The present introductory article is meant to inform about the “state of affairs” on the issue of the diaconate for women in the (Catholic) Church. This “state”, however is, at the moment, anything but “static”; rather, it is very dynamic and with the most diverse facets. In order to obtain a somewhat fuller picture, one should focus , at the same time, on various levels and areas: for instance, on the situations in many local Churches which find themselves integrated, each in its own particular cultural environment; but also to the developments that have taken place in Rome in recent years on the initiative of Pope Francis and the ongoing efforts within the framework of the worldwide synod. Then there is also the theological – scientific discourse present internationally in publications and congresses – but also the discussions taking place at the grassroots of the Church, in parishes, associations, organizations, initiatives etc. This by itself would be complex enough, yet it is helpful to also take a broader view and see what is happening in our (sister Churches) at an ecumenical level. This is what we would like to attempt in the following: the unbundling of a complex reality. The present article may well be nothing more than a snapshot, but it can help to order the articles in this issue into a kind of spiritual map.
At the level of the Church worldwide, this snapshot is quite heterogeneous. The reason for this heterogeneity is first of all, obviously, the reality of the permanent diaconate and the degree to which it is known in each region. In addition, aspects such as the intensity of the thematization of a possible admission of women to the diaconate, the focus of the debate and who the participants in the debate are, also depend upon the social position of the woman in the respective cultural context. So for example, the topic is largely and prominently discussed within the framework of the Synodal Way of the German Church (see below). The Amazonia- Synod in Rome (6-27 October 2019) has also shown that female deacons, ordained in accordance with their specific pastoral situation, were explicitly considered important. We can infer similar conclusions from individual situations in the Asian Church; but the situation is different in the African countries, where the permanent diaconate for men is itself barely present. An example for the origins of this debate in the more recent times can be provided by the situation in Germany. The idea of allowing women access to the sacramental diaconate appeared even before the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) and was thereafter concretely formulated by the German bishops as a votum to the Vatican following the Würzburg Synod (1971-1975). After that, the struggle over this issue has never again come to a rest. Similar vota from synods almost all around the world were sent to Rome. They all have remained unanswered until this day.Link to footnote 1 The Roman Magisterium pronounced itself explicitly only on women’s priesthood (in 1976, Inter insigniores and in 1994, Ordinatio sacerdotalis). However, each time that a magisterial declaration by the Vatican on the exclusion of women from priestly ordination was published, this very fact triggered a more intense preoccupation with the diaconate – particularly following the publication of the Apostolic Letter Ordinatio sacerdotalis by Pope John Paul II, in May 1994. One of its consequences was that a group of scholars led by Prof. Peter Hünermann from Tübingen started planning for an International Scientific Congress on the diaconate for women. The congress eventually took place in Germany (Stuttgart-Hohenheim) in 1997, with approximately 300 participants. It had an international character, both from the point of view of the participants and of the speakers. In the same year, the NGO “Network Diaconate for Women” was founded in Germany and in other countries. The network set for itself the goal to gather together all the relevant forces in the country and, based on the model of the “diaconate circles” led by Hannes Kramer long before the Council, to prepare women in similar diaconate circles, in anticipatory obedience, as it were, for this ministry.Link to footnote 2 The International Scientific Congress could have brought a significant contribution to further theological insight; however, not even it could have led to an answer to the requests for the admission of women to the diaconate: For a long time, nothing happened from the magisterial side in Rome. Explicit declarations on the (im)possibility of a diaconal ordination for women were not issued until, in 2016, a worldwide assembly of 900 Superiors Major of female religious orders asked Pope Francis to examine this issue – in essence, this was a reiteration of the worldwide vota. Pope Francis listened, took up this request and established a commission with the aim of clarifying whether, in history, there have been ordained female deacons in the Church, equivalent to male deacons.Link to footnote 3 This commission was, for the first time, purposely composed of an equal number of men and women and also with an equal number of people having answered this question either positively or negatively in public statements. The commission members wrote a report about their work, which reflected the two different positions faithfully, but failed to offer the Pope any help in making a decision.Link to footnote 4
Coinciding in time with the work of this commission, the topic was again examined scientifically. In 2017, twenty years after the scientific congress in Stuttgart, 120 participants gathered for a Congress in Osnabrück, which, this time, was not only international, but also ecumenical in character. The spectrum of topics was also expanded, including now the admission of women to all the ordained ministries, with perspectives and contributions coming from all Christian denominations. In the 7 theses formulated there, after an intense scientific examination of the different facets of the topic, this explicit statement was made: “It is not women’s access to ecclesial services and ministries which is in need of argumentation, but their exclusion from them” (Thesis 3). A commitment was also formulated: “We will continue to offer theological input on the necessary differentiation between the opening of the diaconate and that of other ordained ministries to women within the one and only (sacramental) Ordo. The diaconate of a ministry open to both men and women strengthens the fundamental diaconal orientation of the Church.”Link to footnote 5
In the lectures and workshops, one could clearly see how similar the situations and the argumentation were in the various Christian Churches; even the female representatives of the Protestant Churches complained that they, as women within their respective Churches still had a long way to go before they reached full acceptance, especially in leading positions within the Church. Among the participants, there were also women, including female deacons, from the various Protestant Churches as well as from the Old Catholic Church and female representatives from the Eastern Churches.
