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In the liturgical traditions of the Catholic Church, the term ordination refers to the means by which a person is included in one of the orders of
bishops A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is c ...
, priests or deacons. The teaching of the Catholic Church on ordination, as expressed in the 1983 ''Code of Canon Law'', the ''
Catechism of the Catholic Church The ''Catechism of the Catholic Church'' ( la, Catechismus Catholicae Ecclesiae; commonly called the ''Catechism'' or the ''CCC'') is a catechism promulgated for the Catholic Church by Pope John Paul II in 1992. It aims to summarize, in book f ...
'', and the
apostolic letter Ecclesiastical letters are publications or announcements of the organs of Roman Catholic ecclesiastical authority, e.g. the synods, but more particularly of pope and bishops, addressed to the faithful in the form of letters. Letters of the pop ...
''
Ordinatio sacerdotalis ''Ordinatio sacerdotalis'' ( en, Priestly Ordination, italic=yes) is an apostolic constitution issued by Pope John Paul II on 22 May 1994 in which he discussed the Catholic Church's position requiring "the reservation of priestly ordination to men ...
'', is that only a Catholic male validly receives ordination, and "that the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that this judgment is to be definitively held by all the Church's faithful." In other words, the male priesthood is not considered by the church a matter of policy but an unalterable requirement of God. As with priests and bishops, the church ordains only men as deacons. The ''
Catholic News Service Catholic News Service (CNS) is an American news agency owned by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) that reports on the Catholic Church. The agency's domestic service is set to shut down at the end of 2022, but its Rome b ...
'' reports that the church does not ordain anyone who has undergone sex reassignment surgery and gives a "recommendation of
psychiatric Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of mental disorders. These include various maladaptations related to mood, behaviour, cognition, and perceptions. See glossary of psychiatry. Initial psychi ...
treatment and spiritual counseling" for people who are transsexual, contending that these are an indicator of "mental instability."


