Archbishop Gaenswein: Claim Benedict XVI Opened Path for Women Deacons ‘Totally Absurd’, by Edward Pentin

The Pope Emeritus’ personal secretary firmly rejects Brazilian synod father’s claim that a 2009 papal decree paved the way for women deacons.

By Edward Pentin, EWTN News, 10/26/19

Benedict XVI’s personal secretary has said a claim put forward yesterday by a Brazilian synod father that Benedict revised canon law in 2009 to allow the ordination of women deacons is “totally absurd and wrong.”

Archbishop Georg Gänswein, prefect of the Pontifical Household, said he had not spoken to the Pope Emeritus about the matter and his comments to the Register “come only from me.”

His remarks come after Bishop Evaristo Pascoal Spengler of Marajó, Brazil, told reporters yesterday that the synod had opened a path to the ordination of women deacons.

“In 2009 the Pope [Benedict] made a change in canon law, according to which the bishop, the priest and the deacon receive their mission and the faculty to act in the name of Christ,” Bishop Spengler claimed.

“But this was changed by Pope Benedict, who changed this paragraph [which] said that, from that moment onward, deacons were no longer linked to Christ but able to serve the People of God in the diaconate in the Liturgy of the Word and in charity.”

Claiming that because Benedict had de-linked the diaconate from Christ, Bishop Spengler said “we realize that there is a path that is open for the ordination of women.” ….

Read more at  http://www.ncregister.com/blog/edward-pentin/archbishop-gaenswein-claim-that-benedict-xvi-opened-path-for-women-deacons