’s the way the Catholic Church evolves to survive into the next century.
Either way, it’s been a loooooong time coming.
Thank you, Primo.
It’s been said the winners write the history. They write the creed and laws, as well. Whenever I hear anyone pull out the word “tradition” I now go to Google and read. I’m always surprised to see how recently (along the scale of human history) the “tradition” began.
1Not done yet.
2It is certainly a good first step and I do admire the common sense changes Pope Francis has brought about, but until he comes right out and declares that birth control (not the rhythm method) is not a sin, I’m afraid he’s lost most of the female population.
3As an atheist I’ll sit this one out, except for hearty agreement with maryelle. Pope Francis says he’s concerned about the environment, but he doesn’t take the biggest step he could in helping both that cause and the world’s women.
4Like I said before I like this Pope and I’m nowhere near going to the Catholics.
5Not buying it at all. The church lost me when I was 9 years old and I have not looked back even one single second.
6Thank you, Primo. I hope you’re right. I’m not Catholic, so what Pope Francis does isn’t a major concern for me, but I do wish that what he says off the cuff lined up better with what he does officially. Despite some early encouraging words, Francis hasn’t done much to make the Catholic church a welcoming place for LGBT people or women in general. I’ll believe it when I see it.
7Sorry too late.
8Became a lay minister 10 years ago. Men got to go on to become deacons, the best and the brightest women? Lay ministers!
Left the church 4 years ago. Not sorry!
I want to know what he’s done to clean up the mess that is the Vatican Bank.
9Someone noted that pretty much all of Francis’ “liberal” remarks about gays, women, etc. are made on airplanes. Discuss.
10This is a good step, and the RCC* has so much to fix: Protecting pedophile priests, LBTG folks, women, birth control, money laundering, and a vastly overweighted hierarchy that is the source of nearly all these problems and the impediment to fixing them.
*Roman Catholic Church. There are several other denominations of Catholicism- Liberal Catholics, American Catholics, Evangelical Catholics, United Catholics, etc. Roman Catholics is merely the largest and oldest one.
11Rhea: I almost answered that, but the off-the-cuff, whether true or not, was not a good thing to say online.
Primo: I like this Pope better than most (all?) of the previous, but realize he’s like a kid who can ride a mustang and now it trying to drive a double hitch of the Budweiser Clydesdales through an obstacle course–a lot of inertia, a lot of individuals who don’t like someone else’s hands on the reins. I have an online friend, a South Texas Catholic, blue-color, a sincere and honest man I do believe, who cannot get past anything the Church says. So he’ll vote GOP, because they don’t violate Canon Law, even though he hates everything else about them.
This appears to be the bar that so many Catholics cannot jump: he cannot bring himself to distinguish his duty as a citizen to support the freedom of other citizens from his religious duty to support the Church. He cannot accept that Tim Kaine can be “a good Catholic” and in his public role accept that women have a right to choice. He cannot see that the oath to uphold and protect the Constitution (which necessarily includes the promise to uphold and protect those rights granted by it) means that anyone who takes it (with or without the “so help me God” and hand on the Bible) is required *spiritually* as well as legally to stick to it.
And that’s why I am so firm on separation of religion and state…and why I think the story of Jesus showing the coin and saying “Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s” goes beyond paying taxes. The Church should quit trying to gain more secular power by manipulating elections, courts, etc. The Church should recognize that any of its members who choose to enter politics in any country have a responsibility to those they represent or govern–chose that responsibility–and unless the Church is going to forbid that activity to its members, it should let them do their secular duty in their secular lives, and maintain their private life in accordance with whatever rules the Church sets.
I’m not Catholic. I disagree strongly with Catholic doctrine. But I defend the right of others to be Catholic, limiting that right so that they do not interfere with the rights of others. So far, the Catholic Church (and others who apparently want their own theocracy) has not been willing to cede Caesar’s political power to secular control, so I remain….disapproving.
