So endeth a debate that has officially percolated for more than a decade, and less formally, much longer. When the Catholic Church reinvigorated the permanent diaconate as an ordained ministry several decades ago, activists began lobbying for the inclusion of women in such orders. Unlike the priesthood, the church had ordained women as deacons in its long-ago past, but essentially allowed the entire ministry to wither, with its only vestige being the transitional diaconate used as the final stage before full ordination for priests.
During his pontificate, Pope Francis ordered two reviews of the question by study commissions, without exhibiting any enthusiasm for the proposal to open the diaconate to women. Yesterday, Pope Leo XIV ordered the publication of the results, signaling an end to consideration of the proposal:
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 report left open the possibility of further study but proposed instead the creation of new lay ministries for women outside the ordained diaconate. …
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, named for its president, president Cardinal Giuseppe Petrocchi, which released its report Thursday.
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. But it left open the possibility for further study, saying the current state of investigation doesn’t allow for a “definitive judgment to be formulated.”
While the link goes to Crux, a very reliable news outlet on the Catholic Church, this analysis comes from the Associated Press … unfortunately. They note, correctly, that the pressure for this step was mainly from a handful of communities rather than a consensus within the global church, presumably suggesting that the idea resulted from a Western secular obsession with sexual equality rather than theology relating to complementarity. It also highlights concerns within the commissions that the entire exercise was an effort to ordain women as priests.
That’s where the AP’s ignorance of theology comes into play:
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. The Catholic Church reserves the priesthood for men, saying Christ chose only men as his 12 Apostles.
Aaargh. That is not the only theological issue, and it’s not even the main theological issue. Crux would have done better to write its own report rather than republish the Associated Press report on this issue. I wrote about this eleven years ago and explained the core theological obstacle to female ordination into the priesthood, which has to do with the nature of the Mass apart from the male identity of the Apostles. I’ll recap the main theological issue, which is well documented in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC):
Priests act in persona Christi capitis during the Mass (CCC pp 875), especially during the Liturgy of the Eucharist. The congregation becomes an earthly part of the eternal celebration of the Wedding Feast of the Lamb, as described in Revelation, in which the Church becomes the Bride of Christ. The priestly authority comes directly from Christ Himself through the apostolic succession of the bishops and their authority to ordain priests for this purpose. It is in this role that priests can effect the transformation of the sacrifice of bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ through the unity of the Holy Spirit with Christ and God the Father, as seen in Revelation, and offer it to the faithful as a sacrament of union with Christ and that eternal celebration. Acting in persona Christi capitis, the priest acts in place of Christ the bridegroom in that moment in time here in the world (CCC pp 1348). Also, the priest’s role in the Mass occurs through the power of Christ the bridegroom (CCC 1548). This is how the two will become one flesh, as in sacramental marriage in this world. If the congregation is the bride, the priest as groom must be male to act in persona Christi capitis, according to the teachings of the Catholic Church.
That doesn’t necessarily apply to deacons, who cannot perform the transubstantiation at Mass; the church also has had female deacons in centuries past. However, the pressure for this change is so transparently focused on gender politics rather than theology that it poisons the entire debate. That is almost certainly why Pope Leo XIV clearly isn’t interested in extending this argument any further. It has little to do with charity, distracts from church teachings, and acts to undermine authority in relation to the most sacred aspect of the Liturgy.
Not to mention, it also keeps generating ignorant commentary. We can expect a lot of tongue-wagging about Pope Leo’s “conservative” nature emerging, but as Bree Dail noted yesterday, that ignores the reaction from his liberal predecessor.
COMMENTING on this:
No one should be surprised. When Pope Francis, who encouraged this commission, was asked if female ordination would be permitted by the Catholic Church, he answered. pic.twitter.com/tY7gqJ91vE— Bree A Dail (@breeadail) December 4, 2025
Anyone surprised by this didn’t hear Pope Francis say “no” the FIRST time.
Stop believing journalists citing anonymous sources. https://t.co/auZYMkxTGK pic.twitter.com/eXJAl9ah7H
— Bree A Dail (@breeadail) December 4, 2025
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