In may Pope Francis received an hour’s grilling from the International Union of Superiors General and was asked if he would establish “an official commission to study the question” of whether women could be admitted to the diaconate. He replied: “I accept. It would be useful for the Church to clarify this question. I agree.”
The Pope acted promptly and last week released the names of the six women and seven men appointed to the commission.
Once the news was released, the wider world began to ask the inevitable: is the Pope paving the way for deaconesses or even women priests? Pope Francis has insisted that he is not and that the media is spinning the story. During a flight to Armenia in June, he told journalists: “They said: ‘The Church opens the door to deaconesses.’ Really? I am a bit angry because this is not telling the truth of things.”
