"Pope’s deaconess commission includes women’s priesthood supporter"

lifesitenews.com

An American professor appointed to Pope Francis’ newly announced Special Commission for the Study of the Diaconate of Women subtly advocates for women’s ordination to the priesthood, and several other appointees have expressed questionable theological views.

Pope Francis announced the members of the commission on Tuesday. In May, he promised a group of religious sisters that he would set up a commission to study the question of women deaconesses.  

“After intense prayer and mature reflection,” Pope Francis decided to set up this commission, the Vatican announced in a press release...

One of the 12 commission appointees is left-leaning Hofstra University professor Phyllis Zagano, a well-known advocate for women’s ordination to the diaconate. She has spoken at events sponsored by organizations that promote women’s ordination to the priesthood. The Catholic Church has long held women’s ordination is an ontological impossibility because Jesus ordained only men and their masculinity is essential to their priesthood and their ability to act in the person of Christ (in persona Christi)...

In September 2015, just days before Pope Francis’ visit to the United States, Zagano spoke at a Women’s Ordination Worldwide (WOW) conference in Philadelphia. WOW dissents from Church teaching that women cannot be ordained as priests. It also embraces and promotes the LGBT cause.

The dissident group welcomed Pope Francis’ announcement, saying in a press release that it was 'encouraged' by the creation of the commission. It praised the commission’s 'gender-balanced' and 'lay-inclusive' appointments and mentioned Zagano by name, noting her past participation in the 2015 conference.

In May, Zagano spoke at a teleconference sponsored by FutureChurch, a group that rejects the Catholic Church’s teaching that Jesus ordained his disciples at the Last Supper. FutureChurch advocates for women priests."