The Vatican today released a synthesis report of the key themes of the study commission on the female diaconate that says “the purely historical perspective does not allow us to arrive at any definitive certainty” and that “in the final analysis, the question must be decided on the doctrinal level.”

It also says that women cannot be admitted to the diaconate “as understood as a degree of holy orders” but stops short of an unequivocal “no” to women deacons, saying that while the commission’s “assessment is strong…it does not allow for a definitive judgment to be formulated at this time, as in the case of priestly ordination.”

The report, sent to Pope Leo on Sept. 18 to assist him in his discernment on the subject and published today, is a seven-page summary of the work of the study commission over the last few years, prepared by commission head Cardinal Giuseppe Petrocchi. The commission was set up by Pope Francis in 2020 after he said a previous commission in 2016 did not reach an agreement on the historical role of women deacons. The 2020 commission worked in 2021 and 2022 before falling dormant and resumed its work in 2025 after the Synod on Synodality’s final report—which called for continued discernment on the topic—was given magisterial status by Pope Francis.

The report includes a call for rigorous study on the diaconate as such, apart from the question of the women’s diaconate, because, as Cardinal Petrocchi notes, “in many dioceses of the world there is no ministry of diaconate, and in entire continents this sacramental institution is almost absent. Where it is active, the activities of deacons often coincide with the roles proper to lay ministries or ministries in the liturgy, raising questions in the People of God about the specific meaning of their ordination.”

Significantly, however, after its revival in 2025, the commission appeared to be moving away from the controversial question of the diaconate for women. At that point, it expressed “special interest” in the thesis that “it is now opportune to expand women’s access to ministries established for the service of the community.” It recalled that Pope Francis’ two apostolic letters—”Spiritus Domini” and “Antiquum Ministerium”—while confirming St. John Paul II’s “Ordinatio Sacerdotalis” (1994) “on reserving priestly ordination to men alone,” also favor an expansion of women’s access to ministerial roles. 

The commission asserts that “it is now up to the discernment of pastors to evaluate what further ministries can be introduced for the concrete needs of the Church of our time, thus also ensuring adequate ecclesial recognition of the diaconate of the baptized, especially women.” It concludes, “This recognition will be a prophetic sign, especially where women still suffer situations of gender discrimination.”

Cardinal Petrocchi wrote in his report to Pope Leo, “The problems relating to the diaconal ordination of women remain open to further theological and pastoral study, holding firm to the principle of the ‘communio hierarchica’ [hierarchical communion] which assigns the final decision on these issues to the Magisterium of the Church, as an authoritative response to questions present in some sectors of the People of God.”

The report offers a detailed account of the work of the commission and gives the number of votes for and against key propositions presented at their sessions.

According to the report, the 2016 commission had already stated, “The church has recognized at different times, in different places and in various forms the title of deacon/deaconess referring to women, but attributing to it a non-univocal meaning.” Cardinal Petrocchi said this concurs with the proposition of the International Theological Commission in 2022 that said, “It seems evident that this ministry was not intended as the simple female equivalent of the male diaconate.”

The 2020 commission unanimously reached the same conclusion in 2021, adding that the female diaconate “does not seem to have held a sacramental character.” Cardinal Petrocchi wrote that biblical and patristic sources led the commission to conclude that “in general the female diaconate was conceived as a sui-generis [a special kind of] ministry” and “unlike the episcopate, the priesthood and the diaconate conferred on men…is not placed in the apostolic line of succession.”

The report shows that the commission in 2021 was split on whether the female diaconate should be understood or instituted as “the third degree of Holy Orders.”  However, it voted unanimously in favor of establishing possible new ministries “that could contribute to the synergy between men and women,” saying this would require formation.

In July 2022, the commission voted (seven in favor, one against) that the present state of “historical research and theological investigation…excludes the possibility of proceeding in the direction of the admission of women to the diaconate understood as a degree of the sacrament of Holy Orders,” and, “In the light of Sacred Scripture, Tradition and the ecclesiastical Magisterium, this evaluation is strong, although it does not allow today to formulate a definitive judgment, as in the case of priestly ordination.” This decision would appear to have concluded the group’s work until it was revived in 2025.

The commission held its final session in February 2025. The report said that it received a “conspicuous amount” of written material but that this only came from 22 “groups or people” and “represented a few countries.” 

“Consequently,” the report said, “although the material is abundant and in some cases skillfully argued, it cannot be considered as the voice of the Synod and even less of the People of God as a whole.”

