Posted by Jim on August 2, 2017
Tim Reidy| Gerard O’Connell
August 02, 2016
In a press release issued this morning, the Vatican announced that “after intense prayer and mature reflection,” Pope Francis has established a “Commission of Study on the Diaconate of Women” and named twelve members to it, six of them women, including one American—Professor Phyllis Zagano, who teaches at Hofstra University, Hempstead, N.Y.
Professor Zagano is a widely published author on the subject of women deacons whose writings who have appeared in America.
Editor’s note: This post was updated at 8:15 am to include a fuller analysis of the membership of the commission and context from Pope Francis’ discussion leading up to this decision. We will continue to update this post as more information becomes available.
In addition to the 12 members, he appointed as president of the commission the Jesuit priest, Archbishop Luis Francisco Ladaria Ferrer, who is Secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. A full list of the members is included below.
The Vatican made the announcement today, Aug. 2, and recalled that during the meeting with participants of the Plenary Assembly of Religious Superiors on May 12, the pope had expressed the intention “to set up an official commission to study the question” of the Diaconate of Women, “especially regarding the first times periods of the church.”
RELATED: Phyllis Zagano talks to “America This Week” about the possibility of women deacons.
Five of the members teach at pontifical universities in Rome; four are members of the International Theological Commission. In addition to the commission’s president, Archbishop Ladaria, two other members are Jesuits. They come from different countries: four are from Italy, two from the United States, and others from Rwanda, Spain, France, Germany, Austria and Belgium.*
The commission includes members with a variety of theological perspectives. For example, Father Robert Dodaro, an American Augustinian, was an editor of a book published before the Synod on the Family with contributions from five cardinals arguing against Cardinal Kasper’s position for greater openess on the question of communion for the divorced and remarried.
The full list of commission members includes:
•Sr. Nuria Calduch-Benages, M.H.S.F.N., Member of the Pontifical Biblical Commission;
•Prof. Francesca Cocchini, Professor at the University “La Sapienza” and at the Patristic Institute “Augustinianum,” Rome;
•Rev.do Msgr. Piero Coda, Dean of the University Institute “Sophia,” Loppiano, and Member of the International Theological Commission;
•Rev.do P. Robert Dodaro, O.S.A., Dean Patristic Institute “Augustinianum,” Rome, and Professor of Patrology;
•Rev.do P. Santiago Madrigal Terrazas, S.J., professor of ecclesiology at the Pontifical University “Comillas,” Madrid;
•Sr. Mary Melone, S.F.A., rector of the Pontifical University “Antonianum,” Rome;
•Rev.do Karl-Heinz Menke, Emeritus Professor of Dogmatic Theology at the University of Bonn and member of the International Theological Commission;
•Rev.do Aimable Musoni, S.D.B., professor of ecclesiology at the Pontifical Salesian University, Rome;
•Rev.do P. Bernard Pottier, S.J., Professor at the ”Institut d’Etudes théologiques,” Brussels, and member of the International Theological Commission;
•Prof. Marianne Schlosser, Professor of Spiritual Theology at the University of Vienna and a member of the International Theological Commission;
•Prof. Michelina Tenace, Professor of Fundamental Theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome.
•Prof. Phyllis Zagano, Professor Hofstra University, Hempstead, New York.
To appreciate the full context of his decision to establish the commission, it is worth re-reading Pope Francis’ responses to two questions put to him in recent times. (These answers, including the ellipses, are the official texts published by the Vatican).
First, the following is the question he was asked and the response he gave at the free-flowing Q&A session in the Vatican on May 12 with the International Union of Superiors General:
Question: […] In the Church there is the office of the permanent diaconate, but it is open only to men, married or not. What prevents the Church from including women among permanent deacons, as was the case in the primitive Church? Why not constitute an official commission to study the matter?