12Gee, there is a place in the Koran that says something like “Allah approves of men who listen to the voices of women.” Considering the fact that Islam will not let their Olympic athlete women compete without a hijab, I gotta ask, “how did that get in there?” And obviously state that the Koran and Pope Paco sound very much alike on this issue. And I never thought I would ever live long enough to say that!
13It’s sad that humanity is so mired in superstition that it can’t act to protect itself against overpopulation.
Religious education is more dangerous that the climate change it’s helping to cause.
14maggie: If I’m not mistaken, (I am not a religious scholar), the Koran also states that both men and women should be chaste. So why don’t the men cover up as well? Because paternalism. Women are a temptation. Gambling is a temptation. Drinking is a temptation. And all have Koranic restrictions or outright bans. Weird.
15Progress is a lovely thing, but slow, isn’t it? Kind of like the incremental liberal movement…
16Going back to the earliest days of the fragments that became Catholicism — No, I’m not a ‘mythicist’ the ‘fundamentalist version of atheism’ — but don’t ask what I mean by ‘fragments,’ I’m actually working on a book on the topic (and would welcome any first readers — okay, second after my wife — to tell me what I missed or got wrong)
17‘
Back on topic, more or less. Despite the line ‘thou shalt not permit a woman to preach’ which seems to be a later addition, possibly from Tertullian, Paul repeatedly used women as his messengers, bringing the epistles to the churches. He tells the hearers to treat them as they would him, and to listen to their preaching.
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There even were a series of stories — the time’s equivalent of today’s Christian pop fiction — featuring ‘Tecla” supposedly a female companion of his, that focused on her adventures. (Unfortunately, this too came from the late first century, when Christianity had developed an anti-sex position that would have been horrifying to Jesus and to most Jews of his time, so Tecla’s main task seems to have been to argue that every married couples should remain celibate *sigh* You can find a bit more about her from Bart Ehrman — totally unreliable when it comes to anything Jewish, shaky on understanding people, and too likely to make wild leaps — at one point he calls Jesus a vegetarian — unlikely for a Jew of time and contradicted by the opening lines of Mark on his teachings, where the first thing he does is literally translated as ‘sat down to meat.’ (with the tax farmers and sinners). But in texts he is reliable. Or you can check the Internet Sacred-Text Archive while it remains available.
The Catholic church (and Christianity) lost me many years ago. I knew this new Pope was doing something right when he had showers built and opened a barber shop to Rome’s homeless. His security detail busted him for slipping out at night to minister to Rome’s street people.
18One of Paul’s limitations as a preacher was that he was certain that Jesus was returning next year or maybe the year after that. So he adjured the faithful to live super holy lives, like saints, single mindedly focusing on Jesus’ imminent return (the first of “the end is near” papyrus rapturists, y’all)! So here we are two millennia later, and Paul’s position is pretty mystifying, considering the first commandment was “be fruitful and multiply,” which for most of us includes hoochy coochy. Just one more example of how easily stuff gets lost in translation. And I’d be glad to read your book, Jim!
19Paco is no going to magically resolve every complaint. He’s an octogenarian with one lung, so the most he can do is instigate, and hope for the best.
As it is, being merely the CEO of the world’s oldest, and largest, corporation, it takes time for directives from the home office to get down to the field offices, and … considering that the field is super-multi-cultural… local conditions may override central office procedures.
The biggest change in the Paco-era I’ve seen is the RCC getting over its “East-West” fixation (the last two guys being products of the 2nd World War and the Cold War) for the more important (at least to the vast majority of Catholics) ones to us in the global south.
20from CNN article “This is the third church commission appointed to study the historical role of women deacons since 1992. Both commissions took several years to complete their work and neither led to changes in the church. The more recent report, released in 2002, said the question of ordaining women as deacons was a matter of discernment for church leaders, though few in the Vatican have shown a willingness to push forward.” So don’t hold your breath. disclosure: raised catholic. left a long time ago.
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