Francis and Deaconesses

[Era Might]

The Missionaries of Charity run a soup kitchen here. Most of the regular volunteers are women, I don't think they're sisters, they seem to be lay women who just do that as an apostolate. I don't think it would be the same if it were mostly men...the women bring a certain atmosphere. Actually a group of Brothers runs a homeless ministry in the same area and it's a very different operation, bigger and more organized. The sisters are simple and dedicated, there every day dealing with people off the street. If they were deaconesses I don't know that it would make what they do any better. Seems like it would only matter to churchy people and deacons, by their nature, don't minister to churchy people but to everyone else.

[Basilisa Marie]

Francis mentioned something about caution against clericalism, again, in regards to this issue. He might have a point. In some important ways, the push to revive the female deaconate has to do with promoting women in "important" and powerful roles in the Church. Yes, we should remember that the ordained aren't the only ones who matter. But the fact remains that they're the ones who have all the power, the authority to act and make decisions and everyone else is really at their mercy. If you get a bad bishop then you have to grin and bear it, or move to a new diocese. If you get a bad pastor and the bishop won't move him you have to grin and bear it or move to a new parish. And the fact that the only kinds of humans who can become ordained are male humans really does mean that women have to trust that men will take them and their needs seriously. 

Most of the time they do! Local churches are especially dependent on women stepping up into ministries. The Church wouldn't exist in the slightest if it weren't for women. Yet we still have the residue of nasty priests who stink of misogyny, whether gross and overt or just subtle forms of it. I think a lot of women who wish we had women among the ordained (whether as priests or as deacons) because they're tired of putting up with bad men. They don't trust all of them to do the right thing always. 

Plus on a less serious level, if we take complementarity between the genders seriously, there can be a lot to be gained from a woman's perspective on scripture. People who write that perspective off as silly or unimportant risk not taking the differences seriously. Is all of that enough to establish a permanent deaconate of women? I doubt it. 

The root problem is, I believe, too much of a focus on clergy. The problem is that I'm not sure what our bishops actually want to do about it. 

[enitharmon]

http://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2016/05/the-true-history-of-women-deacons