History


Early Church

References are made within the earliest Christian communities to the role of women in positions of church leadership. Paul's
letter to the Romans The Epistle to the Romans is the sixth book in the New Testament, and the longest of the thirteen Pauline epistles. Biblical scholars agree that it was composed by Paul the Apostle to explain that salvation is offered through the gospel of J ...
, written in the first century, commends Phoebe who is described as "deaconess of the church at Cen'chre-ae" that she be received "in the Lord as befits the saints, and help her in whatever she may require from you, for she has been a helper of many and of myself as well." In the same chapter, Paul greets a number of women prominent within the church as "co-workers in Christ Jesus", including
Priscilla Priscilla is an English female given name adopted from Latin '' Prisca'', derived from ''priscus''. One suggestion is that it is intended to bestow long life on the bearer. The name first appears in the New Testament of Christianity variously ...
, who hosted a house church with her husband, and Junia, who Paul appears to identify as an
apostle An apostle (), in its literal sense, is an emissary, from Ancient Greek ἀπόστολος (''apóstolos''), literally "one who is sent off", from the verb ἀποστέλλειν (''apostéllein''), "to send off". The purpose of such sending ...
. In AD 494, in response to reports that women were serving at the altar in the south of Italy,
Pope Gelasius I Pope Gelasius I was the bishop of Rome from 1 March 492 to his death on 19 November 496. Gelasius was a prolific author whose style placed him on the cusp between Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages.The title of his biography by Walter Ullma ...
wrote a letter condemning female participation in the celebration of the
Eucharist The Eucharist (; from Greek , , ), also known as Holy Communion and the Lord's Supper, is a Christian rite that is considered a sacrament in most churches, and as an ordinance in others. According to the New Testament, the rite was institu ...
, arguing that those roles were exclusively reserved for men. However, its meaning and significance are not absolutely clear. Because of several textual ambiguities and silences, the letter is open to more than one interpretation. Not surprisingly, scholars have been polarized about its meaning. Roger Gryson asserts that it is ‘difficult to form an idea of the situation which Pope Gelasius opposed’ and observes that ‘it is regrettable that more details’ about the situation are not available. A letter from
Pope Zacharias Pope Zachary ( la, Zacharias; 679 – March 752) was the bishop of Rome from 28 November 741 to his death. He was the last pope of the Byzantine Papacy. Zachary built the original church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva, forbade the traffic of slav ...
to Pippin and the Frankish ecclesiastical authorities, writing in 747, who explicitly invokes this Gelasian letter, interprets ''sacris altaribus ministrare'' as meaning "to serve at the divine altars." By this, they mean the public reading of the Bible during mass, singing at mass or offering an alleluia or an antiphonal chant. It never occurred to Zechariah that ''ministrare'' could mean to officiate as a presbyter. Alongside this there is a later letter of the Frankish bishops to the emperor
Louis the Pious Louis the Pious (german: Ludwig der Fromme; french: Louis le Pieux; 16 April 778 – 20 June 840), also called the Fair, and the Debonaire, was King of the Franks and co-emperor with his father, Charlemagne, from 813. He was also King of Aqui ...
, interprets 'minister' in what may be determined as the following: to enter the sanctuary, to hold the consecrated vessels, to give the priestly vestments to the priests and to administer the consecrated elements to the congregation. So the term ministrare can be—by itself according to some modern scholars—insufficient to suggest a total prohibition of female presbyteral activity (both ministerial and sacramental at the same time).Kevin J. Madigan 2021, p. 269–280. For example—per the scholars—at the
Catacombs of San Gennaro The Catacombs of San Gennaro are underground paleo-Christian burial and worship sites in Naples, Italy, carved out of tuff, a porous stone. They are situated in the northern part of the city, on the slope leading up to , consisting of two level ...
(200 km south of Rome) where Cerula and Bitalia were expressly painted as ordained bishops; it is implied that these women were performing all the duties of the ministerial priesthood, which would include most, if not all, of the duties of a local bishop. Something similar happens in the inscriptions of Bruttium, southern Italy, where some four decades before Gelasius wrote, there is evidence that women were functioning as full presbyters in all functions. In the church of Santa Prassede in Rome, "''Theodora Episcopa''"—''episcopa'' being the Latin for "bishop" but in feminine form—appears in an image with two female saints and the
Virgin Mary Mary; arc, ܡܪܝܡ, translit=Mariam; ar, مريم, translit=Maryam; grc, Μαρία, translit=María; la, Maria; cop, Ⲙⲁⲣⲓⲁ, translit=Maria was a first-century Jews, Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Saint Joseph, Jose ...
. Ecclesiastical tradition explains that this
Theodora Theodora is a given name of Greek origin, meaning "God's gift". Theodora may also refer to: Historical figures known as Theodora Byzantine empresses * Theodora (wife of Justinian I) ( 500 – 548), saint by the Orthodox Church * Theodora o ...
was mother of
Pope Paschal I Pope Paschal I ( la, Paschalis I; died 824) was the bishop of Rome and ruler of the Papal States from 25 January 817 to his death in 824. Paschal was a member of an aristocratic Roman family. Before his election to the papacy, he was abbot of St ...
, who paid for the church. Per Eisen Ute, the use of a title usually reserved for a consecrated Roman bishop could therefore be seen as honorific, rather than suggesting that she herself undertook a leadership role, or it could be a later addition.Ute E. Eisen, ''Women Officeholders in Early Christianity: Epigraphical and Literary Studies'', (2000), p204 The use of the feminine title episcopa or ''
presbytera ''Presbytera'' ( el, πρεσβυτέρα, pronounced ''presvytéra'') is a Greek title of honor that is used to refer to a priest's wife. It is derived from ''presbyteros''—the Greek word for ''priest'' (literally, "elder"). Although 'Pr ...
'' has however been traditionally reserved for the wife or widow of Christian clergy since the Apostolic Age, according to the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and
Oriental Orthodox The Oriental Orthodox Churches are Eastern Christian churches adhering to Miaphysite Christology, with approximately 60 million members worldwide. The Oriental Orthodox Churches are part of the Nicene Christian tradition, and represent o ...
churches.


Church Fathers

Many
Church Fathers The Church Fathers, Early Church Fathers, Christian Fathers, or Fathers of the Church were ancient and influential Christian theologians and writers who established the intellectual and doctrinal foundations of Christianity. The historical p ...
did not advocate for or permit the ordination of women.
Clement of Rome Pope Clement I ( la, Clemens Romanus; Greek: grc, Κλήμης Ῥώμης, Klēmēs Rōmēs) ( – 99 AD) was bishop of Rome in the late first century AD. He is listed by Irenaeus and Tertullian as the bishop of Rome, holding office from 88 AD t ...
taught that the apostles chose only men to succeed them. The
First Council of Nicaea The First Council of Nicaea (; grc, Νίκαια ) was a council of Christian bishops convened in the Bithynian city of Nicaea (now İznik, Turkey) by the Roman Emperor Constantine I in AD 325. This ecumenical council was the first effort ...
—the first ecumenical council—subsequently decreed that deaconesses were not ordained ministers because they did not receive the laying on of hands and were to be considered lay persons.Nicaea Council I, Canon XIX
Likewise in the case of their deaconesses, and generally in the case of those who have been enrolled among their clergy ... And we mean by deaconesses such as have assumed the habit, but who, since they have no imposition of hands, are to be numbered only among the laity.
Concerning the "constant practice of the Church", in antiquity the
Church Fathers The Church Fathers, Early Church Fathers, Christian Fathers, or Fathers of the Church were ancient and influential Christian theologians and writers who established the intellectual and doctrinal foundations of Christianity. The historical p ...
Irenaeus Irenaeus (; grc-gre, Εἰρηναῖος ''Eirēnaios''; c. 130 – c. 202 AD) was a Greek bishop noted for his role in guiding and expanding Christian communities in the southern regions of present-day France and, more widely, for the dev ...
,
Tertullian Tertullian (; la, Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus; 155 AD – 220 AD) was a prolific early Christian author from Carthage in the Roman province of Africa. He was the first Christian author to produce an extensive corpus of La ...
, Hippolytus, Epiphanius,
John Chrysostom John Chrysostom (; gr, Ἰωάννης ὁ Χρυσόστομος; 14 September 407) was an important Early Church Father who served as archbishop of Constantinople. He is known for his preaching and public speaking, his denunciation of ab ...
, and
Augustine Augustine of Hippo ( , ; la, Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430), also known as Saint Augustine, was a theologian and philosopher of Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Afr ...
all wrote that the priestly ordination of women was impossible. The
Council of Laodicea The Council of Laodicea was a regional Christian synod of approximately thirty clerics from Asia Minor which assembled about 363–364 in Laodicea, Phrygia Pacatiana. Historical context The council took place soon after the conclusion of the wa ...
prohibited ordaining women to the presbyterate, although the meaning of Canon 11 has received very different interpretations as to whether it refers to senior deaconesses or older women presiding over the female portion of the congregation. In the period between the
Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...
and the
Second Vatican Council The Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, commonly known as the , or , was the 21st ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church. The council met in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome for four periods (or sessions), each lasting between 8 and ...
, mainstream theologians continued to oppose the priestly ordination of women, appealing to a mixture of scripture, church tradition and natural law.Some translated extracts from contemporary theological textbooks are given a
religiousstudiesblog.blogspot.com
Even so, mainstream theologians did not dismiss the ordination of women as deacons.


