Charlie Dittmeier's Home Page
The COVID-19 pandemic causes much pain and suffering. It may also offer us an opportunity to reflect on who we are and what we do as God’s children, as the church. Maybe we shouldn’t go back to “normal.” Maybe the old “normal” wasn’t so good but was just the path of least resistance, the easiest way to get by.
“Where two or three (but less than ten) are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”
Matthew 18:20 (revised)
With all the schools closed because of the pandemic, what’s to do except hang around mom’s stall in the market?
This building on Monivong Boulevard, a major thoroughfare in Phnom Penh, shows a varied history. Probably a respectable colonial era building before the Khmer Rouge, it subsequently had a utilitarian top floor added. Now it is being renovated again—or maybe will be replaced. Will any of its colonial beauty be preserved? We’ll have to wait and see.
So many countries are talking about re-opening businesses to counter the downturn in the economy because of the coronavirus. This woman never closed down her little rice shop. She’s open every day or her family doesn’t eat.
In a recent scholarly article, Phyllis Zagano thoughtfully draws out the theological implications of her research, but her main point is historical: There is simply no precedent on which to base the exclusion of women from the diaconate in the Catholic Church.
Zagano continues: The most famous example of a woman deacon comes from Scripture. In fact, the only person in Scripture called “deacon” is named in Paul’s Letter to the Romans, where he addresses the deacon—the woman deacon—Phoebe.