Women Deacons? "The Prayers and Tears" of Phyllis Zagano

 

From America Magazine. Dec. 18, 2019

The Diaconate and Women Deacons

On Oct 21 (2021), I attended a webinar-lecture that forms part of the Veritas lecture series at King's this year on the common theme "Seeds of Hope." It was by theologian Dr. Phyllis Zagano Ph.D. and  entitled "Catholic Women, Catholic Church: Where do We Go from Here?" She focused on her particular field of specialization which is the 'diaconate of women and its possibility today'.

First of all, there is no question that Zagano is one of the foremost authorities in the Catholic world today on women and the diaconate. I really appreciated how much work she has put into moving this theme forward and bringing it to the attention of more people. More power to you, Phyllis!

As we went on with her talk, some things became clear to me. First (this one I already knew but it was really reinforced by her lecture), historically, women served as deacons for a long time, before that precious ministry was gradually suppressed by the institutional church mainly because of a negative view of women. Hence, there is historical precedent and no valid theological reason to prevent women from being ordained to the diaconate.

Second very sad realization: Although there is historical precedent and no theological reason for barring women from being ordained as deacons, the recent history of the valiant endeavours by Catholic theologians (of which Zagano is an impressive representative) has just met with, to mention the worst, rejection, opposition, and invalid (even heretical!) counter arguments from church officials. Zagano mentioned that she was even told that women cannot represent God and Christ  by no less than an official of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF). This actually appalls me and makes me angry. More on the subtle side of preventing the project of women-deacons would be the hedging, stalling, and delaying tactics of those in the Catholic institutional structure that simply do not want women to be ordained deacons. 

See for example this statement from the Wijngaards Institute for Catholic Research on this issue.

Zagano (and her co-theologians who support the diaconate for women) have made it clear that the diaconate is not simply a pathway to the ordained priesthood, although in normal church practice now, the diaconate is usually a step before the presbyterate ("transitional diaconate"). It is a vocation in its own right with a different character than the priesthood.  

But, I suspect (and this is just my personal impression) that the strong opposition that they have received is due to the fact that there are powerful forces within the Roman Catholic Church institution that fear that if women deacons are allowed, it will just be a slippery slope that could lead to more people clamoring for the priesthood to be conferred on women as well. And that is definitely what they are so scared of. Besides, the inability of the Church to confer priestly ordination on women has been declared as solemnly as the Church could, short of a dogma. If you want to know my personal opinion on that, you'll have to ask me personally ... 

Moreover, I agree with something Zagano said during her talk: Some male clerics simply CANNOT and/or DO NOT WANT to work with "ordained" women.

But ... Where's the Hope in This?

At the end of the lecture, despite my renewed admiration for Zagano's (and other like-minded theologians') valiant efforts to make a good case for why the diaconate could be and should be conferred on women, the effect of getting a clearer picture of the concerted efforts to prevent this project from coming to fruition in the Catholic Church left me quite discouraged, angry, and ... to be honest ... ironically bereft of hope. 

I ask in frustration: How long should we endure and tolerate an institution with a hardened heart? As someone who was ordained a transitional deacon in 1994 and a priest in 1995 but willingly resigned in 2005, I know the agony of holding hope for a long time but sadly concluding at a certain point that this intransigent and incorrigible institution is just not worth sacrificing one's whole life for. There are better things to do in life than to continually get frustrated and hurt by a fossilized structure that actively and continually frustrates--what I deeply believe to be--the genuine movements of "the spirit in the world." And one of them is this movement for conferring the diaconate on women. As Zagano affirmed, the symbol of having a woman stand beside the pope at mass as a deacon would have a tremendous effect on the Church, especially on the many discouraged, long-suffering Catholic women (and men!) throughout the world.

Sadly, I concluded many years ago that it is only when enough people stop cooperating with the dysfunctional parts of the institution and perhaps even boycott it into irrelevance that it will finally realize that a radically new transformation in its mode of being and thinking is necessary and truly have the will to ACT to realize that change. I'll believe it when I see it ... Please be easy on us who fought battles and got quite tired and discouraged ...

I sincerely hope that I'm proven wrong in this. Francis' becoming pope was a welcome surprise in 2013. Perhaps God has some powerful trick up God's sleeve? ... I wondered...   Thus, I've supported and continue to support Francis' efforts to move the church in--what I think--is a better direction. Zagano's remark is enlightening. She opined that, with this current synodal movement, Pope Francis is taking us Catholics on a two year-long Ignatian retreat. How I wish and pray that it would bear fruit!

But one man cannot do it. Ironically, the fact that a lot of things still depend on one man at the top of the Roman Catholic pyramid is the single most troubling ecclesiological factor for me. This is in fact the most damning dysfunctionality of the Roman Catholic structure: that one man can actually single-handedly stamp his seal on the billion-member institution. This has to go. It is uncannily too similar to fascism. For all we know, a super-conservative guy will be put on the throne of Peter tomorrow and voila! It'll be back to wintertime in the Church!

There should be proper checks and balances; true decision-making authority should be given to a wider circle of people (particularly, women, married people!) who represent more accurately the wide umbrella of Roman Catholicism and should not just be limited to a clique of male, ordained celibates. 

And ordaining women to the diaconate will be a VERY SIGNIFICANT baby step!

... Many thanks to Dr. Zagano and like-minded people who still give me a glimmer of hope. But God help us all --- we need more than just a glimmer!

---Julius-Kei Kato, PhD    jkato@uwo.ca   ---