Ecumenical councils

Ecumenical councils An ecumenical council, also called general council, is a meeting of bishops and other church authorities to consider and rule on questions of Christian doctrine, administration, discipline, and other matters in which those entitled to vote are ...
, according to the church, are a part of the universal and extraordinary magisterium, making their canons and decrees infallible insofar as they are about the Catholic faith and morals. Canon 19 of the
First Council of Nicaea The First Council of Nicaea (; grc, Νίκαια ) was a council of Christian bishops convened in the Bithynian city of Nicaea (now İznik, Turkey) by the Roman Emperor Constantine I in AD 325. This ecumenical council was the first effort ...
( 325 CE) declared deaconesses to be laywomen:
Like treatment should be given in the case of their deaconesses, and generally in the case of those who have been enrolled among their clergy. We mean by ‘deaconesses’ those who have assumed the habit, but who, since they have not had hands laid upon them, are to be numbered only among the laity.
Canon 15 of the
Council of Chalcedon The Council of Chalcedon (; la, Concilium Chalcedonense), ''Synodos tēs Chalkēdonos'' was the fourth ecumenical council of the Christian Church. It was convoked by the Roman emperor Marcian. The council convened in the city of Chalcedon, B ...
( 451 CE) declared that deaconesses are ordained and must practice
celibacy Celibacy (from Latin ''caelibatus'') is the state of voluntarily being unmarried, sexually abstinent, or both, usually for religious reasons. It is often in association with the role of a religious official or devotee. In its narrow sense, th ...
after ordination:
No woman under forty years of age is to be ordained a deacon, and then only after close scrutiny. If after receiving ordination and spending some time in the ministry she despises God's grace and gets married, such a person is to be
anathema Anathema, in common usage, is something or someone detested or shunned. In its other main usage, it is a formal excommunication. The latter meaning, its ecclesiastical sense, is based on New Testament usage. In the Old Testament, anathema was a cr ...
tised along with her spouse.


Church teaching


Requirements of holy orders

While the church believes Christians have the right to receive the sacraments, the church does not believe in a right to ordination. The church believes the sacraments work ''ex opere operato'' as manifestations of Jesus' actions and words during
his life His or HIS may refer to: Computing * Hightech Information System, a Hong Kong graphics card company * Honeywell Information Systems * Hybrid intelligent system * Microsoft Host Integration Server Education * Hangzhou International School, ...
, and that according to dogma Jesus only chose certain men as apostles. The church teaches that a woman's
impediment An obstacle (also called a barrier, impediment, or stumbling block) is an object, thing, action or situation that causes an obstruction. Different types of obstacles include physical, economic, biopsychosocial, cultural, political, technologica ...
to ordination is diriment, of divine law, public, absolute, and permanent because Jesus instituted ordination by ordaining the twelve apostles, since holy orders is a manifestation of Jesus' calling of the apostles.


