In recent days, renewed attention has fallen on one of the most debated questions in the Catholic Church today: the possibility of women serving as deacons.
Following the release of the Second Study Commission’s summary on the female diaconate, reactions have been strong… and often polarized.
In this video, Pedro Gabriel walks through what the Commission actually concluded, how its findings fit within the broader theological and historical context, and why the issue is far more complex than what many headlines suggest. He’ll explore the history of deaconesses in the early Church, the key theological tensions involved, the role of synodality, and the direction Pope Francis and now Pope Leo XIV appear to favor.
In this video, Pedro looks at:
– What the Second Commission actually said.
– If there was bias in the Commission’s conclusions.
– Whether these findings are magisterial and require assent from the faithful.
– The historical role of deaconesses and doctrinal development on this matter.
– Synodality and why it hasn’t resolved this question.
– Pope Francis’s “third way.”
– What Pope Leo XIV may decide moving forward.
Pedro Gabriel, MD, is a Catholic layman and physician, born and residing in Portugal. He is a medical oncologist, currently employed in a Portuguese public hospital. A published writer of Catholic novels with a Tolkienite flavor, he is also a parish reader and a former catechist. He seeks to better understand the relationship of God and Man by putting the lens on the frailty of the human condition, be it physical and spiritual. He also wishes to provide a fresh perspective of current Church and World affairs from the point of view of a small western European country, highly secularized but also highly Catholic by tradition.
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