KANSAS CITY (MO)
National Catholic Reporter
January 24, 2019
By Phyllis Zagano
The question of women deacons has nothing to do with women priests.
What? And, why?
Well, to begin with, historical documents — canons, liturgical texts, and other writings — speak freely and regularly about women deacons, not priests, “ordained” or “blessed.” Facts are facts.
Fact #1: The terms “ordained” and “blessed” were used interchangeably in both the East and the West. For example, Canon 21 of the Council of Auxerre (561-605), about 100 miles southeast of Paris, places restrictions on a priest “once he has received the benediction.” We see the same for women deacons: some documents call them “ordained,” some call them “blessed.” A few revisionist historians have attacked the evidence. A New York seminary priest-professor insists women were “only” blessed. His authoritative text is a book published in 2000 by a former prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Gerhard Müller. More about that book later.
Fact # 2: Women deacons performed some tasks akin to those performed by men deacons, but women deacons also performed tasks men deacons did not. Women deacons anointed women during baptism; women deacons anointed ill women and brought them the Eucharist; women deacons took charge of women in the assembly; women deacons catechized women and children and they looked after their needs. And, we know of a woman deacon who managed a local church’s finances. Not every woman deacon did all these things in every time and place, but across space and time they regularly performed diaconal duties.
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