1976 declaration on the ordination of women

In 1976, the
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) is the oldest among the departments of the Roman Curia. Its seat is the Palace of the Holy Office in Rome. It was founded to defend the Catholic Church from heresy and is the body responsib ...
issued the '' Declaration on the Question of the Admission of Women to the Ministerial Priesthood'' which taught that for doctrinal, theological, and historical reasons, the church "does not consider herself authorized to admit women to priestly ordination." Reasons given were the church's determination to remain faithful to its constant tradition, its fidelity to Christ's will, and the iconic value of male representation due to the "sacramental nature" of the priesthood. The church teaching on the restriction of its ordination to men is that
masculinity Masculinity (also called manhood or manliness) is a set of attributes, behaviors, and roles associated with men and boys. Masculinity can be theoretically understood as socially constructed, and there is also evidence that some behaviors ...
was integral to the personhood of both
Jesus Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label= Hebrew/ Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and relig ...
and the men he called as
apostles An apostle (), in its literal sense, is an emissary, from Ancient Greek ἀπόστολος (''apóstolos''), literally "one who is sent off", from the verb ἀποστέλλειν (''apostéllein''), "to send off". The purpose of such sending ...
. The church sees maleness and femaleness as two different ways of expressing common humanity ( essence).


''Ordinatio sacerdotalis''

On May 22, 1994,
John Paul II Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...
promulgated ''
Ordinatio sacerdotalis ''Ordinatio sacerdotalis'' ( en, Priestly Ordination, italic=yes) is an apostolic constitution issued by Pope John Paul II on 22 May 1994 in which he discussed the Catholic Church's position requiring "the reservation of priestly ordination to men ...
,'' where he states that the Church cannot confer priestly ordination on women: Pope John Paul II explains the Catholic understanding that the priesthood is a role specially set out by
Jesus Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label= Hebrew/ Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and relig ...
when he called twelve men out of his group of male and female followers. John Paul says that Jesus chose the Twelve after a night in prayer and that the Apostles themselves were careful in the choice of their successors. The priesthood is "specifically and intimately associated in the mission of the Incarnate Word himself."
Pope Paul VI Pope Paul VI ( la, Paulus VI; it, Paolo VI; born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini, ; 26 September 18976 August 1978) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City, Vatican City State from 21 June 1963 to his ...
, quoted by John Paul in ''Ordinatio sacerdotalis,'' wrote, "The Church holds that it is not admissible to ordain women to the priesthood, for very fundamental reasons. These reasons include: the example recorded in the Sacred Scriptures of
Christ Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label= Hebrew/ Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and relig ...
choosing his Apostles only from among men; the constant practice of the Church, which has imitated Christ in choosing only men; and her living teaching authority which has consistently held that the exclusion of women from the priesthood is in accordance with God's plan for his Church."


Response of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith

On October 28, 1995, in a ''
responsa ''Responsa'' (plural of Latin , 'answer') comprise a body of written decisions and rulings given by legal scholars in response to questions addressed to them. In the modern era, the term is used to describe decisions and rulings made by scholars ...
'' to a '' dubium'' concerning ''Ordinatio sacerdotalis'', the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith said: :''Dubium:'' Whether the teaching that the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women, which is presented in the Apostolic Letter Ordinatio sacerdotalis to be held definitively, is to be understood as belonging to the deposit of faith. :''Responsum:'' Affirmative. This teaching requires definitive assent, since, founded on the written Word of God, and from the beginning constantly preserved and applied in the Tradition of the Church, it has been set forth infallibly by the ordinary and universal
Magisterium The magisterium of the Roman Catholic Church is the church's authority or office to give authentic interpretation of the Word of God, "whether in its written form or in the form of Tradition." According to the 1992 Catechism of the Catholic Chu ...
(cf. Second Vatican Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium 25, 2). Thus, in the present circumstances, the Roman Pontiff, exercising his proper office of confirming the brethren (cf. Lk 22:32), has handed on this same teaching by a formal declaration, explicitly stating what is to be held always, everywhere, and by all, as belonging to the deposit of the faith.


Doctrinal commentary on ''Ad tuendam fidem''

On July 15, 1998, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a doctrinal commentary on ''
Ad tuendam fidem ''Ad tuendam fidem'' ( en, To Protect the Faith) is an apostolic letter of Pope John Paul II issued motu proprio on May 18, 1998.John Paul II''Ad tuendam fidem'' accessed Jan-9-2013 The apostolic letter modified the Oriental and Latin codes of ...
''. In it, the congregation gave examples of Catholic doctrines owed the full assent of faith, including the reservation of ordination to men only:


''Decree on the Attempted Ordination of Some Catholic Women''

On December 2, 2002, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued the '' Decree on the Attempted Ordination of Some Catholic Women''. In it, the congregation states that the doctrine of ordination was definitively proposed by John Paul II in ''Ordinatio sacerdotalis'': The congregation further stated that to deny the dogma is to oppose the magisterium of the Pope:


Catechism

The
Catechism of the Catholic Church The ''Catechism of the Catholic Church'' ( la, Catechismus Catholicae Ecclesiae; commonly called the ''Catechism'' or the ''CCC'') is a catechism promulgated for the Catholic Church by Pope John Paul II in 1992. It aims to summarize, in book f ...
, promulgated by John Paul II on August 15, 1997, states that the church is bound by Jesus' choice of apostles:


2008 excommunication order

The Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued and published on May 29, 2008, in the Vatican newspaper ''
L'Osservatore Romano ''L'Osservatore Romano'' (, 'The Roman Observer') is the daily newspaper of Vatican City State which reports on the activities of the Holy See and events taking place in the Catholic Church and the world. It is owned by the Holy See but is not ...
'', a decree signed by Cardinal
William Levada William Joseph Levada (June 15, 1936September 26, 2019) was an American cardinal of the Catholic Church. From May 2005 until June 2012, he served as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith under Pope Benedict XVI; he was the h ...
determining that women "priests" and the bishops who attempt to ordain them would incur excommunication ''
latae sententiae (Latin meaning "of a/the sentence lreadypassed") and (Latin meaning "sentence to be passed") are ways sentences are imposed in the Catholic Church in its canon law. A penalty is a penalty that is inflicted , automatically, by force of the ...
''.


