The deaconess issue is open to hijacking
SIR – May I, as a former Anglican, be permitted to comment briefly on your story concerning Pope Francis referring the vexed subject of deaconesses to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (News focus, May 20)? Several orthodox prelates, including Graham Leonard, former Anglican Bishop of London and subsequently a Catholic priest (whose Requiem Mass I was privileged to attend), were persuaded to accept the notion of deaconesses on historical and pastoral grounds. However, as your article makes painfully clear, the historical evidence for them in the early Church is scarce and at best contradictory. Sadly, as Bishop Leonard and the Anglo-Catholic constituency in the Church of England discovered to their cost, the role of deaconess is easily hijacked by those who wish to use it as their political Trojan horse to advance the cause of women priests and the whole secular “equal rights” agenda. I pray that the Catholic Church is wise enough and true to the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints (Jude 1:3) not to be seduced by this dangerous nonsense. Yours faithfully, Richard Eddy Bristol
