SoS Sat Report: Women deacons - The Church synodally listened to the activists and the Holy Spirit said "no"

The Vatican, like the Pope has already said, says "No" to the ordination of women to the diaconate

In the least surprising announcement of this Pontificate, Manuel Victor Cardinal Fernández, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith gave an update on the work of synodal study group 5: Some theological and canonical matters regarding specific ministerial forms, where he rather bluntly stated: “the Dicastery judges that there is still no room for a positive decision by the Magisterium regarding the access of women to the diaconate, understood as a degree of the Sacrament of Holy Orders. The Holy Father himself recently confirmed this consideration publicly.” The last part refers to Pope Francis’ interview on CBS News with Norah O’Donnell.

You can read the presentation of the interim report of the synodal study group 5:

Some people were surprised by the news. I honestly think they either don’t pay any attention to what the Pope says (on this particular topic you don’t even need to pay close attention), or they have some kind of cognitive dissonance due to an unnatural desire for something that is an ontological impossibility, that they have their own identity intimately tied to.

I’ll just quote what the Pope said last Sunday here in full. The Vatican’s decision on female deacons should not have come as a surprise to anyone.

“Regarding women, I always speak of the dignity of women, and in this context I said something that I cannot say about men: the Church is woman; she is the bride of Jesus. Masculinizing the Church, masculinizing women is not humane; it is not Christian. The feminine has its own strength. In fact, women—I always say—are more important than men because the Church is female; the Church is the bride of Jesus. If this seems conservative to those ladies, then I am Carlos Gardel (a well-known Argentinian tango singer, ed.). It's not understandable… I see that there is an obtuse mind that does not want to hear about this.

“Woman is equal to man. In fact, in the life of the Church, woman is superior because the Church is feminine. Regarding ministry, the mysticism of woman is greater than ministry. There is a great theologian who studied this, asking which is greater: the Petrine ministry or the Marian ministry. The Marian ministry is greater, because it is a ministry of unity that involves others; the other is a ministry of management.”

“The maternal nature of the Church is the maternal nature of a woman. Ministry is a much lesser ministry, meant to accompany the faithful, always within a maternal nature. Various theologians have studied this, and say this is a real thing; I don't say modern, but real; it is not outdated.”

“An exaggerated feminism, which means that women are chauvinists, does not work. One thing is a masculinism that is not okay; another is a feminism that is not okay. What works is the feminine Church being greater than the priestly ministry. And this is not often considered.”

What was surprising was the timing, a definitive, hard no on admission of women to Holy Orders, on the first day of the Synod, though it may have been to distract attention away from more controversial content in reports from other study groups. Namely Group 9, which I will discuss tomorrow.

The Secret Synodal Study Group 5

In March this year the Vatican announced that Pope Francis had created 10 study groups, composed of experts, who were to meet to discuss key topics that were raised at the first session of the Synod on Synodality. The composition and membership of each of the 10 groups has been published, with exception of group 5, the one dealing with the question of women deacons amongst other things, which is odd to say the least. These study groups will continue their work well beyond the conclusion of this Synod, working until June 2025, after which they will present reports directly to the Holy Father.

No ordained female deacons, but what about instituted female deacons?

There is no dispute that both in the West and East, women called deaconesses existed and fulfilled specific roles in the Church. This is an incontrovertible fact. In the East it lasted longer than in the West. The role was primarily as an aid in the baptism of adult catechumens, which were conducted in the nude. These ministries over time slowly became obsolete, in much the same way that naked adult baptisms went the way of the dinosaurs. The other more important aspect is that whatever deaconesses were, they were never ordained into Holy Orders, an ontological impossibility. So what the activists wanted can never be, because it never was.

But what could be? Well, Tucho Fernández in his intervention said a document looking at “the specificity of sacramental power, … ecclesial functions and ministries that do not require the Sacrament of Holy Orders” is in the works, which means that the most obvious solution is a having the deaconess as an instituted ministry, akin to catechists, lectors and acolytes. The question being begged is to what end. Adult nude baptisms aren’t coming back, and more importantly no one wants it. The same could be said of the female diaconate, who actually wants this? A very tiny, well organised, vocal minority, who don’t seem to be one with the mind of the Church on this, and hardly no one else. In the end I doubt that the Vatican will go down this line either, because they will probably receive a backlash in the order of the magnitude of Fiducia supplicans.

Some criticisms of the way the Pope has played this and them