Francis, “Deaconettes,” and the St. Gallen Mafia, by Julia Meloni

He was answering Norah O’Donnell’s question about whether “a little girl growing up Catholic today” could “ever have the opportunity to be a deacon and participate as a clergy member in the Church.” Directly and tersely, the pope said, “No.”

It was a seemingly definitive response—and across the social media site X, a myriad of Catholics celebrated it as such.

And yet Francis—to borrow a term from vaticanista Sandro Magister—has a history of pulling “u-turns.”  That is, the pope has a habit of contradicting himself, especially by reversing a verbal “no” with his later actions.

Here is a history of different times when Francis initially seemed to thwart the agenda for female deacons—only to resurrect it, in practice, later on. …

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