Pope Francis

Pope Francis Pope Francis ( la, Franciscus; it, Francesco; es, link=, Francisco; born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, 17 December 1936) is the head of the Catholic Church. He has been the bishop of Rome and sovereign of the Vatican City State since 13 March 2013 ...
said in a 2013 interview that regarding women's priestly ordination, "with reference to the ordination of women, the Church has spoken and says, 'No.' John Paul II said it, but with a definitive formulation. That is closed, that door." He later expanded on this in a November 2016 informal statement on the return flight from his papal visit to Sweden to commemorate the
Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...
: "On the ordination of women in the Catholic Church, the final word is clear, it was said by St. John Paul II and this remains." Francis added that women are very important to the church, specifically from a "Marian dimension. In Catholic ecclesiology there are two dimensions to think about ..The Petrine dimension, which is from the Apostle Peter, and the Apostolic College, which is the pastoral activity of the bishops, as well as the Marian dimension, which is the feminine dimension of the Church."


Ordination to the diaconate

In contrast to the ordination of women to the Catholic priesthood, the ordination of women to the
diaconate A deacon is a member of the diaconate, an office in Christian churches that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions. Major Christian churches, such as the Catholic Chu ...
is being actively discussed by Catholic scholars, and theologians, as well as senior clergy. The historical evidence points to women serving in ordained roles from its earliest days in both the Western Church as well as the Eastern Church. Although writers such as Martimort contends they did not. Monastic female deacons in the East received the stole as a symbol of their office at ordination, which took place inside the sanctuary. The
First Council of Nicaea The First Council of Nicaea (; grc, Νίκαια ) was a council of Christian bishops convened in the Bithynian city of Nicaea (now İznik, Turkey) by the Roman Emperor Constantine I in AD 325. This ecumenical council was the first effort ...
(325) stated that deaconesses of heretical sects "do not receive any imposition of hands, so that they are in all respects to be numbered among the laity." The later
Council of Chalcedon The Council of Chalcedon (; la, Concilium Chalcedonense), ''Synodos tēs Chalkēdonos'' was the fourth ecumenical council of the Christian Church. It was convoked by the Roman emperor Marcian. The council convened in the city of Chalcedon, B ...
(451) decreed "A woman shall not receive the laying on of hands as a deaconess under forty years of age, and then only after searching examination." Gryson argues that the use of the verb ''cheirotonein'' and of the substantive ''cheirothesia'' clearly indicate that women deacons were ordained by the laying on of hands. Women ceased to function as deacons in the West in the 13th century. In the past century, K. K. Fitzgerald,
Phyllis Zagano Phyllis Zagano (born August 25, 1947) Archived 23 June 2015. is an American author and academic. She has written and spoken on the role of women in the Roman Catholic Church and is an advocate for the ordination of women as deacons. Her writi ...
, and Gary Macy have argued for the sacramental ordination of women as deacons. A significant contribution on this aspect was made by
Jean Daniélou Jean-Guenolé-Marie Daniélou (; 14 May 1905 – 20 May 1974) was a French Jesuit and cardinal, an internationally well known patrologist, theologian and historian and a member of the Académie Française. Biography Early life and studies Jean ...
in an article in ''La Maison-Dieu'' in 1960. The
Second Vatican Council The Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, commonly known as the , or , was the 21st ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church. The council met in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome for four periods (or sessions), each lasting between 8 and ...
in the 1960s revived the permanent diaconate, raising the question of female engagement from a purely theoretical matter to one with practical consequences.''The Canonical Implications of Ordaining Women to the Permanent Diaconate,'' Canon Law Society of America, 1995. Based on the idea that women deacons received and are capable of receiving the sacrament of holy orders, there have been continued modern-day proposals to ordain permanent women deacons, who would perform the same functions as male deacons and be like them in every respect. In 1975 the German Roman Catholic Episcopal Synod in
Würzburg Würzburg (; Main-Franconian: ) is a city in the region of Franconia in the north of the German state of Bavaria. Würzburg is the administrative seat of the ''Regierungsbezirk'' Lower Franconia. It spans the banks of the Main River. Würzburg ...
voted in favor of ordaining women deacons. The
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) is the oldest among the departments of the Roman Curia. Its seat is the Palace of the Holy Office in Rome. It was founded to defend the Catholic Church from heresy and is the body responsib ...
in Rome indicated it was open to the idea and ruled in 1977 that the possibility of ordaining women as deacons was "a question that must be taken up fully by direct study of the texts, without preconceived ideas." The International Theological Commission looked at the issue in the 1990s; its 1997 report was not published, and a later report was approved for publication by
Joseph Ratzinger Pope Benedict XVI ( la, Benedictus XVI; it, Benedetto XVI; german: link=no, Benedikt XVI.; born Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger, , on 16 April 1927) is a retired prelate of the Catholic church who served as the head of the Church and the soverei ...
in 2002. The second, longer report indicated that the matter is one for the
Magisterium The magisterium of the Roman Catholic Church is the church's authority or office to give authentic interpretation of the Word of God, "whether in its written form or in the form of Tradition." According to the 1992 Catechism of the Catholic Chu ...
to decide. In 2015, Archbishop Jean-Paul Durocher of
Gatineau Gatineau ( ; ) is a city in western Quebec, Canada. It is located on the northern bank of the Ottawa River, immediately across from Ottawa, Ontario. Gatineau is the largest city in the Outaouais administrative region and is part of Canada's Na ...
, Canada, called for the restoration of women to the diaconate at the Synod of Bishops on the Family. In 2016, Pope Francis formerly established a Commission to study the ministry of deaconesses in the early church, exploring their roles, the rites they participated in, and the formulas employed to designate them as deaconesses. The "Pontifical Commission for the Study of the Diaconate of Women" included twelve scholars under the presidency of Cardinal Luis Ladaria Ferrer. The first meetings were held in Rome. In 2018, Pope Francis indicated that there had been as yet no conclusive decisions but that he was not afraid of ongoing studies. Finally in January 2019, two of its members confirmed that a report had been formally submitted. In October 2019, Members of the Synod of Bishops for the Amazon asked that women be given leadership roles in the Catholic Church, although they stopped short of calling for female deacons., but there were many bishops also, who voted by 137 to 30 in favor of female deacons. In January 2020, the president of the International Union of Superiors General (UISG), which had asked Pope Francis to create a Commission to study women deacons, affirmed that they received a section on history of the original Commission report. In February 2020, Pope Francis seemed to reject the possibility of ordaining married deacons as priests and put aside the question of women deacons in the immediate term. On April 8, 2020, he initiated a new ten-person commission to consider the issue, but as of April 2021 the new commission had not met. Many members are known to support the concept of restoring women to the ordained diaconate.


