What does Jesus ask of women in a violent world?

Restoring women to the order of deacons could grow the Church’s peacemaking efforts

By Ellie Hidalgo

This article originally appeared in the September 2024 issue of El Ignaciano.

One week into my pastoral ministry work at Dolores Mission Church in East Los Angeles, I received an urgent phone call. The grandson of one of our community leaders had been killed. On this chilly November afternoon in 2008, I quickly drove to be with Abuela Esperanza Vazquez as the family gathered in disbelief and grief. Fernando was 21 years old and had been attending college. Why would anyone target this gentle young man who was loved by his family? The living room filled up with Fernando’s uncles, aunts, cousins, mother, and sister. Yet around the edges of overwhelming grief, a rising anger could be palpably felt in the room. How could anyone dare to kill one of their own?

Esperanza understood this particular moment of vulnerability for her family. Afterall, she was a committed member of the community’s Camino Seguro (Safe Passage) effort, in which women stood outside in green shirts in the mornings and afternoons, to ensure that children walked to and from school safely in a neighborhood that had been marred by sustained gang violence. While the desire for vengeance is a common human emotion, Esperanza knew it could also create a spiral of retaliatory violence that could claim more lives in her family for years to come.

As a mother of nine and grandmother to more than 25, Esperanza suddenly stood up from her chair with determination and authority. She looked directly at her half dozen sons and declared, “¡No venganza! ¡No habrá venganza!” (No vengeance! There will be no vengeance!)

Immediately, the anger began to dissipate in the living room. Family members sat down. Voices grew calmer. While there was still enormous collective sadness to tend to, its chaotic energy would not coalesce into seeking violent retaliation. Esperanza’s moral authority as “madre” and “abuela” carried the moment. Instead, the family asked for a priest, and they honored Fernando’s life and their grief by remembering Jesus’ passion, violent death, and ultimate resurrection at a home Mass. A few days later, the police apprehended a suspect who would later be convicted and sentenced to prison.

A Pope that sees the need for women’s leadership

Esperanza’s authority was one of many times I have witnessed or participated in groups of women organizing to lend their courage and witness during times of threatened or actual violence. So, I was especially heartened when on World Peace Day at the start of this year, Pope Francis acknowledged women’s moral authority in peacemaking. The Holy Father said: “The world, too, needs to look to mothers and to women in order to find peace, to emerge from the spiral of violence and hatred, and once more see things with genuinely human eyes and hearts.”

In his native land of Argentina, Pope Francis understands the contributions women have made. In February he canonized Argentina’s’ first female saint, María Antonia de Paz y Figueroa — better known as Mama Antula – a consecrated lay woman who many consider to be “the mother of the country.” During the 18^th century, after the Jesuits were expelled, Mama Antula boldly founded the Holy House of Spiritual Exercises in Buenos Aires and spread Jesuit spirituality to keep the Ignatian legacy alive. She dedicated her life to proclaiming the Gospel, particularly among the poor.

Pope Francis is also familiar with the Madres de Plaza de Mayo, whom he refers to as the “Mothers of Memory” for insisting on truth and justice for all their sons and daughters who were “disappeared” during Argentina’s military dictatorship starting in the mid 1970s. These women have sustained a courageous commitment to organize weekly remembrance marches for more than 45 years.

In numerous places around the world, Catholic women are hearing a call to address issues of physical, political, and sexual violence with growing conviction. Could the Catholic Church do more to recognize, receive, form and prepare women for their invaluable contributions to peacemaking in a violent world? As the Vatican prepares for its second October General Assembly for the Synod on Communion, Participation and Mission, the ongoing discernment about the renewal of the diaconate as a permanent order for men and women could be one important way to offer women the grace needed for prophetic peacemaking efforts that accompany those on the margins in their struggles for life.

