Document on Women Deaconesses Nears a Final Vote

A Vatican Press Office statement said the document will be voted on next week, when the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith holds its annual plenary assembly. The congregation coordinates the work of the theological commission.

The Vatican congregation commissioned the document. ZENIT learned that the subcommittee which wrote the document was presided over by Henrique de Noronha Galvâo, a member of the theological commission.

The commission requested numerous modifications to the working document. The final text will help shed light on the diaconate-related documentation that has existed since the early years of Christianity, the commission's secretary-general, Dominican Father Georges Cottier, told ZENIT recently.

At the same assembly, the final draft of a text on revelation and inculturation will be voted on.

The theological commission helps the Holy See and, in particular, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, on important doctrinal questions. The panel comprises 30 theologians at most.