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.
One notices the differences in style of comment in 1 and 2 above.
In terms of the first, how many times does a thing have to be mentioned in the Bible before it becomes “salient?”
The method used in the first comment unfortunately consigns its observations to the periphery of the argument. This can mistakenly convey the impression of the dilettante lacking the ability to argue the point at issue by resorting to send-ups and side issues. It also enables the opponent to avoid the issue by focussing on the side issues, say in this case, on the thrill of imagining the rugged groom escorting the smashingly gorgeous bride wherever. This is hardly the synodal process in action.
Resort to the practices of other faiths in determining Catholic doctrine is not useful given the decimation of doctrine that has occurred in the other faiths on foot of those processes.
The indications are that the teaching at issue here seems to be coming across as solid in its present state. Has the debate reached the stage where the message from God to St Paul in ACTS 26:14 would be of some help?
“One of the most dangerous things in theology, I believe, is to make the images by which we attempt to understand the mysteries of Christianity into ideas that are literally true.
The Vatican Study Group
Speaking of the church literally as “she” is only one of the several major flaws of the Sept. 18 document issued by the Vatican Study Group on women’s diaconate, but, to my mind, it is a fatal one.
The document states that a strong theological opinion insists that women being ordained to the sacramental diaconate would jeopardize “the nuptial meaning of salvation” and the “spousal meaning of the three levels of” the Sacrament of Orders.
What the Study Group has done is to take literally the image of the church as the bride of Christ, and in that way necessitating the importance of the maleness of Jesus (which is doctrinally misleading, since the formulas refer only to the Word becoming “human” and “flesh”).
The church is not a “she.”
A better argument needed.
As Sister Linda Pocher, a critic wrote of the document, “If one is to continue to exclude women from the diaconate, one should at least come up with a better argument!”
https://flashesinsight.com/2026/02/03/the-church-is-not-a-she/
A fellow Jesuit of Bishop Alan McGuckian is Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich who announced his support for the ordination of Women at a Symposium in Bonn, Germany on 19 March 2026: “I cannot imagine how a Church can continue to exist in the long term if half of God’s people suffer from not having access to ordained ministry”. My thanks to Bishop Alan for speaking so clearly. I look forward to many other Irish bishops clearly stating their position on the ordination of women – a key issue for our National Assembly on 17 October 2026.
One presumes that Soline Humbert (No 4 above) has studied the following and other relevant verses from the New Testament.
Book of revelation 21:1-2
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband;
Ephesians 5:25-32 (RSV):
25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.
The Ecclesial Community, “betrothed to her one husband” as a chaste virgin (cf. 2 Cor 11:2), is presented in continuity with an idea developed in the Old Testament in impassioned texts such as those of the prophet Hosea (chap. 1-3) or Ezekiel (chap. 16) or in the joyful radiance of the Song of Solomon.
2 Corinthians 11:2 (RSV) states: “I feel a divine jealousy for you, for I betrothed you to Christ to present you as a pure bride to her one husband.”
As well as the above the website named “Knowing Jesus” has presented 15 verses about Jesus as bridegroom.
Soline’s response is important.
Neil, my comment @#4 is actually an article by Stephen B. Bevans, SVD, who is a priest in the Roman Catholic missionary congregation of the Society of the Divine Word (SVD). (See complete byline at end of article).
Incidentally in 1976 the Pontifical Biblical Commission (22 male clerical Scripture Scholars) didn’t think these Scriptural references in themselves conclusively ruled out Women’s Ordination.
I’m struggling here, running hard to standstill. Our of the mists of time, this story arises.
While searching about for material for Senior Girls RE class, in an American catechetical bulletin I chanced upon this account:
Teenage daughter, critically ill in hospital, will not agree to have the chaplain or indeed any priest talk with her. In desperation, mother contacts a girl from schooldays, who is now a sister in religion. Sister comes to the hospital, spends considerable time talking with Daughter who agrees to have some prayers said.
Tears follow and the girl pours out her heart to mother’s friend. Time passes while mother waits outside, hoping and praying. When Sister comes out, her words to mother bring great relief and comfort. She offers to come again another day. As they are parting, Sister turns to mother and says, ‘You know the only thing stopping me giving Diane absolution was that I am lacking a penis”.
post scriptum:
“Upon mature reflection”, and given that Mother Brendan had rescued my application for the post from the waste paper bin, the story remained within the pages of the catechetical bulletin.