Pope Francis: This question goes in the direction of “doing”: consecrated women already do much work with the poor, they do many things … “doing.” And it touches on the problem of the permanent diaconate. … In effect this exists in antiquity: there was a beginning.… I remember that it was a theme I was quite interested in when I came to Rome for meetings … there was a good Syrian theologian there and one day I asked him about this, and he explained to me that in the early times of the Church there were some “deaconesses”. But what were these deaconesses? Were they ordained or not? The Council of Chalcedon (451) speaks about this but it is somewhat obscure. What was the role of deaconesses in those times? It seems—I was told by this man, who is now dead but who was a good professor, wise and erudite—it seems that the role of the deaconesses was to help in the baptism of women, their immersion; they baptized them for the sake of decorum, and also to anoint the body of women, in baptism. And another curious thing: when there was a judgement on a marriage because a husband hit his wife and she went to the bishop to complain, deaconesses were responsible for inspecting the bruises left on the woman’s body from her husband’s blows, and for informing the bishop. … There are various publications on the diaconate in the Church, but it is not clear how it was. I think I will ask the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to refer me to some studies on this theme, because I have answered you only on the basis of what I heard from this priest, who was an erudite and able researcher, on the permanent diaconate. In addition, I would like to constitute an official commission to study the question: I think it will be good for the Church to clarify this point, I agree, and I will speak so as to do something of this type.
He returned to the question again on May 26 in a press conference on the flight from Armenia to Rome.
Question: Holy Father, some weeks ago, you spoke about a commission to look into the idea of women deacons. I would like to know if this commission already exists and what issues need to be resolved? Then too, sometimes a commission is a useful way to forget about problems; I would like to know if that is the case here.
Pope Francis: We had a president of Argentina who used to say, and he would give this advice to presidents of other countries, “When you want something to remain unresolved, set up a commission!” The first person surprised by this news story was myself, because my dialogue with women religious—which was recorded and then published in L’Osservatore Romano – was something different, along the lines of: “We have heard that in the early centuries there were deaconesses. Could this be looked at? A commission set up…?” That was it. They asked a question, they were polite and not only that, but also they love the Church, consecrated women.
I told the story about how I knew a Syrian, a Syrian theologian who has since died, the one who prepared the critical edition of Saint Ephrem in Italian. Once, we were talking about deaconesses—when I used to visit, I would stay on the Via della Scrofa and he lived there too—once at breakfast, he told me: “Yes, but we do not know what they were exactly, if they were ordained…” There were certainly these women who helped the bishop. They helped him with three things. First, with baptizing women, because baptism was by immersion; second, with the pre- and post-baptismal anointing of women; third, and this one makes you laugh, when wives would complain to the Bishop that their husbands beat them, the bishop would call one of these deaconesses to examine the body for bruises that could serve as evidence. That’s what I said. “Can it be studied?” “Yes, I will tell the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to set up this commission”. The next day [the headlines read]: “Church opens the door to women deacons!”
To tell the truth, I was a little annoyed with the media because this is not telling people the whole truth. I spoke with the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, who told me: “But there was a study done by the International Theological Commission in the 1980s”. I spoke with the president of the Superiors General and told her: “Please give me a list of persons you think could be on this commission”. And she sent me the list. The Prefect also sent a list, and they are on my desk, with a view to establishing this commission. I believe that much attention was given to the issue back in the 80s and it will not be difficult to shed light on the matter.
But there is also another thing. A year and a half ago, I named a commission of women theologians who have been working with Cardinal Ryłko [the President of the Pontifical Council for the Laity] and they have done a good job, since it matters what women think. For me, what a woman does is not as important as what she thinks: women think differently than we men. And one cannot make a good and proper decision without listening to women. Sometimes in Buenos Aires I would have a meeting with my consultors; I would listen to what they had to say and then I called in some women, and they saw things in a very different light. This enriched us greatly, and the decision proved fruitful, very fine. I have to meet these women theologians; they did a good job, but things have stopped. Why? Because the office for the laity is now being restructured. I am waiting for this to happen and then to take up the second issue, that of the women deacons. Another thing about women theologians: and I would like to stress this—the way women understand, think through and see women’s issues is more important than what women do. Finally, I would repeat what I have always said: the Church is a woman, the Church is a “she”. And she is no “old maid”. She is a woman married to the Son of God; her spouse is Jesus Christ. Think about this and then tell me what you think…
*Corrections:
Aug. 3, 2016: Robert Dodaro, O.S.A. was mistakenly identified as Italian. He is from the United States.
Aug. 2, 2016: In a previous version of this article, Luis Francisco Ladaria Ferrer, S.J., was referred to as Father Ferrer. His correct title is Archbishop Ladaria.
