International News and Actions

Oct 22, 2002
Press Release

Catholic Network for Women’s Equality denounces recent Vatican decision as evidence of Vatican’s ongoing sexual discrimination against women

Toronto, Ont. – The recent announcement by the Vatican’s International Theological Commission ruling out the ordination of women as deacons has been denounced by the Catholic Network for Women’s Equality (CNWE) as proof of the Vatican’s ongoing refusal to recognize women’s basic human rights to use their vocational gifts in leadership in the Roman Catholic Church.

The decision came as the result of over five years of research to the topic of the history and theology of the diaconate before approving the text of the commission’s study. The study was carried out at the request of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

It is CNWE’s position that this decision advances the agenda of an all-male Vatican hierarchy and promotes ongoing sexual discrimination and marginalization of women within the Roman Catholic Church.

“This latest Vatican decision stretches the limits of creditability and demonstrates once again that the Vatican’s agenda is preserving its gender-based system of inequality and sexism against women in the Roman Catholic Church,” says Veronica Dunne, coordinator of CNWE, a Canadian-based group whose mandate is to work for women’s full and equal participation in Catholic church leadership.”

This latest decision that apparently excludes women from the diaconate makes no theological sense, given that there are far more substantive biblical foundations for women as deacons in the life of the earliest churches than the traditional attempt by the Vatican to justify an ongoing all-male priesthood by identifying the origins of the priesthood with Jesus’ Last Supper with his disciples.

"The Vatican’s statement released October 17 said that the commission's reaffirmation of excluding women from the diaconate arose from a careful study of the ecclesial tradition, of the documents of the Second Vatican Council, and of the postconciliar magisterium of the Church,” says Dunne. “However it is CNWE’s position that the commission’s reaffirmation on this teaching apparently did not arise from a careful study of the biblical tradition.”

The following passage from the Bible clearly demonstrates that women were deacons in the early churches. Romans 16:1-2 states:

“I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a deacon of the church at Cenchreae, so that you may welcome her in the Lord as is fitting for the saints, and help her in whatever she may require from you, for she has been a benefactor of many and of myself as well. ”

It appears that no longer is the Theological Commission a body that credibly informs the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on new theological research. Rather the instructions of Cardinal Ratzinger, head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and the material of John Paul II on the (non) ordination of women to the priesthood are the determinative factors in barring women access to the diaconate, which would otherwise correspond to the life of the earliest churches.

About CNWE

CNWE’s mission is to enable women to use their giftedness and to effect structural change in the church that reflects the mutuality and co-responsibility of women and men within the church. One of its aims is to work towards the full inclusion of women in all aspects of the daily life and structure of the church: prayer, language, images, public worship, and all ministries, including ordained ministries. CNWE is a participating member in Woman’s Ordination Worldwide (WOW) a coalition of organizations from around the world who share the common aim of working and praying for the ordination of women to a renewed priestly ministry in the Roman Catholic Church. WOW was established at the First European Women's Synod in Gmunden, Austria, in July 1996. Visit CNWE’s Website at http://www.cnwe.org or contact us at cnwe@telus.net

Contact: Kathleen McWilliams, CNWE media co-coordinator, (403) 293-5359, or kmcwill@telusplanet.net