A Belgian woman had suffered two refusals in the space of a few months to follow training as a deacon, a ministry of the Catholic Church reserved for men.
Pope Francis at the end of May was clear on the possibility of ordaining women deacons: “Non». «Women are of great service as women, not as ministers (…) within sacred orders», had launched the sovereign pontiff, even if he had not excluded a broader reflection on the role of women in the Church.
In Belgium, however, justice does not see things that way. On Tuesday, the civil court of Mechelen, in the Flemish part of the country, found the former Archbishop of Mechelen-Brussels, Mgr Jozef De Kesel, and the current holder of the seat, Mgr Luc Terlinden, guilty of discrimination. The two clergymen twice refused a woman, Veer Dusauchoit, the opportunity to follow the training of deacon on the grounds of her sex, relay our Belgian colleagues from Free The two men must pay the plaintiff 1,500 euros in compensation. The Archdiocese of Mechelen-Brussels has not yet decided whether to appeal.
Ultimately, could this decision set a precedent? Although the prelates were convicted, the court nevertheless clarified that it had not “no skills” to cancel the refusals of the archbishop and his predecessor, nor to define the people who can or cannot be admitted to deacon training because this “would be contrary to religious freedom.” Within the Catholic Church, a deacon is a married or single man who has received the first degree of the sacrament of the order of the Catholic Church. He proclaims the Gospel, and serves the priest or bishop at the altar, but cannot celebrate a mass and can only administer certain sacraments, such as baptism or marriage.
“The archbishops made a mistake in assessing the candidacy”
According to the account given during the hearing, Veer Dusauchoit wanted to join the deacon training in June 2023 and encountered a first refusal, that of Jozef De Kesel, motivating his decision on the grounds that women cannot be ordained deacons within the Catholic Church. A few months later, in October, the Belgian reiterated her request to Luc Terlinden, the new archbishop, but encountered the same negative response.
Visibly upset by this double refusal, Veer Dusauchoit took legal action, considering that this refusal was in contradiction with the Belgian Constitution. The two prelates defended themselves by arguing that their refusal was based on canon law and that the candidate was a woman. But justice ruled in favor of the complainant, and found the two men of the Church guilty of discrimination by ensuring that equality between men and women was one of the fundamental principles of the rule of law. “The court considers that the archbishops made a mistake in assessing the candidacyexplained Luc De Cleir, press officer of the Mechelen court, to Free. It is only about admission to training, not the question of actual ordination as a deacon.”
