Vatican Says No to Ordaining Women as Deacons

A second Vatican study commission has determined that women should not be ordained as deacons, dealing another setback to Catholic women who hope one day to be able to preside at weddings, baptisms, and funerals. The Vatican on Thursday took the unusual step of publishing a synthesis of the commission's findings, including the members' votes on specific theological questions, the AP reports. The report left open the possibility of further study but proposed instead the creation of new lay ministries for women outside the ordained diaconate, suggesting that the issue for now is closed. The commission voted 7-1 to say research "excludes the possibility" of female deacons at this time, reports Reuters.

• Deacons are ordained ministers who perform many of the same functions as priests at various rites. They can preach but cannot celebrate Mass. For male seminarians, the diaconate is a transitional ministry on their way to being ordained as priests. Married men can also be ordained as permanent deacons. Women cannot, although historians say women served as deacons in the early Christian church.
• Pope Francis in 2016 ordered a first study commission on the issue following a request from the umbrella organization of the world's female religious orders, the International Union of Superiors General. After that commission apparently failed to reach consensus, Francis created a second study commission in 2020.

• The commission's president, Cardinal Giuseppe Petrocchi, concluded that there are two currently irreconcilable schools of theological thought on the question, requiring the Vatican to take a prudential approach. One school of thought would allow for a female diaconate, while the other would not Given the impasse, the current state of research "rules out the possibility of moving in the direction of admitting women to the diaconate understood as a degree of the sacrament of Holy Orders," the report said.
• Several groups that want women to play a greater role in the church expressed disappointment. The US-based Women's Ordination Conference called the decision a "deep, and theologically unsound, insult," Reuters reports. The group, which criticized the commission for not seeking input from more women, said: "Make no mistake: this is a decision that will harm the global church."

• Advocates for expanding the diaconate to include women say doing so would provide women with greater role in the ministry and governance of the church, while also helping address the effects of the Catholic priest shortage in parts of the world by allowing women to perform some priestly functions. Opponents say ordaining women to the deaconate would signal the start of a slippery slope toward ordaining women to the priesthood, which the church reserves for men.
• Pope Leo XIV ordered Petrocchi's synthesis report released, and that could suggest that for him the issue is now closed, the AP reports. Leo has spent much of his first months as pope tying up the loose ends of Francis' pontificate, and the female deacon issue remained an outstanding question.