Why the Church should ordain women to the permanent diaconate.

Background

When the U.S. bishops reinstituted the ordained ministry of the permanent diaconate in 1968, they offered three basic reasons:
* to restore the Church to the full complement of active apostolic ministries.
* to integrate and strengthen with sacramental ordination and grace those who were, in fact, already exercising diaconal functions.
* to provide ministers for those regions where functions vital to the Church's life could not be carried out.2 At the time, the permanent diaconate was restored for men only. However, church officials never closed the door to the possibility of ordaining women to this ministry. Rather, they called for further study of the issue.

In 1994, the Canon Law Society of America authored such a study, concluding that "ordination of women to the permanent diaconate is possible, and may even be desirable for the United States in the present cultural circumstances."3 The society suggested that admitting women to the permanent diaconate could best be achieved under "particular legislation" in which local churches, organized in groups such as the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, would petition the Vatican to modify the laws that restrict women from ordination to the diaconate. In the United States, the NCCB has yet to make such a request of Rome. Women experiencing God's call to diaconal ministry, many of whom are already living this witness of service, continue to wait.

What is the permanent diaconate?
Up until the late 1960s, the diaconate was transitional, one of the final steps in the journey to priestly ordination. It had been this way for nearly 10 centuries. In the early church, deacons were regularly ordained to a ministry of service -- mainly to the bishop. They had administrative responsibilities in the early Christian communities, as well as some liturgical functions. 4 But by the end of the first millennium, the practice of ordaining deacons fell into disuse, as priests assumed most of their functions.

During World War II, however, the concept of a community of men committed to works of service and charity -- inspired by the imagery of the early church deacons -- began to gain momentum among priests in the Dachau concentration camp of Nazi Germany. An informal "Community of the Diaconate" was organized in Frieburg, Germany in 1951. By the Second Vatican Council the movement had caught the attention of Rome, and the concept was discussed in the third chapter of Lumen Gentium. Between 1967 and 1972 Pope Paul VI officially re-established the permanent diaconate as an ordained ministry. Conferences of bishops had to request permission from Rome to reinstitute the ministry in their countries.

Today, permanent deacons are ordained to a ministry of service; and as ordained ministers, they share in the teaching, sanctifying and governing offices of the church. They are also considered an ordained presence in the work place. When they receive the appropriate faculties from the local bishop, permanent deacons have the faculty to preach at Eucharistic celebrations. Deacons can be ordinary ministers of baptism and Holy Communion, and may assist at marriage. They may also be ordinary ministers of exposition of the Blessed Sacrament and Eucharistic Benediction. They may also "conduct funeral services and burials and administer sacramentals as determined in the liturgical books."6 Like priests, deacons can hold church offices that require the "power of orders." Permanent deacons are restricted from certain offices, such as vicar general or parish pastor, which are reserved for priests. In addition, they are restricted from the presiding over the sacramental actions of confirmation, celebration of the Eucharist, penance, and anointing of the sick. Married men may be ordained deacons. However, they may not remarry if their spouse dies. In addition, once ordained a deacon, unmarried men must remain celibate.

Why should women be included in this ministry?
In its report, the Canon Law Society points out: "Women already participate in many of these same functions, not in virtue of ordination, but in virtue of delegation or other designation by competent church authorities. There is nothing inherent in the functions a deacon performs which would preclude a woman from being ordained to the permanent diaconate. Moreover, ordination would provide women, as permanent deacons, with the added grace of the sacrament and the standing in the Church to perform these functions".7

Has the church ever had woman deacons?
Throughout church history, the term deaconess has been used to describe a wide variety of positions that women have held in the church. According to the Cannon Law Society report: ..."there can be no clear line of evolution of the office of deaconess from one century to the next or from one place to another. Her functions were as varied as the diverse pastoral needs of local churches in succeeding ages - striking evidence of the freedom of the Church to recognize and appoint gifted women to minister to the needs at hand"8

By the third century (c.e.) there is evidence that women were ordained deaconesses in the early church. The practice continued for about 1,000 years in the Eastern Church, but was outlawed by the Western church after the third century.9 Despite their ordination, the role of women deacons did not parallel that of men. The earliest women deacons were largely restricted to ministering to Christian women and female catechumens. The fading of the permanent diaconate for males in the early church, led to the decline of women deacons, as well.

What would it take to change the ecclesial law that restricts women from the permanent diaconate?
According to the Canon Law Society Report, ordaining women to the permanent diaconate is canonically possible. To do so in the United States, for example, would require the following10

-- The U.S. Bishops would request an indult from the Apostolic See to depart from the canons that restricts diaconal ordination to males. Related canons would have to be modified so they would apply to both women and men.

-- Once it receives an indult, the National Conference of Catholic Bishops would have to adopt particular or local law which would authorize bishops to decide whether thay want to introduce the permanent diaconate for women.

--The NCCB would also have to revise the current Guidelines for the permanent diaconate in the United States to reflect the changes made by the Apostolic See.

"Canonically, women preparing for the permanent diaconate would be bound by the same provisions of the law as men preparing for the sacrament.... Women permanent deacons would participate in the same manner as men permanent deacons in the three-fold functions of the Church -- teaching, sanctifying and governing."11 "In effect, the amount of adjustments in law... are within the authority of the Church to make, and are relatively few in number. The practical effect, however, would be to open up ordained ministry as permanent deacons to women, enabling them to receive all seven sacraments, and making them capable of assuming offices which entail the exercise of the diaconal order and of ecclesiastical jurisdiction, which are now closed to women because they are closed to lay persons."12

What can I do?
As is evidenced by the Canon Law Society report, the issues surrounding the inclusion of women in the permanent diaconate have been well studied and documented. The conclusions are indisputable: there is no reason that ecclesial law should not be modified to allow women who are called to the diaconate to be ordained to this ministry. The last 30 years have been marked by a call to study. Now the call must be to act. And it must come from all quarters of the church -- laity, vowed religious and clergy -- who long for women to enter into church leadership and have access to all seven of the church's sacraments. It can start with a simple letter to your local bishop and to the NCCB Committee on Women.

Women drawn to the permanent diaconate should share the nature and story of their calling. Catholics who feel the lack of women's gifts in this ordained ministry must describe their hunger and their thirst for justice. As church officials in the United States seek to practice their stated convictions that women are equal in dignity to men and share fully in the baptismal call to teach, sanctify and govern, they must regularly be reminded of the diaconal ministry that many women are already engaged in.



Barbara Ballenger is a freelance journalist who works full time in Beacon Street, a performing arts ministry. She is currently completing a master of arts degree in pastoral ministry from Ursuline College in Pepper Pike, Ohio.

1 From the Constantinopolitan Rite of the Eastern Church, the prayer that accompanies the ordination of a deaconess. Quoted in „Women and the Diaconate¾, a study guide published by the Women¼s Ordination Conference. Rochester, NY, 1980.
2 The Canonical Implications of Ordaining Women to the Permanent Diaconate, a report of an ad hoc committee of the Canon Law Society of America. Canon Law Society of America, Washington, DC. 1995. page 43.
3 Ibid, 51.
4 Ibid, 7.
5 Ibid, 24-25.
6 Ibid, 44.
7 Ibid, 45
8 Ibid, 16.
9 Ibid, 11.
10 Ibid, 49.
11 Ibid, 50.12 "Women and the Diaconate", p.21.
12 Ibid, 50
13 „Women and the Diaconate¾, p. 21.