Irish Catholic: Bishop McGuckian – ‘The door to female diaconate is shut and Pope Francis should have said so.’
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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.