Where there is already confusion in the minds of people — and many lay people do not appreciate that deacons are not co-workers since they do not share in the ministerial priesthood, nor can they confect the Eucharist or administer the Sacrament of Reconciliation or the Sacrament of the Sick — it seems that the introduction of deaconesses may
simply add to the confusion.
The contrary interpretation that I suggest has the
added advantage of consistency with a rather straightforward 1939 article by Whitehead entitled, quite
simply, «An Appeal
to Sanity,» whose message leaves uncharacteristically little room for
confusion.1