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Brian Feeney.Irish News. Belfast. Wednesday, August 2, 2017
When the DUP were negotiating their dirty deal with Theresa May’s wing of the Conservative party in June, Slugger O’Toole’s inventor Mick Fealty reminded them what the late Seamus Brennan said to the Greens when they were negotiating a coalition with Fianna Fáil in 2007. “You’re playing senior hurling now, lads.”
Boy, don’t the DUP know that now. Simon Coveney may not have formally presented a proposal for a Border in the Irish Sea, but make no mistake that’s one of the options being considered in what Michel Barnier called a ‘high-level political dialogue’ between his deputy Sabine Weyand and Britain’s top official in the Brexit negotiations, Olly Robbins.
This unexpected consequence of their support for the minority Conservative government (as well as free abortions for women from The North in Britain) has driven the two amigos, Deputy Dawds and his sidekick Corporal [Jeffrey ] Donaldson frantic. They are both in deep denial, as usual viewing the world through the wrong end of a Unionist telescope.
Donaldson has become a self-appointed overnight expert in electronic borders. He imagines the Irish government is going to fund sophisticated cameras tracking cross border vehicles when the Taoiseach and Coveney have both said they won’t pay for a British designed border. Donaldson even resorted to producing incorrect trade figures to support his case. He told the BBC’s Today programme 64 per cent of Irish exports go to the UK. In fact it’s 12.8 per cent but then you can tell the Today program anything about Ireland.
Both Deputy Dawds and his Corporal ignore the reality that Britain and the EU are currently trying to produce a political solution to the border problem first, and then work out the technical details, not the other way round. That’s what Barnier has made clear and that’s what Varadkar repeated.
In all this the DUP are small fry. Remember lads, what happened in 1985 and 1997. If you can be bought, you can be sold and you will be. Your deal runs out at the latest in May 2019 if May lasts that long.
The Conservatives hate being in cahoots with you and they despise you. You don’t need to be reminded what Crispin Blunt MP thinks about you, do you? The British press stand ready to devour you. ‘Coalition of Crackpots’ is the mildest headline. For Nationalists the daft DUP are the gift that keeps on giving now that they’re exposed to public gaze.
All great fun but there’s a very serious side to the present chaos. That’s extreme polarization in Northern society. The Brexit vote exemplified it. Figures produced by Prof John Tonge of Liverpool University show the extent of it. 89 per cent of nationalists voted remain versus 35 per cent of unionists. 86 per cent of Sinn Féin voters voted remain versus 30 per cent of DUP voters. Translated into religious denominations 85 per cent of Catholics voted remain versus 41 per cent of Protestants.
You don’t have to be reminded of the recent elections. Huge increases for both DUP and Sinn Féin. SDLP and UUP crushed. The Alliance party irrelevant. Ninety per cent of the population correctly don’t vote for them. After 47 years they’re a failed concept. Nationalists have rejected Westminster opting for abstention.
In this context the Conservative-DUP pact is very dangerous. Nationalists overwhelmingly supported Sinn Féin’s withdrawal from the Assembly and Executive because the DUP had engaged in fake power-sharing. As often, Arlene Foster blurted out the truth when she said she was there to stop ‘rogues and renegades’ getting anything. The DUP, always opposed to the Good Friday Agreement, by 2016 weren’t even pretending to work it.
In the last seven years a series of weak proconsuls [Secretaries of State] devoid of political substance, heft or visible ability has caused a profound loss of confidence among the nationalist community. The close association of Conservative politicians with the DUP during those years, the blithe ignoring of the interests of the Nationalist community has upset the delicate equilibrium the Good Friday Agreement established.
On top of this failure by the British government came the catastrophe of Brexit which, as the figures above demonstrate, intensified polarization.
At least this new Irish cabinet has woken up to the dangers.
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Kieran Doherty
A dedicated republican and an outstanding soldier
WHEN the family, friends and former comrades of Belfast IRA Volunteer twenty-five-year-old Kieran Doherty learnt that he was joining the H-Block hunger strike, as a replacement for Raymond McCreesh, it came as no surprise to them.
