Pope: Commission on female deacons disagrees on ordination

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

Pope: Commission on female deacons disagrees on ordination

By NICOLE WINFIELD
May 7, 2019

ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE (AP) — Pope Francis said Tuesday that an international commission of scholars has failed to reach a definitive conclusion about whether women were ordained as deacons in the early Christian church in the same way men were.

Francis told reporters returning home from the Balkans that the commission found evidence that female deacons performed functions that included immersion baptisms for women. But he said there was no agreement on whether these women underwent the same sacramental ordination as male deacons.

“It’s fundamental that there is no certainty that there was an ordination with the same formula, with the same goal, as the male ordination,” Francis said.

The result will likely be a blow to proponents of ordaining female deacons today, as well as the umbrella association of religious sisters which had asked Francis to create a commission to study the issue in 2016.

-snip-

Read more: https://apnews.com/cf1514e614894d6bb5ed3ef42f382234

[shenmue]

1. They had female deacons in the past. St. Paul mentions St. Juliana.

[TomSlick]

2. And Phoebe.

Romans 16:1.

[shenmue]

3. Yes.