At this point, it is helpful to turn our gaze to the Orthodox world. This is particularly interesting, especially given the fact that a Catholic/Orthodox dialogue document from 1988 states that both Churches “in all the essential points related to ordination … share the same doctrine and practice”.Link to footnote 6 In the Orthodox Churches, the introduction of the diaconate for women has been discussed for a long time (cf. Rhodes 1998). In the last few years, some ordinations of female deacons were even reported, for instance, in the Greek Orthodoxy, precisely in Congo, and also in 2017 in the Old Oriental Armenian Apostolic Church. The ordination in Congo was preceded by the decision made in 2016 by the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria to adopt the ancient Church practice of the ordination of female deacons. In the Armenian Apostolic Church, such efforts have been recorded much earlier; however, the social position of women is not of a nature which would allow women themselves to ask for admission to the ministry. Nevertheless, Armenian Archbishop Sebouh Sarkissian of Tehran did ordain a young woman to the diaconate in 2017. Similar occurrences are known from other parts of the Armenian Orthodox Church, as well as from the Chaldean Church. In other Orthodox and Old Oriental Churches, however this practice does not exist.Link to footnote 7 In the Orthodoxy, one constantly argues that this is not a reintroduction, but that the ministry had just “fallen out of use” and it is now revived. One must also consider that the role of a female deacon is almost exclusively a liturgical one. This is even more understandable, if one takes into account that liturgy is to a far larger extent constitutive for Orthodoxy than it is for Western Christianity, so much so, that, in the case of Orthodoxy, one speaks often about a “liturgical ecclesiology” or “liturgical theology”. It is also interesting that the delimitation between presbyterate and diaconate is so clear-cut that the functions of the deacon cannot be assumed by an other cleric when the deacon is absent. In such a case, the diaconal functions are left out of the liturgy without replacement. Therefore, the image of a deacon as a “half priest” or as a “stepping stone” to the priesthood is profoundly alien to the Orthodox tradition. Conversely, it is also an intrinsic part of the Orthodox context that the issue of women’s priesthood is almost never raised – it is, in itself, absurd. The reason for this is a theology of typologies, in which, for example, Christ is the typos of the priesthood and therefore, priesthood per se is linked to a man. The diaconate is typologically associated to the Holy Spirit. Consequently, the issue of priesthood for women is situated at the center of the Orthodox soteriological doctrines, whereas the issue of the diaconate is not. Instead, one can indeed see a very rich Oriental ecclesial tradition of female deacons.Link to footnote 8 The revival of the ministry of female deacon is still surprising, if one remembers that the Orthodox Churches live essentially from their very origins onwards in the Semitic- Islamic cultural sphere, in which issues of cultic purity play an important role and at the same time, the Oriental Church female deacon has a predominantly liturgical role. Of no small importance in this regard were the studies on the Old Byzantine ordination formulae made by some theologians.
