Pope calls for commission to study female deacons

May 13, 2016

Pope Francis met with superiors of women’s religious institutes on May 12 and said he would like to establish a commission to study women deacons, “above all with regard to the early days of the Church.”

In a meeting with participants in the triennial assembly of the International Union of Superiors General, the Pontiff fielded questions and warned against temptations to “feminism” and “clericalism.”

Addressing a question on women and decision-making in the Church, the Pope distinguished the Mass, at which a bishop or priest presides, from the inclusion of women in the Roman Curia and in diocesan bodies. The Pope said he would ask the Congregation for Divine Worship to study the question of preaching.

In response to a question about the ordination of women to the diaconate, the Pope recounted remarks by a Syrian scholar on the roles of deaconesses in the early Church, including the baptism of women by immersion and the examination of the bodies of women who told the bishop that their husbands had abused them.

The Pope said he would consult with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith about the historical role of deaconesses and added, “I would like to set up an official commission that will study the question, and I think that will be good for the Church to clarify this point.”

He said later in his remarks that it would be “useful” for the commission to “clarify this well, above all with regard to the early days of the Church.”

The Vatican press office indicated, in a statement released after the Pope's remarks, that the Holy Father intends not only to study the historical question, but also the possibility that women might be ordained as deacons in the future.

In his 1994 apostolic letter Ordinatio Sacerdotalis, St. John Paul II taught that "the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women." However, that document did not directly address the question of female deacons.

In 2002, the International Theological Commission examined the possibility of female deacons as part of a broader study of the diaconate. The commission concluded that although it was probably not possible to ordain women as deacons, the Church had not definitely settled the question. 

Pope Francis indicated that he would ask the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to conduct the study of the issue. The Congregation is headed by Cardinal Gerhard Müller-- who is the author of the book Priesthood and Diaconate, which argues strongly that only men can be admitted to Holy Orders.

 

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Further information:

• Pope tells women religious Vatican will study women deacons (CNS)
• No Opening toward Female Deacons, Theologian Says October 17, 2002 (CWN, 10/17/02)
• Udienza all’Unione Internazionale Superiore Generali (giovedì 12 maggio 2016) (Holy See Press Office)
• #UISGPlenary Udienza con il Papa - Audience with the Pope (Facebook)
• Leaders of women’s religious communities reflect on ‘sunset of a model,’ ‘global sisterhood’ (CWN, 5/12)
• The Pope meets with Superiors General: service not servitude, participation in decision-making and study of the female diaconate (Holy See Press Office)