Phillip M. Thompson is executive director of the Aquinas Center of Theology at Emory University.
Posts By This Author
Will the Catholic Church Have Women Deacons?
08-04-2016
Image via REUTERS / Max Rossi / RNS
The Vatican has confirmed that “after intense prayer and mature reflection, Pope Francis has decided to institute the Commission for the Study of the Diaconate of Women.” A deacon is a minister of the Catholic Church who is ordained as a sacramental sign of Christ, who came “to serve and not to be served.”
If women are permitted to be deacons by the church, they can baptize as well as marry and bury. They can offer homilies. These are momentous steps.