Have no illusions, female diaconate is not a bulwark against ordaining women. Appeasement is not possible as they will just keep coming back for more.

On the diaconate for women: response to Andrea Grillo by: Massimo Nardello

In Italian theology it is rare for there to be real debates on qauestiones disputatae, which would be a sign of vitality in search of the best possible understanding of the faith. The intention of this response by Massimo Nardello to the criticisms addressed to his article Diaconato femminile: due cautele da Andrea Grillo (cf. SettimanaNews, here) goes precisely in the direction of broadening the debate within the theology of our country. The theme directly calls into question women and their ministerial role in the Church, as an editorial team we also hope for interventions by theologians to give shape to a real alliance of thought.

Dear Andrea,

I thank you for the long letter in which you expressed in an articulate manner your strong reservations about my article on the precautions to be taken in the introduction of the female diaconate. Beyond the fact that in several passages I did not feel understood, I appreciated your frank style and the desire to promote a transparent dialogue on such important issues as those under examination. It seems to me that this is the right way to address divergences, especially in our theological environment.

Coming to your observations, I assure you that I am not at all afraid of the changes that may occur within the Catholic Church. Beyond my works on Vatican II that you mentioned, I wrote a book in 2018 to show, perhaps in a too complicated way, how in fact Tradition also evolves discontinuously, how this development is completely legitimate on a theological level and how it opens up rather significant possibilities for change for the Church. Furthermore, as I wrote in the article that you commented on, I am in favor of the diaconal ordination of women. What worries me are not these changes, but the motivations that seem to me to be supporting them, at least in certain sectors of the Church. These motivations have to do with the weight of cultural demands in ecclesial reform and, at root, in theology.

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It is obvious that the Christian experience is always culturally connoted, and that cultural challenges help us to understand more fully the Christological event that is the self-communication of the Trinitarian God. However, I seem to glimpse in various current theological orientations the tendency to recognize a sort of normativity to cultural demands, and therefore to deconstruct Scripture and Tradition when they differ from such demands. It seems to me instead that doctrinal and structural changes in the Church should be legitimized not simply because they are required by culture, but starting from a hermeneutic approach to Tradition.

I am in favour of the ordination of women to the diaconate because I think that this is a legitimate way of reading Tradition, and not primarily or simply because this option is an expression of the equality between men and women, which is rightly invoked today in our Western societies. Obviously I do not deny this fundamental value, but I do not believe that it should be this first and foremost that moves us toward the ordination of women to the diaconate.

Now, the problem of the hermeneutics of Tradition is not trivial, since, in my opinion, it is the real cause of the lack of full communion between the Christian Churches. Orthodoxy believes that Tradition evolves homogeneously, without discontinuity, and can only be attested by Scripture and by Ecumenical Councils such as those of the first millennium. The Protestant world recognizes a strictly normative character in Scripture alone, and therefore feels free to legitimize even structural changes within the Church, as long as they do not conflict with the biblical data.

And then there are us Catholics, who believe that evolutions in the doctrine and structure of the Church are possible with respect to the New Testament, that some of these developments become Tradition and have their own normativity, and that others should be rejected. We cannot avoid explaining, even in an ecumenical context, how we can understand whether a development of Tradition is legitimate and therefore nourishes it, or whether it goes against Tradition and should therefore be discarded. The solution that Catholic theology has always invoked, that of relying on the magisterium, is not up for discussion, but today we can recognize that even the Pope and the bishops need to better understand how to discern what is truly normative in Tradition.

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In the absence of such clarifications, very serious difficulties could arise in the Church. For example, making it possible to ordain women to the diaconate – which I hope for, as I said – also involves explaining why they cannot access the priesthood and episcopate, and it seems to me that it is difficult to do so convincingly without a theology of Tradition that is a little more sophisticated than the current one. Cultural demands, at least Western ones, would certainly orient them towards their full inclusion in the ordained ministry.

Finally, reflecting on the theme that I have proposed does not in any way mean questioning or postponing indefinitely the possible ordination of women to the diaconate, at least as far as I am concerned. A few months of reflection would not make a difference.

Obviously one might think that these considerations of mine are undue concerns and that all it takes is a little common sense to understand that the ordination of women to the diaconate – and not only – is more than legitimate and desirable. It seems to me, however, that those who deal professionally with theology should address the issues in a somewhat sophisticated way, trying to highlight critical issues that are not obvious at first glance.

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Regarding the second part of my article, I did not feel understood. I will try to be clearer. I hope for the ordination of women to the diaconate, but I fear that it will be the object of strong resistance in some areas of the Catholic Church. The fact that I fear it means that this possible outcome would sadden me greatly and would find me in total disagreement. Such resistance could be expressed either in the refusal of priests to present candidates for the diaconal ministry – in some cases, this already happens for the male diaconate –, or in the assignment of tasks of modest importance to newly ordained women, perhaps the same ones they performed before ordination.

How can we avoid this drift? My proposal is to requalify the diaconal ministry, so that if and when women enter it, they have greater guarantees of exercising a role of effective responsibility. Can we do it? I think so, since the diaconate is part of the sacrament of orders, the same received by the bishop and the priest (LG 28), whose original task is to guard the apostolic faith of Christian communities. From my point of view, such custody inevitably involves a certain leadership, since it requires being able to speak authoritatively within one's own Christian community. Obviously in the case of deacons, this task would not be addressed to a community that ordinarily celebrates the Eucharist as a portion of the local Church, that is, the parish, but to smaller groups, preferably dedicated to the service of the poor, the evangelization of the distant and the care of the environment.

I am aware that this proposal of mine is a working hypothesis, which however seems to me to be able to guarantee a more solid role to future deacons and also allow current deacons to be more valued within their Christian communities. It goes without saying that such an orientation would require a higher theological formation than that currently required, but that is another matter.

So, I did not write that we need to suspend the ordination of women to the diaconate because it could further compromise the relevance of the male diaconate, but on the contrary I argued that we need to requalify the male diaconate so that female deacons can have a more protected role of responsibility in due time. Activating such a process does not seem to me to require years of work, but simply a path that leads to a more defined orientation on the theology of the diaconate. I hope I have been clearer.

Thank you for your attention and criticism. I welcome the possibility that our dialogue can give rise to further reflections on the part of our colleagues.

With friendship, Massimo Nardello

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