Francis: Women deacons commission gave split report on their role in early church
The Vatican commission studying the history of women serving as deacons [1] in the Catholic Church has been unable to find consensus on their role in the early centuries of Christianity and is yet to give a "definitive response," Pope Francis said May 7.
In a press conference aboard the flight back to Rome after his three-day visit to Bulgaria and North Macedonia, the pope said the primary question is whether women who served as deacons were ordained in a manner similar to male deacons.
Each of the 12 members of the commission, said Francis, "thought differently."
"They worked together," the pope explained. "And they found agreement up to a certain point. But each one of them has their own vision, which doesn't accord with that of the others."
"They stopped there as a commission, and each one is studying and going ahead," he said.