» The crux of the discussion is the issue of the unity of the Sacrament of Holy Orders. «
After this digression about the Orthodox world – prompted by the Ecumenical Congress in Osnabrück – we come back to the Roman Catholic Church. An important development in the worldwide Church was the Amazonia Synod in October 2019, awaited with a lot of emotion and keenly observed. The topic of the diaconate for women was often mentioned even in the run-up to the Synod and, during the same, it was brought up in numerous statements. However, in the conclusive document, the wordings on the diaconate for women were very cautious; this paragraph had the second biggest number of votes against, second only to the paragraph about the mandatory celibacy for priests. Nevertheless, the wish for a diaconal ordination of women “was expressed … by many women, but also by several bishops”.Link to footnote 9 It was afterwards explicitly underscored that this wish originally came from the consultations with the very people of the Amazonian region. In the postsynodal letter, “Querida Amazonia” from February 2, 2020, Pope Francis didn’t say one word on this issue – just as a clarifying declaration on possible exceptions from the mandatory celibacy of priests – awaited with equal anticipation – was absent. However, the Pope promised to establish another commission on the diaconate for women, a commission that has meanwhile started working. This second Vatican commission is comprised less of historians and more of systematic theologians but, this time as well, there is parity in matters of the gender of its members, if not in matters of theological positions. The members come from the U.S., Spain, the U.K., Italy, Germany and France.Link to footnote 10 This time, however, the procedure for appointing the commission remained far less transparent. Whether the composition is balanced in terms of content seems questionable. It is difficult to predict the outcome of these consultations because they are kept secret. It is possible that no agreement will be reached this time either.
The crux of the intra-ecclesial and theological discussion is and remains the issue of the unity of the Sacrament of Holy Orders. For there are no three different types of ordination, but only the one sacramental ordination in three grades – this is, in a nutshell, one of the positions. If, then, one admits women to one of the grades, it follows that the admission of women to the presbyterate and episcopate is also assumed. This is not, tenable the others say. Here we are not talking about grades, but about different manifestations of the one and only Sacrament of Holy Orders, as can be inferred already in the formulations of Vatican II (LG) and also, very importantly, in the difference with regard to the mandatory celibacy in the case of the bishop/priest on the one hand and of the permanent diaconate on the other hand. A clarification with regard to this problem seemed to be developing as, in 2009 Pope Benedict XVI, in his moto proprio “Omnium in mentem” confirmed the sacramentality of the diaconal ordination, yet he denied the deacons the acting “in persona capitis”. Instead, he attributed them – since they do not have a Eucharistic faculty – a “rank” below the other two ministries and considered that the deacon has the “faculty to serve the people of God in the diakonia, the Liturgy of the Word, and in charity” (can. 1009 §3). Some openly supposed that the Pope made this clear separation from the priestly ministry in order to open the door for an admission of women to the permanent diaconate. This, however, proved to be a false conclusion.
Another alternative approach which could provide a way out of the discussion on the unity of the Sacrament of Holy Orders would be to allow the ordination of women to a kind of sui generis ministry, which is neither to be considered as part of the sacramental ordained ministry, nor the service of (full-time) laypeople. This ministry of “community female deacons” would be provided with a non-sacramental blessing. This proposal, which Cardinal Walter Kasper had prominently presented at the Spring Plenary Assembly of the German Bishops' Conference in 2013, is still being discussed again and again today – and also constantly opposed; perhaps because it is not clear what additional “sound” this nonsacramental lay ministry with no increase in competences would be able to bring to the big orchestra of Church ministries and if it would really still be useful.
Looking back on the attempt to clarify once and for all the situation of the historical facts with the help of the first Papal commission, one must make the critical remark that – as it was supposed even beforehand – in a discussion of purely historical facts one cannot get an unequivocal result. This dispute took place as early as in the 1970s between the Italian theologian Cipriano Vagaggini, tasked by the Vatican to carry out relevant liturgy studies and the French liturgist Aimé- Georges Martimort who responded with a detailed research of his own – without any result. For, it is undisputed that there were women in the history of the Church, who were designated as “diakonissa” or as “diakona” and exercised ministerial tasks in the Church, cooperated in the sacraments and were also ordained. But, when it comes to the discussion on the (sacramental or non-sacramental) quality of such an ordination, the documents at our disposal, mostly from the Oriental Church, do not provide an unambiguous picture and, in addition, the permanent diaconate disappears long before the notion of sacrament is defined in the 12th/13th centuries. It was therefore to be assumed that the endeavors to clarify this issue from a historical point of view were destined to fail from the very beginning. What is important for me is the finding that in the whole history of the Church, be it in the East or in the West, there was no ecumenical or even just inter-regional council which explicitly forbade the access of women to the sacramental diaconate. In any case, one should not try to copy old ecclesial ministries and practices into the present situation of the Church.Link to footnote 11 This finding opens up the possibility and even makes it necessary to expand the problem from the ecclesiological and pastoral-theological points of view in the direction of: what is the actual meaning and task of the ecclesial ministry? And even more fundamentally: what is the meaning and task of the Church? And is there a need today for women in the (sacramental!) diaconate in order to fulfill the task of the whole Church? It is beyond doubt that Francis’ constant call for the transformation of the Church to a diaconal one in the sense of the poor wandering preacher from Galilee, will form a part of the profile of the current pontificate – already now but also in retrospect.
