The Study Commission on the Female Diaconate, established by Pope Francis, has reported to Leo XIV that, given the current state of research, the conditions do not exist to admit women to the diaconate as a degree of the Sacrament of Holy Orders.
On December 4, the Holy See Press Office published—at the request of Pope Leo XIV—the Summary of the Commission on the Female Diaconate, signed by Cardinal Giuseppe Petrocchi. The document concludes that, in light of biblical, historical, and theological sources, it is not possible now to admit women to the diaconate, due to a lack of consensus, insufficient historical evidence, and continuing doctrinal divergences.
The Summary reports that the Commission was evenly split: five members in favor of confirming the thesis on sacramental masculinity, five against.
One of the theses contained in the Summary, which received 7 votes in favor out of 8, states: “The status quaestionis excludes, at the present stage, the possibility of proceeding in the direction of admitting women to the diaconate understood as a degree of the Sacrament of Orders. This assessment is strong, though it does not allow for a definitive judgment.”
The Summary reconstructs a years-long effort carried out through “various Commissions” and numerous sessions of discussion. Already in 2021, Petrocchi reports, the Commission he chaired had formulated a unanimous thesis: “The female diaconate, which developed unevenly in different parts of the Church, does not appear to have possessed a sacramental character.” This position is based on a careful comparative study of ancient sources, evaluated according to the criterion of the organic unity of Tradition: while acknowledging episodes in which “deaconesses” appear to assume traits close to liturgical roles, the overall body of testimonies points to a sui generis ministry.
“This ministry—unlike the episcopate, the presbyterate, and the diaconate conferred on men—does not fall within the line of apostolic succession,” reads the Summary document.
On the theological level, a profound opposition is noted between two orientations: one emphasizes that the diaconate is ordination “to ministry” rather than “to priesthood” (as classical theology would hold), and could therefore be theoretically accessible to women; the other underscores the intrinsic unity of the three degrees of Holy Orders and the nuptial meaning that unites them, seeing the masculinity of the minister not as accidental but as intrinsic to the representation of Christ the Bridegroom.
The Commission also voted in favor of developing new instituted ministries open to women.
The Summary reports that, on this point, the Commission was evenly split: five members in favor of confirming the thesis on sacramental masculinity, five against.
The Commission also voted in favor of developing new instituted ministries open to women, reiterating that these could foster greater ecclesial co-responsibility and enhance “baptismal diakonia,” the foundation of every ecclesial service. “This recognition will prove a prophetic sign especially where women still suffer situations of gender discrimination,” the Summary states.
The document recalls the motu proprio Spiritus Domini, with which Pope Francis opened the ministries of lector and acolyte to women, and the motu proprio Antiquum ministerium, by which he instituted the ministry of catechist, accessible to both sexes.
On August 2, 2016, Pope Francis had established a Study Commission on the female diaconate with the precise task of “studying the question” of women’s diaconate, “especially regarding the early centuries of the Church.”
What Pope Leo (Cdl. Prevost) said on female ordination in 2023
The Summary document, made public today at the will of Pope Leo, is not to be understood, however, as the definitive conclusion on the question of the female diaconate. As Cardinal Petrocchi writes within it, “it appears indispensable, as a preliminary condition for further discernment, to encourage a rigorous and wide-ranging critical examination conducted on the very nature of the diaconate, that is, on its sacramental identity and its ecclesial mission, clarifying certain structural and pastoral aspects that are not yet fully defined.”