Out of WWII, the diaconate is restored for married men

Roots of the diaconate are found in Acts of the Apostles when nascent early Christian communities identified a need for ministers to assist with a fairer distribution of food. In his Letter to the Romans, St. Paul introduces Phoebe as a “deacon of the Church at Cenchreae” (Romans 16:1-2). The diaconate developed into an order of service for men and women to respond to many community and liturgical needs. It was not until the 12th century that the order as a permanent vocation was essentially subsumed into the priesthood. The diaconate became constrained as a transitional diaconate reserved only for men on their way to becoming priests. Nearly 9 centuries years later, quiet conversations about restoring the diaconate as a permanent order were sparked in an unlikely place. What was happening in the world that a lapsed order could be stirred from a nearly 900-year slumber?

Deacon William T. Ditewig Ph.D., author of several books on the diaconate, and former executive director of the Office for the Diaconate at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, has delved into the history of the restoration of the diaconate for married men. The unlikely setting is Dachau the first of Hitler’s concentration camps, and the place to which arrested priests were generally sent from Germany, Poland and Belgium. As the priests looked at the mass suffering taking place all around them, they talked with each other and wondered why had the Catholic Church not been able to stop world wars from erupting. They spoke about what changes were needed in the Church to become more effective in its prophetic peacemaking role. The priests at Dachau envisioned the renewal of the modern diaconate as a permanent order in which married men could help to re-build a more peaceful Europe with the heart of Jesus the Servant. Those who survived the concentration camp wrote about their conversations.

Following World War II and the dropping of two nuclear bombs, several dozen Deacon Circles formed in Germany, France, Italy, Austria, and Latin America to engage in charitable activities and to explore the possibility of a renewed diaconate. The bishops who participated in Vatican II in the 1960s were acutely aware of the horrors of war, and the Council was essentially their response to the world that emerged after WWII.

In voting to recommend the restoration for the diaconate as a permanent vocation for married men, the bishops were looking to connect the dots between social justice, liturgy and the Word, says Ditewig. He often quotes Fr. Joseph Komonchak as having observed that Vatican II did not reform the diaconate because of a shortage of priests, but because of a shortage of deacons. Bishops worldwide voted for its restoration, not necessarily because they each individually thought they needed deacons, but because they recognized the particular need of European bishops.

Ultimately, a single paragraph in the Vatican II document on the church’s missionary activity recommended renewing the diaconate as a permanent order, noting that men already were carrying out the functions of the deacon’s office, “either preaching the word of God as catechists, or presiding over scattered Christian communities in the name of the pastor and the bishop, or practicing charity in social or relief work.” Given their active work in ministry, the bishops recognized that it “is only right to strengthen them by the imposition of hands which has come down from the Apostles, and to bind them more closely to the altar, that they may carry out their ministry more effectively because of the sacramental grace of the diaconate.”

Church ministry would be more impactful, the bishops decided, if the deacons could benefit from sacramental grace. Pope Paul VI approved the recommendation, and since the Diaconate Circles had already laid the groundwork, the first modern deacons were ordained in 1967.

Pastoral needs 60 years later

Six decades after Vatican II, the hoped-for reign of God continues to be thwarted by new wars and the internal institutional tragedy of the clergy sex abuse crisis. Pope Francis has envisioned returning the Church to its early synodal roots of discerning the will of God for these times by initiating a global listening process that would bind up wounds, allow hope to flourish, and inspire trust. The basic question of the Synod on Communion, Participation and Mission is how does journeying together allow the Church to proclaim the Gospel in accordance with the mission entrusted to Her; and what steps does the Spirit invite us to take in order to grow as a synodal Church?

Given this unprecedented opportunity to comment on hopes and concerns for the Church of the third millennium, the People of God throughout all the continents raised the participation of women as a key issue for consideration. In particular, they asked the Church to continue its discernment in relation to three specific questions regarding women’s participation: the active role of women in the governing structures of Church bodies, the possibility for women with adequate training to preach in parish settings, and a female diaconate (Enlarge the space of your tent, paragraph 64).

At the first General Assembly of the Synod, which met for a month at the Vatican last October, synod delegates voted to keep studying the issue of women and the diaconate. However, this spring, during a public 60 Minutes interview, Pope Francis stated that while women have always functioned as deaconesses, they cannot hope to be ordained. It seems as if this interview, which was outside of the formal synod process, was meant to slow down, but not stop, a growing discernment conversation about women and the diaconate.

