May
10
/ 2017
In many countries, laws prohibit employers from discriminating based on sex. However, exemptions to this law are often made for religious orders. The Roman Catholic Church is adamant that women cannot become priests or bishops or deacons because women have never in the past been priests or bishops or deacons. With a few notable exceptions, most Christian denominations have followed the lead of the Vatican. In 2016, Pope Francis established an official Papal Commission to determine (a) if the early Church had female deacons and (b) if it is possible to restart the practice. This is not the first time such an inquiry has been made. For all its talk of embracing modernity, the Church remains stubbornly stuck in the
