What does Pope Francis’ ‘no’ mean for the Catholic debate over women deacons?
Pope
Francis sits down exclusively with "CBS Evening News" anchor Norah
O'Donnell at the Vatican on April 24, 2024, for an interview ahead of
the Vatican's inaugural World Children's Day. (OSV News photo/Adam
Verdugo, courtesy, 60 minutes, CBS NEWS)This essay is a Cover Story selection, a weekly feature highlighting the top picks from the editors of America Media.
You’ve heard it before: “Pope Francis is causing confusion.” Almost a dozen years into this papacy and I am starting to think there’s some truth to it, specifically on the question of restoring women deacons in the Catholic Church.
I admit, I’ve been as surprised as anyone by some of Francis’ comments and decisions. His “Who am I to judge?” comment; his allowance for divorced and remarried Catholics to receive the sacraments; his signing a document on human fraternity stating that God willed religious pluralism. All surprises, but never “confusing” to me. Until now. In April of this year, Pope Francis sat down with Norah O’Donnell of CBS News for a wide-ranging interview in which she asked him if a little girl will ever have the opportunity to be a deacon. His answer? A clear and definitive “No.”
So, what’s “confusing” about that? Well, his comment seemed to quash one of the most robust communal discernments happening across the universal church today. And isn’t Pope Francis a proponent of discernment and dialogue? In fact, he convened two papal commissions to study women deacons in 2016 and 2020. He launched the current Synod on Synodality, which has surfaced widespread interest in the topic among Catholics, and a synod proposal has explicitly requested continued study of the matter. Needless to say, the pope’s “no” was a bit…confusing.
The feeling was amplified for me at the time, as I was in the middle of significant research into the current state of the discussion on restoring women deacons in the Catholic Church for a new video explainer. The result of that research is“Women Deacons and the Catholic Church,” which you can watch on Youtube.
We at America felt the topic demanded a fresh, comprehensive and accessible introduction that would relay the history of the diaconate, including the presence of women deacons in the first millennium of Christianity, and explore the current state of the question. The goal was not to advocate for or against restoring women deacons. It was a response to a real impulse from grassroots Catholic communities around the world, which, especially during the 2021-24 synodal consultations, have found themselves discussing and discerning the question, based on the pastoral needs of their communities and the deacon-like ministries that some Catholic women are already doing. In other words, the video is a reflection of a preexisting and ongoing discernment, of which more Catholics should be made aware and welcomed to participate in. It is, arguably, the most mature proposal stemming from synodal discernment in the Catholic Church today, with broad implications for evangelization, the dignity of women and the integrity of our ecclesial structures.
While the pope’s unexpected announcement in 2016 to convene a papal commission made headlines and was likely the first time most Catholics had ever considered the question of women deacons, it was not a novel decision.
We can trace the conversation back to the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s, when, after careful study, the world’s bishops restored the permanent diaconate for men. Women deacons were not officially discussed at the council; but in the decades that followed, a major debate emerged about ordaining women to the priesthood. Between 1976 and 2010, multiple statements from the Vatican ruled out ordaining women as priests, but they never ruled out women’s ordination to the diaconate. In 1992, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger—the future Pope Benedict XVI—tasked the Vatican’s International Theological Commission with studying the question of women deacons in the early church. The initial five-year study period proved insufficient, so Ratzinger approved a second five-year term for a subcommittee to complete the work. Finally, in 2002, after an exhaustive 10-year study, the commission concluded: “With regard to the ordination of women to the diaconate…it pertains to the ministry of discernment which the Lord established in his Church to pronounce authoritatively on this question.”
In hindsight, it is not surprising that the 2016 and 2020 papal commissions could not agree on all the historical and theological questions. Neither final report from those commissions has been made public, but without statements from them to the contrary, it seems that the International Theological Commission’s conclusion from 2002 still holds: “it pertains to the ministry of discernment which the Lord established in his Church to pronounce authoritatively on this question.”
The truth is, there are no more rocks to turn over. This is not a question that is likely to be resolved by further historical research. We know what we know. We know that the earliest reference to a deacon in the New Testament is to Phoebe, a woman. We know about the ordinations of women deacons in various parts of the church in the first millennium. We know that some were different from male diaconal ordinations and some were the same. We know that for various reasons women deacons disappeared in the middle ages. We know that the diaconate developed into a transitional ministry on the way to priesthood. We know that the Second Vatican Council restored the diaconate for men. We know that neither St. John Paul II nor Benedict XVI ruled out women’s ministry as deacons, despite ruling out women priests. We know that Francis’ papacy and the Synod on Synodality have reignited the question from the grassroots, and that Catholics around the world are actively discussing and discerning the prospect of women deacons.
There is a difference between active discernment and simply waiting for the perfect piece of historical evidence or theological argument to provide an answer. The history is mixed and theologians are not in agreement. The active discernment of the entire church—the magisterium and the people of God—requires a humble confidence that God accompanies the church as it considers this question, today. A decision either for restoring women deacons, or staying the course with an all-male diaconate, or definitively ruling out women’s ordination to the diaconate, all entail some development in the church’s understanding of the tradition.
For me, this realization has been both liberating and daunting. After much research into the history and the various theological arguments, I can see the immense value in approaching the question synodally, because the discernment has to happen together. A good piece of advice is offered by Bishop W. Shawn McKnight at the end of our video: “We’ve got to focus primarily on the will of God. What is the mind of Christ in this? What is the movement of the Holy Spirit, regardless of our preconceived notions and perspectives and maybe even our ideologies. We need to learn how to let them go in order to do the will of God.”
So, what does Pope Francis’ “no” mean for this long-running communal discernment, which he has encouraged and which continues to gain steam in grassroots communities across the globe? I am admittedly confused. But Sheila Pires, a communications official for the Synod on Synodality featured in our video, looks at it this way: “That was an answer to an interview. It is not a decree or anything like that from Pope Francis.” She pointed out that the pope has officially sent the question to yet another committee for further study set to conclude in the summer of 2025 and added, “We are all having this conversation in various webinars, at the local level, at the continental level, at the international level, and the question of the diaconate of women is still there.... I don’t see the discernment being dragged on forever.”
For now, Catholics can watch and discuss the video and practice synodal listening with one another. That’s the best exercise for preparing our hearts for whatever the Holy Spirit is asking the church on this question today.
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