Although Kieran had spent seven of the last ten years imprisoned, his complete selflessness and his relentless dedication to the liberation struggle left no-one in any doubt that Kieran would volunteer for this terrible and lonely confrontation with British rule inside the H-Blocks of Long Kesh. Last December he was amongst those thirty prisoners who were on hunger strike for four days prior to the ending of the original seven-strong strike.
Kieran was born on October 16th, 1955 in Andersonstown, the third son in a family of six children. His two elder brothers, Michael, aged 28, and Terence, aged 27, were interned between 1972 and 1974.
Kieran has two younger sisters, Roisin and Mairead; and his younger brother, Brendan, aged twelve, is still at school.
BACKGROUND
Kieran’s mother, Margaret, is a Catholic convert from a Protestant background. His father, Alfie Doherty, who is a floor-tiler by trade, is a well-known figure in Andersonstown.
Kieran’s paternal grandfather comes from Limavady, County Derry, and after his people moved to a house in North Belfast in the ‘twenties, they were threatened that the house was going to be burnt.
This was during the loyalist-initiated pogroms which followed partition.
They had to flee to West Belfast enacting a tragedy which was to repeat itself in front of Kieran’s eyes in the early seventies, and stir him to take action.
Alfie’s uncle, Ned Maguire, took part in the famous IRA roof-top escape from Belfast’s Crumlin Road jail on January 15th, 1943.
Ned Maguire’s son, also called Ned, and a second cousin of Kieran, was an internee in Cage S of Long Kesh in 1974, when he took part in the mass escape from the camp during which Hugh Coney was shot dead by the British army. Young Ned Maguire was one of the three who managed to reach Twinbrook before being recaptured. He is now on the blanket.
Ned’s sisters (and Kieran’s second cousins), Dorothy Maguire, aged 19, and Maura Meehan, aged 30, were shot dead by the British army on October 23rd, 1971, in a car in the Lower Falls area of Belfast. Both were members of Cumann na mBan.
Another relative of Kieran’s, his uncle, Gerry Fox, was part of the famous Crumlin Road jail ‘football team’, who escaped from the jail by climbing over the wall in 1972.
CHILDHOOD
However, Kieran’s childhood was relatively ordinary. He loved sport more than anything else, and was always out playing Gaelic football, hurling or soccer.
Kieran went to St. Theresa’s primary school, then moved to the Christian Brothers secondary school on the Glen Road, where he studied until the age of sixteen.
A keen Gaelic footballer, he won an Antrim Minor medal in 1971 for St. Theresa’s GAC.
Kieran took up cycling for a while, following his brother, Michael, in St. Thomas’ cycling club. His mother recalls him taking part in a race with a faulty bicycle: “Although the chain came off at least twenty times through the race, he was so stubborn that he finished with a bronze medal.”
St. Thomas’ cycling club was later decimated by internment. Kieran, his brothers, and many other Andersonstown boys were to end up behind the wire. To such an extent, that Kieran s young brother, Brendan, asked his mother one day in 1975 when it would be his turn to go where all the ‘big boys’ were kept. Brendan was then six.
In the summer of 1971, Kieran got a job as an apprentice in heating engineering but was laid-off when the firm closed down a few months later. He worked for a while at floor-tiling with his father.
JOINED
In the meantime, however, internment had burst open the lives of many Andersonstown families. Kieran had never been interested in politics until then: nor had his family ever discussed the political situation in front of him.kierandoherty
Like hundreds of other boys and girls of his age, he was moved by the sight of uprooted families leaving a home in cinders behind them. As all of the evacuees were being catered for in local schools, Kieran and his brothers begged their parents to allow them to go and help. Kieran saw the British army on the streets, his friends and their families harassed. He joined na Fianna Eireann in the autumn of ’71.
Kieran proved himself to be an outstanding member of the Fianna. Reliable, quick on the job, he was obviously giving the best of himself to every task assigned him with the aim of being noticed and recruited for the IRA as quickly as was possible.
Even at this early stage of his involvement, he is remembered for his initiative and his discreet ways. Unlike some boys of his age, he never boasted about his activities.
But the British army soon noticed him too and Kieran, his family, and his home, became a target for frequent British army harassment.
On October 6th, 1972, the British army came to arrest Kieran, despite his father’s objection that Kieran was under seventeen. The Brits had checked up, they said, and after a heavy house raid they took Kieran away in the middle of the night. His father got him released eventually after waking up the sexton of St. Agnes’ chapel and obtaining Kieran’s birth certificate.
