A LifeSiteNews article states, as its title: Fr. Murray tells Raymond Arroyo ‘women deacons’ would be ‘serious moment of heresy’. I strongly disagree.

What is Heresy?

“Can. 751 Heresy is the obstinate denial or obstinate doubt after the reception of baptism of some truth which is to be believed by divine and Catholic faith; apostasy is the total repudiation of the Christian faith; schism is the refusal of submission to the Supreme Pontiff or of communion with the members of the Church subject to him.” [Vatican website]

Heresy concerns truths taught by the Magisterium infallibly; these infallible teachings (dogmas) require the full assent of faith, that is, they require belief with “divine and Catholic faith”. Non-infallible teachings of the Magisterium require a different type and degree of assent, religious submission of mind and will.

“Can. 750 §1. A person must believe with divine and Catholic faith all those things contained in the word of God, written or handed on, that is, in the one deposit of faith entrusted to the Church, and at the same time proposed as divinely revealed either by the solemn magisterium of the Church or by its ordinary and universal magisterium which is manifested by the common adherence of the Christian faithful under the leadership of the sacred magisterium; therefore all are bound to avoid any doctrines whatsoever contrary to them.”

Infallible teachings are found, explicitly or implicitly, in the deposit of faith (Tradition and Scripture); this is termed “material dogma”. However, the full assent of faith is only required, under penalty of heresy, of “formal dogma”, which is material dogma taught by the Magisterium “as divinely revealed either by the solemn magisterium of the Church or by its ordinary and universal magisterium”. The solemn magisterium is papal infallibility and conciliar infallibility. Then the third way that the magisterium can teach infallibly is the ordinary universal magisterium.

Can. 749: “§3. No doctrine is understood as defined infallibly unless this is manifestly evident.”

So a doctrine can be formal dogma without a definition under papal infallibility or conciliar infallibility, under the ordinary universal magisterium. But this must be clearly evident. Such a standard does not require the Church to state “such and such idea is a heresy”, and does not even require a formal statement that “such and such idea is dogma”. The ordinary universal magisterium occurs as described by Vatican II, Lumen Gentium 25:

“Although the individual bishops do not enjoy the prerogative of infallibility, they nevertheless proclaim Christ’s doctrine infallibly whenever, even though dispersed through the world, but still maintaining the bond of communion among themselves and with the successor of Peter, and authentically teaching matters of faith and morals, they are in agreement on one position as definitively to be held.”

And this type of formal dogma might be difficult to discern in some cases. But to require belief with divine and catholic faith and under pain of heresy, it must be manifestly evident.

Ordination of Women Deacons

Pope Saint John Paul II taught in Ordinatio Sacerdotalis that the Church does not have the authority to ordain women to the priesthood. So priestly ordination is forbidden to women, as the Church does not have the authority, and therefore also lacks the ability to confer priestly ordination on women. Since a Bishop is a kind of priest, and a Pope is a kind of Bishop, women cannot be priest, Bishop, or Pope. And this is not merely a rule under Canon law, but rather a teaching stating the certitude of the nullity of any attempt to ordain a woman and priest or Bishop.

My opinion is that the teaching of OS on this point is infallible under papal infallibility, as it meets all the criteria. However, another opinion is that it is infallible as a statement of what the ordinary universal magisterium teaches. Either way, it is a teaching drawn from Tradition and Scripture.

Notice that this definitive teaching does not exclude women from the diaconate. The holy Pontiff left that question open. In fact, there is no teaching of the papal magisterium, of an Ecumenical Council, or of the body of Bishops with the Pope actually teaching that women cannot be ordained as deacons, or that the Church lacks the authority to ordain women deacons. OS did not say “women cannot be ordained”, but rather limited itself to priestly ordination. That is because the Magisterium has never decided the question of ordained women deacons.

You can find and cite a few instances stating discipline, such as Canon law and the CCC. But these sources and other ancient sources do not state a teaching that women are unable to be ordained. OS teaches that women can’t be ordained a priests because the Church lacks that authority, and this teaching is found in Tradition and Scripture. No such teaching has been issued by any Pope or Council, and no such teaching is manifestly evident in the ordinary universal magisterium.

Fr. Gerald Murray

Father Murray’s asserts the following, as reported by LifeSiteNews:

Fr. Murray explained that the Church has never administered the Sacrament of Holy Orders to women, including the diaconate, and that it would be against Church teaching and Tradition to do so. He said that “the reason it’s not permitted is because the Church has never done it.”

“There is no history of female deacons receiving the Sacrament of Holy Orders ever in the life of the Church.”

