As we head towards our St Phoebe Webinar for 2024, Elizabeth Young RSM has written an article on the topic of women deacons in Eureka Street. Sr Mary L Coloe PBVM has also shared a reflection in the Good Oil on ‘God does not have favourites’, which includes some relevant questions. Find excerpts of both pieces below.
Elizabeth Young RSM: Fr Frank Brennan SJ has spoken publicly about the possibility of women deacons in the Catholic Church for a number of years. Yet his recent address at John XXIII College goes much further. Using women deacons as a ‘case study’ for the implementation of synodality, Fr Frank offers a bold challenge — an exciting possibility — to the Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference.
He says that the October Synod’s Instrumentum Laboris ‘enables us to overcome the idea that all churches must necessarily move at the same pace on every issue’ … Therefore, on the matter of allowing access to the diaconate for women, he proclaims, ‘Let’s hope our Australian Bishops are prepared to step out, if even a little ahead, of their colleagues in Rome’…
While two Commissions have studied women’s ‘access to the diaconate’ in Pope Francis’s pontificate, and it was a significant matter for consideration in the Synod, it has been relegated to a separate Study Group entrusted to the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, due to report in June 2025…
Is all this study ‘kicking the can further down the road’, as Fr Frank wonders? From his point of view, ‘The question of women deacons deserves an answer now’. And when there is an opening, it could be the Australian church’s opportunity to step forward.
What could this mean? Not that Australia breaks away from the Catholic Church’s universal jurisdiction, but that the Australian bishops animate the desire for ‘genuine doctrinal authority’ of today’s synodal Church (IL, #96). There is an ample offering already in the decrees of our 2022 Plenary Council: ‘That, should the universal law of the Church be modified to authorize the diaconate for women, the Plenary Council recommends that the Australian Bishops examine how best to implement it in the context of the Church in Australia.’
Bishops in this country have already had to find creative pastoral solutions to care for their flocks using the canonical means available. So here is a chance to bring the reality on the ground into line with the historical, traditional order of the diaconate, which was also the case for men at Vatican II.
‘Copious research’, Fr Frank believes, has demonstrated the historical existence of women deacons, including St Phoebe: ‘the only person in scripture with the descriptor Deacon.’ …Yet where are St Phoebe’s successors in the Catholic Church today?
On her Feast Day of 3 September this year, Fr Frank will again be addressing this question in the light of synodality along with MC Geraldine Doogue AO and Synod expert Dr Sandie Cornish. Geraldine, who has explored the topic before, will ask a deacon and two women, ‘How did/would ordination change your ministry?’
Deacons have changed the face of Australian Catholicism, and many people have benefitted from their ministry of liturgy, word and service. The Australian Bishops have already embraced the bold and far-from-universal step of an ordained college of (permanent) deacons, priests and bishops. Could our readiness and experience lead the way in realising the vision of a synodal Church in mission? Could we supply a pilot program for the rest of the world? Could we take the step of women deacons?
Read the full article HERE.
Sr Mary L Coloe PVBM: On the sixth Sunday of Easter this year, in various churches across Melbourne, women were given the opportunity to speak on the readings. An opportunity I gladly accepted… At present, women are not permitted to be deacons and to give the homily, so this is simply a reflection not a homily.
Today’s second reading from the Acts of the Apostles could have been written for us in Greensborough and our global Church… Peter begins to understand his strange dream and says, “I now realise, God does not have favourites”, all nations, races, are welcome. He realises that we shouldn’t put limits on what God wants…
Our Catholic Church is facing similar critical questions. Is it possible that women, like me, could be authorised to give a homily, could be a deacon? Is it possible that a woman, like me, could be authorised to serve you at the Lord’s table? History tells us that women were deacons and led house churches in the early centuries of Christianity. Some women are even named in Paul’s letters.
Today’s reading puts the challenge to us: is this what God wants? Does God only give vocations to men? Or could God be giving vocations to women as well?… Today’s reading puts the challenge to us: is this what God wants? Does God only give vocations to men? Or could God be giving vocations to women as well?
Men and women, bishops and lay people are gathering at round tables in Rome later this year in a special Synod seeking God’s wisdom together. Pray for this gathering. May they be touched by the Holy Spirit as those first Christians were to move the Church to serve the community and the world today. May our Church, our community, be a better witness to the love that Jesus demonstrated.
Read the full reflection HERE.
Liturgy on the Margins 