The last element that we should bring into the spotlight is canon law. What does it say on our issue? The answer is clear: in can. 1024 from 1983 it is said that the sacred ordination can be received validly only by a baptized man. This also goes for the permanent diaconate. Such a canon can be modified, as shown by the modification of canons 1008 and following by means of the already mentioned moto proprio of Pope Benedict XVI. However, it would be more in keeping with the worldwide ecclesial practice of the permanent diaconate, if local Churches (or Metropolitan sees and their suffragans) would use the possibility to request a Particular-Law exception from this canon.Link to footnote 12 Given Pope Francis’ call for the decentralization of the Catholic Church and especially considering the already existing diversity in the introduction of the permanent diaconate into the various countries of the world, such a proposal appears as exceptionally groundbreaking.
Getting back, however, to the situation in the year 2020; the Amazonia Synod has closed without any recognizable move on this particular point, but, meanwhile, a second Vatican commission is holding its meetings. And in Germany, the so-called “Synodal Way” is currently taking place, the results of which will flow into the worldwide Synod next year.Link to footnote 13 The origin of the German Synodal Way is the shock at the extent of the abuse of children in the Catholic Church by clerics. What also became manifest are the systemic causes described with the keyword “old boys” clique mentality” and which have made it clear that women should take on more responsibility in the Church. The Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK) as the representative body of lay people in the German Church collaborates with the bishops in organizing this process.
This Central Committee managed to push the topic “Women in Church Services and Ministries” among the top four main points of the agenda. Prior to this synodal way – 50 years after the votum of the Würtzburg Synod! – many voices, both of bishops and of different lay organizations pronounced themselves with absolute clarity in favor of the reintroduction of the diaconate for women, including – with a surprising explicitness – the President of the German Bishops’ Conference Bishop Bätzing.Link to footnote 14 He even concretely proposes the canonical solution outlined above. In the meantime, the Synodal Way in Germany is nearing its conclusion. In the first reading, a theologically sound independent text on the diaconate was adopted with a large majority. This text clearly emphasized the link between the diaconate and a new form of sacramental ministry in a serving church. Due to time constraints, texts had to be shortened and summarized for the second reading. It is likely that in the final version the diaconate will be an important focus but will be dealt with in one text together with the admission of women to all ministries. In my view, it would do the church, its ministry structure and the diaconate good for the sake of the church's diaconal profile if these issues were clearly separated. In this way, the admission of women to the permanent diaconate would also offer the opportunity to raise the diaconal profile of this office, to distinguish it from the priesthood and thus to strengthen it. In my opinion, these different facets of the issue show one thing very clearly: that it will not be possible to make a theologically sustainable decision without a clearly profiled theology of the diaconate and, hence, without a reconsideration of the theology of ministries as a whole. It is perhaps for this reason that such a decision is so ponderous. What is more: it seems to me that, indeed, this debate reveals massive contradictions in Christology as well: Is the Church about the discipleship of Jesus, the poor wandering preacher from Galilee, of “Christus diakonos”, who was on the side of the poor and marginalized and, in the room of the Last Supper, washed the feet of the Twelve?Link to footnote 15 Or is ordained ministry the representation of “Christi capitis”, i.e. of the exalted post-paschal Pantocrator who, in the room of the Last Supper, founded the memorial of his own sacrifice on the Cross and eventually rose victorious? In his Motu proprio Pope Benedict highlights primarily “Christus diakonos” and delimits Him from “Christus caput”. But is such a delimitation correct? Is Jesus not also the Christ, therefore Christus diakonos also Christus caput? Should not, therefore, the two aspects be rather thought about jointly? It remains to be hoped that the worldwide synodal togetherness will bring new diaconal perspectives for the church.
