During a 60 Minutes interview with CBS journalist Norah O’Donnell, Pope Francis responded “No” to the question [paraphrased here]: will a little girl ever grow up to become a deacon and a clergy member in the Church?
This response might feel a little surprising, particularly since so much discussion has surrounded women’s roles in recognized ministry—from institution as catechists (Antiquum Ministerium) and inclusion as instituted lectors and acolytes (Spiritus Domini), both in 2021, to the commission invited to revisit the question of permanent diaconate, most recently, in 2020 following the Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazon region.
But what did Pope Francis say in this most recent interview? According to the translation offered by the Catholic News Agency, “If it is deacons with holy orders, no.”
Let’s notice that Pope Francis may be assuming some distinction within the diaconate (already somewhat confused by the presence of both “permanent” and “transitional” iterations).
Let’s ask the question this way:
“Shall women’s presence be included within ‘holy orders,’ or shall women serve as deacons in, say, catechetical, liturgical, or perhaps pastoral-ministerial functions (e.g., visits to the sick, spiritual direction, etc.)?”
What do you think his answer would be?
A “non-ordered” diaconate? Perhaps Pope Francis is imagining women’s service within the diaconate as part of the widening of instituted ministries which included the lay faithful, following Paul VI’s motu proprio, Ministeria Quaedam (1972), which recast “minor orders” as “ministries” which could be entrusted to the lay faithful.
Pope Francis clearly has this on his mind. In 2021, he addressed this distinction between ordained and instituted ministries:
“In some cases a ministry has its origin in a specific sacrament, the Sacred Order: it pertains to the ‘ordained’ ministries, of the bishop, the priest, the deacon. In other cases the ministry is entrusted, with a liturgical act of the bishop, to a person who has received Baptism and Confirmation and in whom specific charisms are recognized, after an appropriate journey of preparation: we then speak of ‘instituted’ ministries.” (Letter of the Holy Father Francis to the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on access of women to the ministries of Lector and Acolyte, 11.01.2021)
Pope Francis directly referenced Paul VI’s 1972 motu proprio again, in his 50th anniversary message on that document (in 2022), when he observed that the Spirit was “at work wherever our obedient listening is open” to its activity, and that Ministeria Quaedam “opened the door to a renewed experience of the ministerial reality of the faithful, reborn in the waters of baptism, confirmed by the seal of the Spirit and nourished by the living Bread come down from heaven.”
Why must we assume that because the Pope says “no,” we have no choice but to take our ideological corners and judge what the Church “is” or “is not”? Notice what he says in this same 2022 Letter:
“…I would like in the coming months, and in ways yet to be defined [emphasis added], to initiate a dialogue with the Episcopal Conferences on the subject [of ministries], in order to share the richness of the Church’s ministerial experiences in these past fifty years, both with instituted ministries (readers, acolytes and more recently catechists) and with extraordinary and de facto ministries.”
It seems that we should keep open and listening hearts as to how we are called to live and serve as the Church in the world.
As for today, I might dare to advance that the question really at stake isn’t so much women’s recognized roles in ministry. Women have clearly been at the service of the living God long before any disciples fled or confusedly tried to convince Jesus he would not suffer and die as the Messiah.
Perhaps the real question raised by Pope Francis is how we understand this strange animal—once described by my permanent deacon formator friend as “the sheepdog for the shepherds”—the order of deacons.