I kommentarer til et innlegg som bare var en ren orientering om den tradisjonelle latinske messen i Oslo, kom det opp spørsmål om jenter som ministranter – og etter hvert også om kvinnelige diakoner. Der ble det sitert (som en akseptert sannhet, virket det som) en uttalelse fra mennesker som kjemper for ordinasjon av kvinner til prester i vår Kirke (womenpriests.org): “Kvinner ble gitt full ordinasjon som diakoner i den Første Kirke. Denne praksis er blitt dokumentert meget grundig for de ni første århundrene, spesielt i den østlige del av Kirken. ”
Jeg reagerte ganske spontant på den uttalelsen, som jeg ser på ikke som en akseptert sannhet, men som et partsinnlegg. Og det er vel egentlig slik at hvis kvinner virkelig ble ordinert (på linje med menn) til diakoner i Kirkens første århundrer, bør man også fortsette med dette i vår tid. Dvs. dette argumentet er svært viktig, ja avgjørende, for om kvinner kan ordineres til diakoner (noe Kirken offisielt sier at de ikke kan) i vår tid. Som en kort presentasjon av debatten om dette temaet (om hvordan forskere er uenige om hvordan informasjonen vi har skal forstås), tar jeg med noen utdrag fra Wikipedia:
… The ordination of females to the diaconate is a matter of some controversy among Roman Catholic historians and theologians. At issue are two distinct but interrelated questions: whether some women in the early Church received true sacramental ordination, or whether all were merely so called for functional or honorific purposes; and, whether the prohibition against ordaining women to the diaconate is also a matter of unchangeable divine law, or potentially changeable ecclesiastical law. If some women did receive true sacramental ordination, then the current prohibition would be ecclesiastical rather than divine law.
It can be verified that the term «deaconess» was employed in late antiquity; the word, like «deacon», comes from the Greek word diakonos (διάκονος), meaning «one who serves» (literally, «one who runs through the dust» after his master). The earlier term for women who served in the Church was diakonos. The term «deaconess» came to be used to refer to women who assisted the priest in receiving women into the Church for baptism by full immersion (which is still practiced by the Eastern Catholic Churches and by some parishes in the Western or Latin Rite as well). These women also minstered to sick women and often served in similar positions to male deacons. …
… The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith wrote in 1977 that the possibility of ordaining women as deacons was «a question that must be taken up fully by direct study of the texts, without preconceived ideas.» The opinion that women received sacramental ordination (in certain times and places) is given by Roger Gryson. In response, Aimé Georges Martimort contends they did not. Both Gryson and Martimort argue from the same historical evidence. For example, the ecumenical First Council of Nicaea (A.D. 325) stated that deaconesses: «do not receive any imposition of hands, so that they are in all respects to be numbered among the laity.» However, 126 years later, the ecumenical Council of Chalcedon (A.D. 451) decreed: «A woman shall not receive the laying on of hands as a deaconess under forty years of age, and then only after searching examination.» Gryson argues that the use of the verb cheirotonein and of the substantive cheirothesia clearly indicate that women deacons were ordained by the laying on of hands.» Martimort argues that the «laying on of hands» refers only to a special blessing. …
… In 2003, Father Ronald G. Roberson gave a presentation on the diaconate in the Latin Church to annual meeting of the U.S. Oriental Orthodox-Roman Catholic Consultation. He summarized the state of deaconess issue as follows: «The possibility of ordaining women to the diaconate is still an unsettled question in the Catholic Church. Latin rituals for ordaining deaconesses exist from as late as the 10th century, but the precise sacramental nature of these ordinations has not yet been determined authoritatively. …
