Sir, - John Wijngaards (November 17th) has reproduced for us poorly digested chunks of anonymously translated, unidentified material - courtesy, it seems, tellingly, of www.womenpriests.org. But where is the proof of ordination?
"You grant not only to men, but also to women the grace and coming of the Holy Spirit" bishops, once said, apparently, according to Mr Wijngaards. Irreproachable. The Holy Spirit, indeed the entire Trinity, comes to all true Christians, we believe, and dwells in them by grace; are they all ordained? Mr Wijngaards emphasises the Greek word leitourgia, a pre-Christian term originally meaning community work. Is that it? Inferring Holy Orders from serving one's brothers and sisters would be exquisite clericalism indeed.
He refers to "the diaconate", which I presume to be a rendering of diakonia. But again, diakonia is simply Greek for service in its broadest sense - including but by no means confined to the hierarchical role of a deacon proper, which is named after it. Even if these unattributed excerpts are both genuine and accurately represented, I am left wondering exactly how they differ in essence from what a bishop or priest pronounces over a minister of the word or extraordinary minister of the Eucharist at their institution ceremonies today or from the prayers used during the non-sacramental minor ordinations only recently abolished by the second Vatican Council.
I find Mr Wijngaards's selectivity concerning the Council of Nicaea unfortunate. He correctly cites the rule whereby deaconesses of the Paulinist sect must be re-commissioned upon reconciliation with the Catholic Church, however, he omits the next line, which reminded them that even so they were not clerics but laywomen. Perhaps unhelpful evidence does receive great prominence on Mr Wijngaards's website. His version of the decrees of the Council of Chalcedon contains the phrase "laying on of hands". I should like to know whether the original is kheirotonia or kheirothesia, since one meant ordination and the other a blessing. It would also be desirable to understand whether what Mr Wijngaards describes as "the ecumenical Council of Constantinople (692 AD) (sic) was in fact the third ecumenical Council of Constantinople (of four), which met in 680, the Council of Trullo, or some other gathering. At any rate Mr Wijngaards must surely see that quoting ecclesiastical law to the effect that, whereas a man might be admitted to the diaconate in his twenties, a woman might not be commissioned as a deaconess before the age of 40, merely undermines his attempt to posit parity between deacons and deaconesses. The Emperor Theodosius refused to allow women under 60 to be deaconesses! The two ministries were obviously not analogous, even for their contemporaries.
This leads us to an interesting question: were deaconesses really consecrated widows? An extant commentary of Isidore clearly indicates that what the Greeks called deaconesses were known in the west as viduae (widows), univirae (women who had been married only once and vowed not to remarry) or matriculariae (enrolled women). The Greek synonym presbutis or eldress also occurs. Deaconesses as such were virtually unheard of in much of the western Church - including Ireland, with which, granted Mr Wijngaards may not be familiar. But where they were known, every effort was made to distinguish their ministry sharply from that of deacons. The first Council of Orange, for example, taught diaconae omnimodis non ordin andae (women can in no way be ordained deacons). This is 441 - before even the collapse of the western Empire and long before the mythical "ninth" century.
We have reached rather too soon the "medieval prejudice" alleged by Mr Wijngaards and others to have stamped out a sacramental about which early Christians themselves were plainly divided but which, he will be glad to hear, has nonetheless survived to become standard universal practice today - institutionalised lay ministry. - Yours, etc.,
Rev Fr David O'Hanlon CC., Kentstown, Navan, Co Meath.