Ordination and equality

The Roman Catholic Church states that the ministerial priesthood is ordered to service for all of the baptized faithful. In '' Mulieris dignitatem'', Pope John Paul II advocated for Christian
complementarianism Complementarianism is a theological view in Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, that men and women have different but ''complementary'' roles and responsibilities in marriage, family life, and religious leadership. The word "complementary" and it ...
, writing: "In calling only men as his Apostles, Christ acted in a completely free and sovereign manner. In doing so, he exercised the same freedom with which, in all his behavior, he emphasized the dignity and the vocation of women, without conforming to the prevailing customs and to the traditions sanctioned by the legislation of the time." In ''
Ordinatio sacerdotalis ''Ordinatio sacerdotalis'' ( en, Priestly Ordination, italic=yes) is an apostolic constitution issued by Pope John Paul II on 22 May 1994 in which he discussed the Catholic Church's position requiring "the reservation of priestly ordination to men ...
,'' John Paul II wrote: "the fact that the
Blessed Virgin Mary Mary; arc, ܡܪܝܡ, translit=Mariam; ar, مريم, translit=Maryam; grc, Μαρία, translit=María; la, Maria; cop, Ⲙⲁⲣⲓⲁ, translit=Maria was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Joseph and the mother ...
,
Mother of God ''Theotokos'' ( Greek: ) is a title of Mary, mother of Jesus, used especially in Eastern Christianity. The usual Latin translations are ''Dei Genitrix'' or '' Deipara'' (approximately "parent (fem.) of God"). Familiar English translations ar ...
and Mother of the Church, received neither the mission proper to the Apostles nor the ministerial priesthood clearly shows that the non-admission of women to priestly ordination cannot mean that women are of lesser dignity, nor can it be construed as discrimination against them. Rather, it is to be seen as the faithful observance of a plan to be ascribed to the wisdom of the Lord of the universe." The Roman Catholic Church does not regard the priest as the only possible
prayer Prayer is an invocation or act that seeks to activate a rapport with an object of worship through deliberate communication. In the narrow sense, the term refers to an act of supplication or intercession directed towards a deity or a deifie ...
leader, and prayer may be led by a woman. For example, when no priest, deacon, instituted
lector Lector is Latin for one who reads, whether aloud or not. In modern languages it takes various forms, as either a development or a loan, such as french: lecteur, en, lector, pl, lektor and russian: лектор. It has various specialized uses. ...
or instituted
acolyte An acolyte is an assistant or follower assisting the celebrant in a religious service or procession. In many Christian denominations, an acolyte is anyone performing ceremonial duties such as lighting altar candles. In others, the term is used f ...
is available, lay people (either men and women) may be appointed by the pastor to celebrate a Liturgy of the Word and distribute
Holy Communion The Eucharist (; from Greek , , ), also known as Holy Communion and the Lord's Supper, is a Christian rite that is considered a sacrament in most churches, and as an ordinance in others. According to the New Testament, the rite was instituted ...
(which must be consecrated beforehand by a priest). During these liturgies, a layperson is to act as "one among equals" and avoid formulas or rites which are proper to ordained ministers. Religious life is a distinct vocation in itself, and women live in
consecrated life Consecrated life (also known as religious life) is a state of life in the Catholic Church lived by those faithful who are called to follow Jesus Christ in a more exacting way. It includes those in institutes of consecrated life ( religious and ...
as a nun or religious sister, and throughout the history of the Church it has not been uncommon for an
abbess An abbess (Latin: ''abbatissa''), also known as a mother superior, is the female superior of a community of Catholic nuns in an abbey. Description In the Catholic Church (both the Latin Church and Eastern Catholic), Eastern Orthodox, Copt ...
to head a dual monastery, i.e., a community of men and women. Women today exercise many roles in the Church. They run catechetical programs in parishes, provide spiritual direction, serve as lectors and extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion, and teach theology. In 1994, the
Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments it, Dicastero per il Culto Divino e la Disciplina dei Sacramenti , type = Dicastery , seal = Coat of arms Holy See.svg , seal_size = 100px , seal_caption = Coat of arms of the Holy See , logo = , p ...
interpreted the 1983 Code of Canon Law to permit girls and women to assist at Mass as
altar server An altar server is a lay assistant to a member of the clergy during a Christian liturgy. An altar server attends to supporting tasks at the altar such as fetching and carrying, ringing the altar bell, helps bring up the gifts, brings up the boo ...
s. Still many people see the Church's position on the ordination of women as a sign that women are not equal to men in the Catholic Church, though the Church rejects this inference. On January 11, 2021, with the Apostolic Lette
Spiritus Domini
Pope Francis modified Canon 230.1 to allow both men and women to be formally installed as lectors and acolytes.