The Holy Father has approved the work of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith to study women and the diaconate within the context of its in-depth study of ministries in coordination with the General Secretariat of the Synod. The dicastery will provide a preliminary report to the synod delegates at the Second Session of the General Assembly this October.

The Instrumentum laboris for the Second Session, written to guide the work of the Second General Assembly this October, includes a section entitled “Sisters and brothers in Christ: a renewed reciprocity” acknowledging the need raised by many local churches to give fuller recognition to the charisms, vocation and role of women. It states that reciprocal relations are essential for a synodal church in which men and women “are a communion of baptized persons, called not to bury talents but to discern and call forth the gifts that the Spirit pours out on each for the good of the community and the world.” A contribution from the Latin American Episcopal Conference notes: “a Church in which all members can feel co-responsible is also an attractive and credible place”. The IL affirms that theological reflection on the issue of women’s admission to the diaconate should continue “on an appropriate timescale and in the appropriate ways.”

Reading the IL reveals the tensions being navigated in this synodal process between the desire to encourage conversion to a vision of relationality, interdependence and reciprocity between women and men, while not moving so fast that the timescale feels jarring and unacceptable to some faithful Catholics. In the balance is the Church’s credible mission in a wounded world in which the IL reiterates the Church’s hope to renew its commitment “to work alongside the women and men who are artisans of justice and peace in every part of the world.”

Discerning the movement of the Holy Spirit

Since the Church is often tasked with recognizing what the Holy Spirit is already doing in our midst, this is a moment to make visible the signs that women are hearing Pope Francis’ call to help their communities emerge from spirals of violence and hatred and to once again see things with genuinely human eyes. As co-director of Discerning Deacons, I often hear stories of women whose communities entrust them with the vital work of confronting injustice and accompanying their people in their search for healing and abundant life.

Religious sisters in the Amazon region of Latin America toil on the front lines of advocating for the human rights and land rights of indigenous communities – communities with the strongest commitment to preserving the world’s largest rainforest (the lungs of our planet) while also facing ongoing violence from illegal land grabbers and miners. It’s no wonder the bishops of the Amazon asked Pope Francis to consider ordaining women ministry leaders to the diaconate during the Amazon Synod. They have since been joined by the bishops of Australia, who have stated that they are ready to implement the diaconate for women if canon law were to authorize it.

In Ontario, Canada, women have been commissioned as members of the Diocesan Order of Service, known as DOS. Indigenous women leaders now have ecclesial presiding over communion services, leading prayers at funerals and wakes, and ministering to the sick and dying. They also work to support the efforts of the Indigenous Reconciliation Fund — the Canadian Catholic Commitment to the Healing and Reconciliation of Indigenous Peoples – which has raised more than $14 million dollars and approved more than160 projects to address the historical trauma of indigenous people and to better enculturate indigenous traditions in native Catholic communities.

In Africa, the question of women and the diaconate is being discussed since most victims of clerical abuse have been women and children. This has prompted conversation about the need to multiply female ministers, including the ordained diaconate so that women can look after women. Indeed, women ministering to women is one of the essential reasons why women deacons were part of the church’s tradition for 12 centuries. The need for women to serve Jesus’ ministry of healing for women and children is acute today.

A year after her grandson’s death in East Los Angeles, Esperanza Vazquez became a founding member of her parish’s ongoing support group to help other families dealing with homicide. She has sustained participation in this ministry for nearly 15 years, paving the way for a parish ministry that centers faith in the Risen Christ and the Holy Father’s belief that spirals of violence and hatred can be transformed into lifegiving peace.

Bound up in the synodal question about expanding women’s participation in our church, is our Church’s commitment to relevance, particularly its mission to offer pathways to peace in a discouraged world which too often settles for vengeance. What does Jesus ask of women in a violent world? Courage, resilience, hope, fidelity, and ministry innovation for these times. In other words, Jesus asks a lot. Women are heeding the call to diaconal service. Is the Catholic Church preparing the way to receive them?