We’ve got to hope the Pope has not made an unusual error of judgment and timing by becoming involved in the women deacon thing. Women deacons , and women working in the Church for that matter, have been shamefully neglected, of course . Try taking a look at St Paul’s Epistle to the Romans, 16,3-16., and the number of women mentioned. You won’t hear it in Church much. But has he been blind-sided , despite their fear and hatred of women, by some of his clerical opponents into doing it just now ?
A golf club here has achieved considerable attention by not allowing women members, at very considerable expense to itself, not to mention universal public obloquy. But still did it. Now we know we’ve got keen golfers among the clergy, but this was not a clerical thing. And we all must know now that the almost pathological fear and hatred of Maggie Thatcher , although it’s nearly 40 years since she became Prime Minister , is far from entirely due to her policies.
Does the Pope have time to risk being involved in and being distracted by what is possibly the greatest culturally divisive issue in human history ? Even this blog knows better than that, as you’ll have noticed. There are many who would like to see him doing just that instead of many another thing, and we all know who they are. All we’re saying is this is not the time, and that’s all we’re saying.
But Jesuits, when pushed, tend to do the right thing. Let’s hope so.