Dissenting views

A "History of the women's ordination movement in the U.S. Roman Catholic church" was published in 2015. When Pew Research polled Americans in 2015, 59 percent of those who self-identified as Catholic believed that the church should ordain women. However these included people who did not self identify as practising.


Organizations

There is at least one organization that, without Church authority, calls itself "Roman Catholic" that ordains women as priests at the present time,
Roman Catholic Womenpriests Roman Catholic Womenpriests (RCWP) is an independent international organization that claims a connection to the Roman Catholic Church. It is descended from the Danube Seven, a group of women who assert that they were ordained as priests in 2002 by ...
; and several independent Catholic jurisdictions have been ordaining women in the United States since approximately the late 1990s. These organizations are independent of, and unrecognised by, the Roman Catholic Church. Since 2002, Womenpriests has conducted ordination ceremonies for women to become deacons, priests and bishops, saying that these ordinations are valid because the initial ordinations were conferred by a validly ordained Catholic male bishop ( Romulo Antonio Braschi, who left the Roman Catholic Church in 1975) and therefore they are in the line of apostolic succession. However, the Catholic Church considers these ordinations to be invalid, and decreed excommunications for those involved in the ceremonies. On April 19, 2009, Womenpriests elected four bishops to serve the United States: Joan Mary Clark Houk, Andrea Michele Johnson, Maria Regina Nicolosi, and Bridget Mary Meehan. The Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith had issued a decree in 2008 declaring such "attempted ordinations" invalid and that, since Canons 1378 and 1443 apply to those who participate in these ceremonies, all were excommunicated. Edward Peters, a doctor of canon law, explains that their excommunication results in virtue of a combination of other canons which arise from application of Canons 1378 and 1443. In response, The objections listed in the decrees of excommunication regard the illegality of the ordinations. Womenpriests said its members are "loyal member of the church who stand in the prophetic tradition of holy disobedience to an unjust law." Womenpriests interprets the works of certain Catholic scholars (for example, former minister John Wijngaards, liturgical reformist Robert W. Hovda, and theologian Damien Casey) to say that they have doctrinal support for the ordination of women. Women's Ordination Worldwide, founded in 1996 in Austria, is a network of twelve national and international groups whose primary mission is the admission of Roman Catholic women to all ordained ministries. Members include Catholic Women's Ordination (founded in March 1993 in the United Kingdom),
Roman Catholic Womenpriests Roman Catholic Womenpriests (RCWP) is an independent international organization that claims a connection to the Roman Catholic Church. It is descended from the Danube Seven, a group of women who assert that they were ordained as priests in 2002 by ...
(founded in 2002 in America),
Women's Ordination Conference The Women's Ordination Conference is an organization in the United States that works to ordain women as deacons, priests, and bishops in the Catholic Church. Founded in 1975, the conference was seeded from an idea the year before, when Mary B. Ly ...
(founded in 1975 in America) and others. The first recorded Catholic organization advocating for women's ordination was St. Joan's Alliance, founded in 1911 in London. Catholic women religious were major participants in the first and second meetings of the
Women's Ordination Conference The Women's Ordination Conference is an organization in the United States that works to ordain women as deacons, priests, and bishops in the Catholic Church. Founded in 1975, the conference was seeded from an idea the year before, when Mary B. Ly ...
. In 1979, Sister Theresa Kane, then the president of the
Leadership Conference of Women Religious The Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) is one of two associations of the leaders of congregations of Catholic women religious in the United States (the other being the Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious). LCWR includes ov ...
, spoke from the podium at Washington, DC's
Shrine of the Immaculate Conception The Shrine of the Immaculate Conception is a Roman Catholic church located at 48 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive SW in downtown Atlanta, Georgia, United States. The current church building was completed in 1873 and is the oldest church in Atlan ...
, and asked Pope John Paul II to include women "in all ministries of our Church." In the audience were fewer than fifty sisters wearing blue armbands, symbolizing women's ordination. There are several others calling for the Roman Catholic Church itself to ordain women, such as St. Joan's International Alliance, Circles, Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Catholic Women's Ordination, Corpus, and the
Austrian Austrian may refer to: * Austrians, someone from Austria or of Austrian descent ** Someone who is considered an Austrian citizen, see Austrian nationality law * Austrian German dialect * Something associated with the country Austria, for example: ...
-based Call to Disobedience.


