Pope establishes new commission to study women deacons

Phoebe, who may have been a deacon in the church at Cenchreae, Corinth

At noon today, Wednesday 8 April, the Holy See announced the institution of a new commission to study the possibility of women deacons in the Catholic Church.

It contained the information that Pope Francis, in a recent audience with Cardinal Luis Ladaria, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, had decided to create a new Commission.

The following people will make up the new commission:

President: Cardinal Giuseppe Petrocchi, Archibhop of Aquila, Italy

Secretary: Rev Denis Dupont-Fauville, Official of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith

Members:

Prof Catherine Brown Tkacz, Lvov (Ukraine),
Prof Dominic Cerrato, Steubenville (USA),
Prof Don Santiago del Cura Elena, Burgos (Spain),
Prof Caroline Farey, Shrewsbury (Great Britain),
Prof Barbara Hallensleben, Friburgo (Switzerland),
Prof Don Manfred Hauke, Lugano (Svizzera),
Prof James Keating, Omaha (USA),
Prof Mgr Angelo Lameri, Crema (Italy),
Prof Rosalba Manes, Viterbo (Italy)
Prof Anne-Marie Pelletier, Parigi (France).

A previous commission was composed in August 2016, shortly after the International Union of Superiors General asked the Pope to think about it in an audience they had with him in May 2016. That commission handed in their research, which the Pope said was inconclusive.

In his final address at the conclusion of the Special Synod of Bishop on the Pan-Amazon Region, Pope Francis indicated that he was thinking of creating a new commission.