Sir, – Tony Corcoran makes a case for women deacons in the Catholic Church on the grounds that the apostle Paul seems to have commissioned many women deacons (November 12th).
Certainly Paul seems to have given women some kind of ministry in the early Christian community, but what exactly it consisted of is very unclear. What is clear is that Paul insisted that women be silent in church (1 Corinthians 14:34), and that they were not permitted to teach or to assume authority over a man (1 Timothy 2:12).
Why any woman worked under Paul is mind-boggling. Why any woman would want to be a deacon today is equally mind-boggling. To be a deacon in the Catholic Church is to be a second-class cleric. They can do little that lay people cannot do. Haven’t women had enough of being seen as second class? – Yours, etc,
DECLAN KELLY,
Dingle, Co Kerry.