There are around 50,000 women deacons that have had parishes all around the eastern part of the Catholic Church during the history of the Catholic Church . Women deacons played an essential role in their community, The catholic church has told us that, because only they as women could enter the women's quarters. Only women could effectively prepare and impact another woman's life, and other women catechumens for their joining the Church community. Only women deacons could anoint and train in a way the women at baptism, which catechumens had to strip totally making it a better more comfortable experience for a woman.
A lot of people say that the Catholic Church has rejected a lot of new …show more content…
The following duties that the women held can, be found from historical records: The women deacons did jobs like assisting at the baptism of other women.
Timmy Guarascio 121414
1st Period Theology 3
The deaconesses had an important and very helpful task during the baptism itself: the women deacons helped with anointing women catechumens with sacred oil over their whole bodies and performing a big part of the baptism itself by immersing them in the baptismal font.
The women deacons took care of other women in the liturgical assembly. Women deacons controlled admission of unknown women into the liturgical assembly, just as male deacons controlled the admission of men. This would be like the acceptance of freshman into St.Rita.
Women deacons saw to church order among women and carried pastoral responsibility for them. They had a huge impact on the learning experience of many people. The women deacons were at the request of women at their homes acting as nurses in a way. Women deacons looked after and helped the sick and needy women. They were also charge of the widows in the parish. They also instructed the catechumens for …show more content…
Baptism is a very elaborate rite of passage in anyones life It was considered almost of equal importance to the sacred liturgy of the Eucharist.
To realize the huge impact the role of women deacons had made in the ministration and administering of baptism for female catechumens, the ritual has to be explained step by step. The sequence of events could vary from place to place.
There were even rituals to get prepared for the rite of baptism, and it started with many preparatory prayers, litanies, exorcisms and invocations.
After that then the women would have to have their faith examined. The female catechumens were examined by interviewing them based on their faith. Here the deaconess, who had instructed them, would assist the women. The Statuta Ecclesiae Antiqua preserves an ancient tradition when it states: “Widows or nuns, who are chosen to the ministry of the women that need to be baptized, should be so instructed to this office that they can teach unskilled and rural women with clear and sound words, both as to how to respond to the questions put by the baptizer at the moment of baptism and how to live after the reception of