The Brits were ten days too early.
True to form, on October 16th, the British army were back in force and swamped Kieran’s district, waiting for his return from work. But relatives managed to warn him and he was driven over the border to an uncle in Limerick.
He did not much enjoy his enforced exile and, bursting to get back into action, he made his way back to Belfast at the beginning of ’73.
INTERNED
A week or so later, he was arrested, taken to Castlereagh, and then interned in Long Kesh where he spent over two years from February ’73 to November ’75. He was among the last internees released.
Always even-tempered and quiet-spoken he used his time developing his military skills.
In a letter to his mother he wrote: “They might intern all of us, but we will come out fighting.”
He made a lot of handicrafts during his two-and-a-half years in captivity.
His parents’ home displays a lot of his work, in particular a hand-carved wooden plaque commemorating Dorothy Maguire and Maura Meehan.
On the eve of his birthday in October ’74, Long Kesh prison camp was burned. When visits were eventually resumed he did not complain to his parents of brutality but just remarked jokingly on the ‘birthday party’ he had been given.
He was released from Long Kesh in November ’75, as undaunted as he sounded in his letters, and reported back to the IRA immediately. Always eager to operate, he was included in a team of Volunteers from around Rossnareen which gave the British army in Andersonstown many sleepless nights until a wave of arrests in the summer of ’76.
As the IRA/British army truce petered out at the beginning of ’76, ‘Big Doc’, as he was known by all, soon had to move out of his parents’ house. Raids were a fortnightly occurrence, at least, with furniture wrecked and floorboards lifted.
Mrs. Doherty was tidying up a first-floor bedroom after such a raid when she fell through the carpet, the floor, and partly through the sitting-room ceiling. The Brits had omitted to replace the floorboards. The scar on the ceiling can still be seen.
Many friends who met Kieran after his internment period found him extremely mature for a lad of twenty, not boisterous like most people of his age. He obviously, by then, had thought things out, made a definite choice, and assessed the dangers.
As an operator he was a perfectionist and his comrades recall feeling extremely safe with him. Even in the eventuality of things going wrong they knew Kieran would not give anything away.
ESCAPES
He had many narrow escapes.
One night, as he was shifting ‘gear’ in Andersonstown, he was chased up and down the side streets for over five minutes by two Brit landrovers.
Another time, as he was driving to a night job as security man for a firm, armed, as he often was, he drove into a British army road block.
He calmly took his tie out of his pocket, put it on, tidied himself up, and, winding down the window, shouted: “What’s up lads? Let me through, please, I’m going to my work, over there, security staff.”
And the British soldiers opened the way for him. ‘Big Doc’ was welcome in many Andersonstown homes and highly respected by all who knew him.
Families with whom he billeted remember how security conscious he was, staying away for days, using billets in no regular pattern.
ENJOYED
Through those months of intense involvement Kieran had little chance to unwind. He mostly liked to go to local clubs for a quiet pint with a few friends.
He also had a reputation as a practical joker. One day he rang a friend from a pub and told him they were wrecking the place, simply to have his friend rush over in his car to pick him up.
In July ’76, a few weeks before his arrest, Kieran enjoyed one of the rare holidays he ever had since the arrival of British troops on his local streets. With a few close friends he drove to the South and was able to indulge in his love for outdoor activities, exhausting his friends with long walks and swims.
By that time he had met his girlfriend, Geraldine, the only steady relationship he ever formed during his short period of freedom.
They did not get much of a chance, as Kieran’s heavy republican involvement often interfered with their dating and since August ’76 they only met for a few minutes once in a while under the gaze of prison warders.
SEAN McDERMOTT
Kieran’s comrades-in-arms recall one particular operation, of the many he was involved in, when one Andersonstown Volunteer – Sean McDermott – was shot dead.
Kieran got away and was told to lie low for a few days, but nevertheless he appeared at his comrade’s funeral.
Sean McDermott’s mother has a photograph of the funeral cortege in which Kieran can be seen, standing on the footpath, sombre, alone, looking on as the coffin is carried to Milltown cemetery.
