The Vatican’s doctrine office has judged that “based on the analysis so far…there is still no room for a positive decision” on ordaining women deacons, Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández, the Vatican’s doctrine chief, announced today.
He said this while delivering a summary of the work done by a study group that came out of last year’s synod which was tasked with looking into “theological and canonical matters regarding specific ministerial forms,” including the possibility of women deacons.
The work of the study group was particularly secretive compared to that of the nine other study groups that were instituted after last year’s synod gathering. As of now, the names of the members of the other nine groups have been published, while those of Group 5, which looked at women deacons, have not. Likewise, at the synod today, videos before each group’s presentation identified the group members with individual photos and names, while Group 5’s members were only shown in two group photos that flashed on the screen briefly.
The results from the #synod study group concerning women were presented by Cdl Fernandez, and unlike other groups, whose members were identified with individual photos, the members (whose names are the only ones not to be disclosed) were described only with these two group shots. pic.twitter.com/649pj41ir4
— Colleen Dulle (@ColleenDulle) October 2, 2024
This topic is of interest in particular because the Vatican has previously organized two study commissions on the women’s diaconate. Both of their final reports have been confidential, with the members not permitted to speak about the outcomes. Pope Francis has said that the first commission’s results were inconclusive, saying the members were like “toads from different wells.” After extensive conversation about women deacons at least year’s synod, members requested that the results of the two previous commissions be given to this year’s synod members.
That has not yet happened, one source inside the synod confirmed. Cardinal Fernández stated in his public address that the results would be summarized in the final document that the study group plans to submit to the pope.
The 10 study groups were given until June 2025 to complete their work after having been instituted in late February 2024. The updates they gave today focused on the work they had done so far and what they planned to do next.
Cardinal Fernández announced that Group 5 planned to draft a document on its study theme, which would look in particular at a variety of subjects including “the specificity of sacramental power,” “ecclesial functions and ministries that do not require the Sacrament of Holy Orders” and “the problems arising from an erroneous conception of ecclesial authority.”
He added that the document would take up themes of Pope Francis’ previous writings. In an off-the-cuff comment, he said these themes were “unknown,” which seemingly meant they are unnoticed or under-appreciated.
These topics, Fernández said, would help “give proper attention” to the question of women’s ordination to the diaconate, although, he added, “we would like to share from the outset” that the dicastery had judged, based on the work of the previous commissions, that “there is still no room for a positive decision” on a women’s diaconate, “understood as a degree of the Sacrament of Holy Orders.”
In an interesting note, he added that Pope Francis had “recently confirmed this consideration publicly,” seemingly referring to the pope’s interview with the American journalist Norah O’Donnell in which, asked if he were “open to” women deacons, Francis had replied, “If it is deacons with Holy Orders, no.”
In the remainder of its work drafting a document for Pope Francis, Fernández said, the study group plans to focus on “analyz[ing] in depth the lives of some women who—in both the early and recent history of the church—have exercised genuine authority and power in support of the church’s mission.” He stated that their “authority or power was not tied to sacramental consecration, as would be in the case, at least today, with diaconal ordination.”
The women he named included Matilda of Canossa, Hildegard of Bingen, Bridget of Sweden, Catherine of Siena, Joan of Arc, Teresa of Ávila, Juana Inés de la Cruz, Mama Antula, Elizabeth Ann Seton, Maria Montessori, Dorothy Day and Madeleine Delbrêl.
In another off-the-cuff comment, the cardinal invited synod delegates to submit additional names from “Africa, Indonesia, everywhere.”
He concluded, “In the light of these testimonies, the question of women’s access to the diaconate takes on a different perspective. Meanwhile, the in-depth study of their multifaceted Christian witness can help today imagine new forms of ministry that can ‘create still broader opportunities for a more incisive female presence in the church.’”
