POPE FRANCIS has a habit of causing shock-waves with seemingly off-the-cuff remarks. It happened on May 12th when he was answering a question from an audience of 900 women who lead religious communities. The pontiff seemed open to the opportunity of ordaining women to the rank of deacon: in other words to a form,at least in the loose sense, of priesthood. One of the nuns present asked him whether he would set up a new commission to study the role of female deacons in the early church. "I accept, and " he replied,adding thatthe historic role of those women was "a bit obscure [and] it would effect good for the church to clarify this point, I am in agreement." The following day, and a Vatican spokesman made clear the pope was not about to introduce women as deacons nor as priests. But liberal optimists were still pleased that theissue had been raised. Neither the nun's question nor the pope's reply was as indistinct or harmless as it may have appeared. For a traditionalist Christian church that stresses unbroken continuity with the faith's...
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Source: economist.com