This reasoning is not sound. There is no teaching limiting what the Church can do to what has been done in the past. If so, when did this begin? Was the second century Church limited to what was done in the first century? When the Latin Mass first began, Mass had not been said in Latin before. The first Mass at the Last Supper was not in Latin. The same can be said for many practices in the Church, such as: in the Catholic Church in the East, giving first Eucharist and Confirmation to infants immediately after Baptism; electing a Pope by vote of Cardinals; Bishops Conferences; various changes to the form of the Mass, century after century; the deprecation of the minor orders, such that those roles are now no longer (non-ordained) orders; the deprecation of the presentation of the holy instruments in the Sacrament of holy Orders, so that only the laying on of hands is used; the various formal dogmas that were issued in recent centuries (e.g. Immaculate Conception; Assumption); etc.

There is no such rule, principle, or teaching that what the Church has never done before, She cannot now do. The Church never crossed a line in Her pilgrim journey through time such that She could no longer the full authority given to Her by Christ, but would thereafter be limited to what has been done before. Such a claim is contrary to the doctrine on the authority of the Church (Vatican I) and contrary to the constant practice of the Church, to issue new definitions of dogma, new clarification of doctrine, and new disciplines.

Therefore, the Magisterium can decide the question of whether or not the Church has the authority to ordain women solely to the diaconate, and this will be decided according to the truths, explicit and implicit, in Tradition and Scripture, by the guidance of the Holy Spirit. If and when an authoritative, and possibly infallible, teaching is issued by the Magisterium, all arguments to the contrary cannot withstand such a teaching. The Church has full authority from Christ to teach faith and morals (and to decide matters of discipline), and no other authority on earth can say to the Church or to Her Magisterium: “we have already decided this question for You; we forbid You to teach contrary to our decisions, or we will accuse You of heresy.”

Fr. Murray: “If this [female deacons] were done, this would mark a serious moment of heresy in the life of the Church because you would have the pope authorizing something that is impossible to happen: women being given the sacrament of Holy Orders.”

As explained above, heresy is obstinate denial or obstinate doubt of formal dogma, and there is no formal dogma teaching what Fr. Murray asserts. The Magisterium has not decided the question of ordained women deacons. And so it cannot be heresy and it cannot be impossible.

The other important point, which I have many times explained on this blog, is that the Roman Pontiff cannot teach or commit heresy due to the charism of truth and never-failing faith and the indefectibility of the Church. So if the Pope teaches that women can be ordained solely to the diaconate, it cannot be heresy.

Fr. Murray: “And if that happened, the Church would be splitting apart because you’d have some bishops do it and others wouldn’t,” Fr. Murray continued. “And then, if you’re in a diocese in which a woman was ‘ordained’ a deacon, could that deacon go across the boundary to the next diocese and function as a deacon? She wouldn’t even be recognized as a deacon.”

The indefectible Church cannot be guilty of apostasy, heresy, or schism. And so if any Bishops refuse to recognize ordained female deacons (in the hypothetical of the Pope teaching and instituting women deacons), those Bishops would be committing the grave sin of formal schism. One cannot cite grave sin committed by those who refuse to believe and obey the Church as a reason that the Church should not teach what schismatics or heretics might refuse to obey or believe. The history of the Church is littered with the failing souls of heretics and schismatics who fell away because they refused to believe or obey a definitive decision of the Church on doctrine or discipline. The Church is not obligated to teach only what the weak in faith will accept.

Fr. Murray: “The Sacrament of Holy Orders is one sacrament. There are not three sacraments. There are three degrees or levels of the sacrament, but it’s only one sacrament.”

“So as soon as you… attempt to ordain a woman a deacon, they’re going to turn around and say, ‘Look, a woman has Holy Orders now she gets promoted to the second and third degree.’”

It is not a valid argument to say that the Church cannot ordain women deacons because then the women and their supporters will want women priests. The men and women among the faithful have habitual grace and actual grace available to them (and Confession, when necessary). They will not automatically sin, if the Church teaches that women can be ordained deacons. Is the Church supposed to lie to the faithful, and claim that women cannot be ordained deacons (in the hypothetical we are discussing, if the Magisterium decides the question), merely because some persons might sin subsequently? Jesus scandalized the Pharisees, and some of them would have sinned less if the Lord had not arrived and taught in their generation. But this is not a reason for Christ or His Church to refrain from teaching truth.

Fr. Murray argues that the one Sacrament of Orders has three degrees [true], and that, therefore, since women cannot be priests or bishops, they cannot be deacons. Perhaps the Magisterium will agree with this position and teach it. But the question is currently undecided, and if the Magisterium teaches the contrary, we must all accept it. We can never accuse the Magisterium of heresy based on a particular theological argument that seems convincing to some fallen sinners.

“This is all an attempt to use modern feminism as a new criterion for determining the meaning of revelation and Church teaching. It has to be rejected,” Fr. Murray declared.

If the Magisterium decides the question in favor of women deacons, then it would be wrong and contrary to the indefectibility of the Church to claim, at that point, that this teaching is from a false theological or sociological basis, and not from Tradition and Scripture. Once the Magisterium decides the question — and I would think the Pope would have to use Papal Infallibility to do so — then no one can make such a claim about replacing revelation with feminism, an accusation which would then be contrary to the indefectibility of the Church.

Ronald L Conte Jr