Theologian Phyllis Zagano, whose research has provided overwhelming historical evidence that women were ordained deacons by bishops intending to perform a sacrament, talked to Ann Hassan about arguments for disallowing women deacons in these times.

POPE FRANCIS CITED the Petrine and Marian principles in November 2022 and again recently equating the Petrine principle with men and ministry, and the Marian principle with woman and spouse. Francis stated: “The church is a woman. The church is a spouse. Therefore, the dignity of women is mirrored in this way.” What does this mean?

Petrine and Marian Principles

The Petrine principle in brief is that men are ministers and women are not. The Marian principle is a theology of women that says that women are lay people, and they are the lay ministers of the church. That's kind of a shorthand understanding of it — that men and women have different participation in Christ’s priesthood. But it then becomes badly distorted because the Petrine principle supports the notion that the priest stands in persona Christi capitis — in the person of Christ the head of the church — and the 2002 International Theological Commission document on the diaconate [“From the Diakonia of Christ to the Diakonia of the Apostles”] says that the deacon is in persona Christi servi — in the person of Christ the servant. The argument is that women cannot serve or be in persona Christi. But that says women are not made in the image and likeness of God which is basically heretical.

Pity for Women but Not Equality

The Petrine principle and the Marian principle come up in various places. I think they are offensive and naive — they pigeonhole human beings by their accidents ignoring their substance. We need to recognise that men and women are not the same, obviously, but they are equal.

Women in some cultures are not allowed to drive automobiles, they're not allowed to go out alone without a male escort. Up until recently in the United States it was difficult if not impossible for a woman to have her own charge account or to buy property. There are several countries in the world where women are chattel — the owned property of their husbands.

And you find in all church documents, particularly those published by Pope Francis, comments about the status of women and the way women are treated and the way women suffer the direst consequences of war and famine and poverty. But there is always a disconnect between the way the church decries the problems of women and the way the church talks about women. And until those things are connected, I blame the church. If you're going to tell me that I can't image Christ, that I am not made in the image and likeness of God, then I'm going to blame you for dowry burnings, I'm going to blame you for rapes and beatings, I'm going to blame you for every single kind of awful thing that men have foisted upon women, from menstruation huts to childhood marriages — terrible things.

Members of the church keep talking around the situation, but the fact of the matter is the church says women are secondary individuals. It says women are unclean as with Musicam sacram (1967) that says if a choir includes women it cannot sing from within the sanctuary. Why? Because women cannot be near the holy.

Deacons — Not Church Heroines

The "Group Five" report given to the recent Synod on Synodality names 13 women ministering in the past — Joan of Arc, Catherine of Siena, Matilda of Canossa, Bridget of Sweden, Hildegard of Bingen, for example — but these are extraordinary women. And Mercy Sister Elizabeth Young (founder of Australian Catholics Exploring the Diaconate) doesn’t want to be Bridget of Sweden or Catherine of Siena. She just wants to serve the people in the Australian outback. The women who are asking to be deacons today certainly are not Matilda of Canossa — they don’t own half of Italy.

These women in history did not have a job in ministry. They weren’t ministering sacramentally, or preaching formally in the Mass. They had no authority in terms of jurisdiction or juridical authority. Any jurisdiction they did have was because of their territorial lands as territorial abbesses. None of them is connected to the collection box.

Deacons Held the Purse Strings

In the early church, when you went to the celebration of the Eucharist you brought your chicken or your egg or your dime or your blanket, whatever you had, and some of what you brought, some of the bread and the wine, became the stuff of the Eucharist. And then when you were leaving you went to the deacon and maybe you needed a blanket, or you needed a chicken or you needed an egg and the last person in line to receive gifts from the deacon was the priest, who received his pay.

So that really is what got rid of the diaconate — because until the 12th century deacons controlled the money and they were always giving it away to the poor — and Lord knows you don't want to do that! So, the priests, particularly in Rome, argued for cursus honorum (course of honour). It became law that no one could become a deacon unless he (and only he) was also destined to be a priest.

Who Can Preach?

The preacher on Sunday is the representative of the bishop. The person who preaches must be a deacon or priest or bishop who is participating in the Mass. The only liturgical law — it is from 1973, the Congregation for Divine Worship’s “Directory for Masses with Children” — that allows a woman to preach during a Mass is during Masses for children. And it does not say a woman can preach; it says a “person better able to speak to children”.

Objections to Women Priests Are Different

Objections to women priests are different from objections to women deacons. In 1976 after the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued its “Declaration on the Question of the Admission of Women to the Ministerial Priesthood”, were two arguments against ordaining women priests: the “iconic argument” which said that women cannot image Christ, and the "argument from authority" that Jesus chose only male apostles.

In 1994, with Ordinatio Sacerdotalis, the argument that Jesus chose only male apostles remains, but the iconic argument is dropped. But then the iconic argument is resurrected in the 2002 report on the diaconate [“From the Diakonia of Christ to the Diakonia of the Apostles”] to apply to the diaconate.

But the diaconate is not the priesthood — that’s in the Catechism in 1983. And Benedict XVI made that point in 2006 and then codified it in 2009, with his motu proprio: Omium in mentem.

We know that women were ordained as deacons. Realistically speaking the only reason that people have against women in the diaconate is the argument that women cannot image Christ, which I think is disgraceful.

Deacons Put Forth by Communities

In Acts 6:1-16 the Apostles admit that they can’t do everything, so they go to the community and ask: “Who do you recommend as deacons?” Seven persons — the perfect number — are mentioned in Scripture. They are the archetype of the diaconate.

The diaconate is in large part a creation of the church. Women have been ordained as deacons. What the church has done, the church can do again.

Tui Motu Magazine. Issue 298 November 2024: 12-13