Sean’s death, and the arrest of other comrades involved, hit Kieran very hard.
BOMBING
In August ’76, as Kieran and his unit were on a bombing mission, the van in which they were travelling was chased by the RUC near Balmoral Avenue in Belfast.
Kieran got out of the van and commandeered a car, which he left some streets away and walked off.
Meanwhile, the others in the van were cornered, Liam White being captured immediately, and the others, Chris Moran, Terry Kirby and John ‘Pickles’ Pickering – himself later to embark on hunger-strike – finally giving themselves up when surrounded in a house they had taken over.
The RUC picked Kieran up one-and-a-half miles away from the scene, unarmed.
He was later charged with possession of firearms and explosives and commandeering the car. Forensic tests could not link Kieran to the first two charges, and although it was impossible for the RUC to have spotted him escaping, seventeen months later, at his trial, RUC Constable Bryons perjured himself twice in order to see Kieran locked up.
On remand in Crumlin Road jail he met Francis Hughes and developed a great admiration for him. Friends often speak of the similarities between the two, always defiant, always fighting, born free.
In Crumlin Road, Kieran was often ‘on the boards’ as punishment for his refusal to acknowledge the warders in any way. He carried this attitude into the H-Blocks after he was sentenced, in January 1978, to eighteen years imprisonment for possession, and four years for commandeering the car.
BLANKET
Kieran joined the blanket protest immediately as did his comrades sentenced with him. He spent all but two weeks of his three years and almost eight months in the H-Blocks, in H4-Block (the temporary spell was in H6), before being moved to the prison hospital during his hunger strike.
Recollections of Kieran’s experiences in the H-Blocks give an impression of relentless conflict between himself and the warders, who made him a target both because of his height and because of his stubborn defiance of the prison regime.
On ‘appeal’ visits he always had to be dragged away, ignoring all calls to end the visit. He never looked a warder in the face when one addressed him and never replied to their orders. He always refused to submit to the anal searches over the mirror before and after visits and was beaten for this.
The worst incident occurred in July ’78 when Kieran refused a mirror search before a legal visit. Eight warders jumped on him, one squeezing his testicles until he became unconscious. He received blows to every part of his body and was taken to the prison hospital.
Although people who visited him recall how often he arrived pale or with grazes on his arms or bloodshot eyes, he never complained, brushing their questions off with a shrug: “I’m OK. What’s the sceal?”
CHESS
Although Kieran had not been taught Irish at school, and had no time to learn it, later he became a fluent speaker in the H-Blocks like hundreds of his imprisoned comrades.
Another skill mastered by Kieran, whilst in the H-Blocks, was playing chess – crude chess men were made from scraps of paper and the game was played on a mock board scratched out on the cell floors.
Displayed proudly in his parents’ sitting room is an engraved plaque bearing a stunning yet heartbreaking story in eight words: ‘Kieran Doherty, 1980 Champion, Ciaran Nugent Chess Shield’.
And, next to it, another shield, again engraved ‘Ciaran Nugent Chess Shield’, but this time with twelve metal tags, the top of which bears Kieran Doherty’s name and ‘1980’, the other eleven still blank. A clue to Kieran’s patience and ability, a clue to the blanket men’s grim determination to outlast the H-Blocks.
CAVAN/MONAGHAN
In June of this year, in the Free State general election, Kieran was elected a member of the Leinster House parliament for the Cavan/Monaghan constituency with 9,121 first preference votes – only 303 votes behind the then-sitting Free State Minister of Education.
HUNGER STRIKE
To a friend who visited him after the first hunger strike, which ended last December, Kieran said: “They (the warders) are really rubbing our noses in it. By God, they will not rub mine!”
Asked whether he would not settle down – after all, with five years done and remission, another six years would soon be over. He replied: “Remission has nothing to do with it. There is much more than that involved.”
So he went on hunger strike on Friday, May 22nd, having put his name forward for it long ago, as undaunted and full of fighting spirit as when he roamed free on the streets of Andersonstown.
A child, like hundreds of others a product of British brutality and stupidity in the North, who revealed himself to be an outstanding soldier of the republic.
Kieran was a shy, reserved, easily-embarrassed young man who was single-minded and determined enough to have become, in himself, a condensed history of the liberation of a people. He died August 2 1981.