The report recalls that what it called “the significant problematic nature of the theme and the absence of sufficient consensus” was also evident in the preparatory documents of the Synod on Synodality. For example, it said, some consider the ordination of women deacons as “unacceptable, since it is in discontinuity with Tradition” or that it could lead to “dangerous anthropological confusion, by accepting which the Church would align herself with the spirit of the times.” It also highlighted that “some Churches are firmly opposed to this perspective,” and “in the final document of the Synod, proposition 60 on the study of the possibility of the female diaconate obtained the highest number of votes against (97 No).” The paragraph passed with 263 votes in favor.

The report says arguments in favor of the ordained diaconate of women “rely on ideas concerning questions of theological anthropology” and often conflict with the “Tradition of the Catholic (and Orthodox) Church” that only admit baptized men to Holy Orders.

However, it says, the “theological and cultural” arguments supporting openness to a female diaconate “maintain that these positions of Tradition seem to contradict:

  • the equal status of the ‘male’ and the ‘female’ as the image of God (Gen 1:27)
  • the equal dignity of both genders, based on this biblical datum
  • the declaration of faith that: ‘there is no longer Jew and Greek, slave and free, male and female, for you are all “one” in Christ Jesus’ (Gal 3:28)
  • social development, which provides equal access, for both genders, to all institutional and operational functions (including at the top level) of the political and administrative life in which the civil community is divided.”

The report says that “for these reasons, many petitions do not limit themselves to asking for the admission of women to the sacrament of the diaconate, but maintain that the other degrees of Holy Orders (priesthood and episcopate) should also be made accessible to women.” It notes: “The argument that rests on the masculinity of Jesus Christ is seen as a sexist and narrow view, which leads to discrimination against women. According to these views, the ‘repraesentatio Christi’ [representing Christ] should no longer be linked to gender categories, but put at the center the ministerial mediation of salvation through men and women.”

It says that these petitions argue that since ordination to the permanent diaconate is not “ad sacerdotium” (for the priesthood) but “ad ministerium” (for ministry), the exclusion of women would not seem justified, since women are also able to represent Christ as “diakonos” (deacon).

The report says that in the documentation received by the commission: 

many women described their work for the Church, often lived with great dedication, as if it were a sufficient criterion for ordination to the diaconate. Others spoke of a strong ‘feeling’ of having been called, as if it were the necessary proof to guarantee the Church the validity of their vocation and demand that this conviction be accepted. Many already carried out diaconal functions, especially in communities without a priest, and believed that they were ‘deserving’ of receiving ordination, having, in some way, acquired the right to do so. Others spoke simply of wanting ordination as a sign of visibility, authority, respect, support and above all equality.

During its third session, the commission split evenly in the vote (five in favor, five against) the following thesis: “The masculinity of Christ, and therefore the masculinity of those who receive Holy Orders, is not accidental, but is an integral part of sacramental identity, preserving the divine order of salvation in Christ. To alter this reality would not be a simple adjustment of the ministry but a rupture of the nuptial meaning of salvation.”

At the end of his submission to the pope, Cardinal Petrocchi remarked that the documentation of the different commissions shows “an intense theoretical and existential dialectic between two theological orientations” that was also evident in the way the members voted.

He said one side “insists on the assertion that the ordination of the deacon is ‘ad ministerium’ [for the ministry], and not ‘ad sacerdotium’ [for the priesthood] and this factor would open the way to the ordination of deaconesses.”

He said the other side “insists on the unity of the Sacrament of Holy Orders, together with the spousal meaning of the three degrees that constitute it”—that is, the episcopate (bishops), the priesthood and the diaconate—and rejects what he called “the hypothesis of the female diaconate.”

He added, “It also points out that if the admission of women to the first degree of Holy Orders were approved, the exclusion from the others would be inexplicable.”

Given these contrasting positions and “the lack of convergence on fundamental doctrinal and pastoral polarities,” the cardinal advocated keeping “a prudential evaluation line on the theme of the diaconate for women,” accompanied by more global investigations, “striving, with far-sighted wisdom, to probe these ecclesial horizons.”

He deemed it “indispensable, as a prerequisite for subsequent discernment, to encourage a rigorous and broad critical examination” on the subject of “the diaconate itself,” about its sacramental “identity” and its ecclesial “mission.”

He emphasized that the two commissions “were unanimous in pointing out the need to expand the ‘communal spaces’ so that women can express adequate participation and co-responsibility in the decision-making nerve centers of the Church, also through the creation of new lay ministries.”

He also said the commission has insisted on “the urgency of valuing ‘baptismal diakonia’ [service] as the foundation of any ecclesial ministry.” In this context, he said, “the ‘Marian dimension’ as the soul of every ‘diakonia’ in the Church and in humanity must be ever better understood and developed.”

Gerard O’Connell is America’s senior Vatican correspondent and author of The Election of Pope Francis: An Inside Story of the Conclave That Changed History. He has been covering the Vatican since 1985.