Irish Catholic: Bishop McGuckian – ‘The door to female diaconate is shut and Pope Francis should have said so.’
Front page and page 2 of the latest edition of the Irish Catholic. Please note the continuation of the story on page 2 is garbled. Note also the editorial on the right column. Link to Irish Catholic website: https://associationofcatholicpriests.ie/irish-catholic-bishop-mcguckian-the-door-to-female-diaconate-is-shut-and-pope-francis-should-have-said-so/
Update: See below for page 2 in a legible version (photographed upside down in a mirror!!!)
Link to full interview with Bishop McGuckian at the St Patrick Centre with Martin O’Brien – Women and Synodality from 39’40.
“Bride and Groom”– the image is applied to the Church in Ephesians, but it has no salient presence anywhere else in the New Testament. It is given huge prominence by conservative theologians like Hans Urs von Balthasar, but methinks they do protest too much. Cardinal Burke and others push hard the image of a rugged, manly clergy, replacing their renunciated brides with the most glorious Bride of all. A Babel tower of tottering fantasy, protected from keen-eyed theological, psychological and sociological analysis by a set of taboos. It seems that the bride and groom thinking lacks any real vitality (except in the von Balthasar reading group) and functions only negatively, as a roadblock. If what is ultimately true and real is what stands up to thorough analysis (as Buddhism teaches), it would be perfectly astonishing if the bride and groom thinking successfully meets this test. The gatekeepers assure us, “We have discussed this matter quite enough!” Or better: “There is nothing to discuss!” This seems to be the only component of Catholicism that is shielded from discussion and analysis, consultation of the facts and of the experiences of those involved (including in other churches), and of the relevant expert disciplines. What about prayerful, synodal discussion, opening up to the Spirit? No, say the gatekeepers, that would be selling the pass.
Finally, we have clarity from an Irish Bishop. A rare thing in today’s Church.
What Pope Leo XIV is doing of course, along with various Synodal Groups, is keeping the issue of a Female Diaconate in perpetual discernment. That is why in the Synodal Church, there is never an outright 100% No on this issue.
Fr. Ludwig Ott taught in his book ‘Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma’, that ONLY baptized males validly receive Holy Orders. He cites canon 968 from the 1917 Code. (1983 Code Canon 1024.)
Canon Law both pre- and post Vatican II says the same thing.
Holy Orders is one Sacrament, with three Sacramental Grades:
Diaconate, Presbyterate and Episcopate. If you are excluded from Diaconate, logically you are excluded from the others. This is in line with Pope John Paul II’s “Ordinatio Sacerdotalis” from 1994.
Let us Pray that Pope Leo XIV has the courage to decisively act in accordance with the will of the Holy Ghost.