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| Moi? Would I suggest anything unorthodox? |
Francis Open to Women Deacons?
By David Martin
In an interview with journalists
on June 26, Pope Francis feigned anger and surprise over two-month-old reports
that he has opened the door to allowing women deacons in the Catholic Church.
"The first to be surprised
by this news was me," the Pope said on June 26 during an in-flight press briefing en
route to Rome following his three-day visit to Armenia. "They said: 'The Church
opens the door to deaconesses.' Really? I am a bit angry because this is not
telling the truth of things."
Nice try, but his speech in fact
indicates he is open to the idea, since he admitted to journalists that he
agreed to study the question of women deacons. "We had heard that in the first
centuries there were deaconesses, the pope said. "One could study this and one
could make a commission. Nothing more has been requested."
Herein we see applied the typical
modernist ploy of pretending a theological question is open for discussion when
in fact it has already been decided by the Church for centuries. If Francis is
open to studying the question of women deacons, then clearly he is open to
allowing them. If he was truly against women deacons and resolved never to allow
such a thing, he would never consider a commission to study this.
Nor would he be open to feminists
that are proposing this. It was their clamor for women deacons this past spring
that led him to study this question. In a special audience on May 12, the pope
addressed 800 members of the International Union of Superiors General (USIG)
which largely focuses on the role of women in the Church, and obstacles
"hindering" it. The question was raised as to whether or not there were ordained
women deacons in the early Church, at which time one of the sisters asked the
pope: "Why not construct an official commission that might study the question"
of opening the diaconate to women.
"I believe yes," the pope
said. "It would do good for the Church to clarify this point. I am in agreement.
I will speak to do something like this," adding later that "it seems useful to
me to have a commission that would clarify this well."
The pope's action indeed
has opened the door to women deacons, which in turn has been a spur for
feminists.
Of such women Francis said on June
26, "Woman's thought is important." Noting how women think differently from men,
he said, "One cannot make a good decision without listening to women." Oh
Really? Adam listened to Eve, and look what happened to the human race! Is
Francis advocating that the clergy should do the same?
His aberration of
regarding women as authorities is seen in his General Audience of April 15,
2015, in which he said that "more weight and more authority must be given to
women," emphasizing that women should not only be heard, but be given a
"recognized authority."
With this same frame of reference, the
pope earlier this year sanctioned a special section of L'Osservatore Romano
entitled "Women-Church-World," in which three writers have been calling for a
reexamination of Church policy. Since March 1 the Vatican's official
newspaper has been
publishing essays suggesting that women now be allowed to give homilies at
Mass.
Sister Catherine Aubin, a Dominican
theologian, argues that women should be allowed to lead spiritual retreats and
do homilies at Mass. She asks, "Why can’t women also preach in front
of everyone during the celebration of Mass?"
Sister Madeleine Fredell who preaches
to various ecumenical congregations including the Lutheran Church, says, "I
believe that listening to the voice of women at the time of the homily would
enrich our Catholic worship."
These are the very
people—these and others like them—that have been clamoring for a commission to
examine the question of women deacons. Unfortunately, the idea of women deacons,
as with women homilists, lectors, speakers, and Eucharistic ministers, is a
closed book, as it completely breaks with the Church's 2000 year tradition.
According to Christ, His Apostles, and the saints, women have no business on the
altar, nor is it their place to lecture in the Church.
St. Paul is to the point.
"Let women keep silence in the
churches: for it is not permitted them to speak, but to be subject, as also the
law saith... For it is a shame for a woman to speak in the church." (1
Corinthians 14:34,35)
Francis should close his
ears to feminists and be open only to the Holy Spirit. Has feminism not brought
with it enough promiscuity, abuse, and abortion for the pope to not know it is
sinful? Does he not realize that in the same way sin entered the world through
Eve, it is now entering upon the church through the brazen followers of Eve? If
Pope Pius XI rightfully condemned women's participation in ministry as "a grave
disorder to eliminate at all cost" (Quadragesima Anno), why would Francis now
applaud such a thing?
What we're seeing today in
Rome is a distrust and contempt for the ordinance of old which God in His
goodness had established for His Church. Somehow our "theologians" of today feel
that tradition is outdated and is no longer effective in saving souls, despite
the fact that it has so beautifully stood the test of time.
St. Paul offers the cure
for this ill that would have us cast off the continuous guidance of the Holy
Spirit. "Extinguish not the spirit. Despise not prophecies. But prove all
things; hold fast that which is good." (1 Thessalonians 5:19-21)
As Tonto would say to the Lone Ranger when discussing an adversary: "Him speak with forked tongue."
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