Clergy

As of 2013, a minority in the Association of U.S. Catholic Priests support ordaining women to the priesthood and a majority favour allowing woman deacons. In 2014, the Association of Catholic Priests in Ireland stated that the Catholic Church must ordain women and allow priests to marry in order to survive. In 2014, the Bishop of Basel,
Felix Gmür Felix Gmür (born 7 June 1966) is a Swiss Roman Catholic bishop. He is the bishop of Basel since his installation on 16 January 2011. He had previously served as secretary of the Swiss Bishops' Conference. Gmür was born in Lucerne in 1966. Fr ...
, allowed the Basel Catholic church corporations, which are officially only responsible for church finances, to formulate an initiative appealing for equality between men and women in ordination to the priesthood. In 2017, German bishop
Gebhard Fürst Gebhard Fürst (born 2 December 1948 in Bietigheim, Baden-Württemberg) is a German Roman Catholic bishop. He is the Bishop of Rottenburg-Stuttgart. Fürst began his career attending the Collegium Ambrosianum in Stuttgart, where he studied Gre ...
supported the ordination of women to the diaconate. In October 2019 German bishop Franz-Josef Overbeck said many Catholic people don't understand why women are unable to be deacons or priests, which he thinks should be changed. German bishop
Georg Bätzing Georg Bätzing (born 13 April 1961) is a German Catholic theologian who has been Bishop of Limburg since 2016 and chairman of the German Bishops' Conference since March 2020. Early life and career Bätzing was born in Kirchen and grew up in N ...
supported women ordination. In August 2020 German archbishop
Stefan Heße Stefan Heße is a German prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He has been Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Hamburg since 26 January 2015. The youngest diocesan bishop in Germany, he has often been outspoken on social and religious topics. Biog ...
supported ordination of women in Roman Catholic Church.


Theologians

In February 2011, 144 German-speaking academic
theologian Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...
s (making up one-third of the Catholic theology professors in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland) submitted a document styled as Church 2011 calling for a list of concessions including "women in (the) ordained ministry." The
Pontifical Biblical Commission The Pontifical Biblical Commission () is a pontifical commission established within the Roman Curia to ensure the proper interpretation and defense of the Bible. Since 1988, it has been closely attached to the Congregation for the Doctrine of t ...
studied the matter in 1976, and found nothing in Sacred Scripture that specifically barred women from accession to the priesthood.


List of supporters

*
Father Anne Father Anne, born Anne Tropeano, is a self-proclaimed Roman Catholic priest ordained through the womanpriest movement. Upon her ordination, Father Anne was excommunicated from the Catholic Church. Call to the priesthood Anne Tropeano was born i ...
*
Jeannine Gramick Sr Jeannine Gramick, Sisters of Loretto, SL ( ; born 1942) is an American Catholic Church, Catholic Religious sister (Catholic), religious sister and advocate for LGBT rights, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender rights. She is also a co-found ...
* Mary E. Hunt * Mary B. Lynch * Jamie Manson * Donna Quinn *
Rosemary Radford Ruether Rosemary Radford Ruether (1936–2022) was an American feminist scholar and Roman Catholic theologian known for her significant contributions to the fields of feminist theology and ecofeminist theology. Her teaching and her writings helped est ...


See also

*
Complementarianism Complementarianism is a theological view in Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, that men and women have different but ''complementary'' roles and responsibilities in marriage, family life, and religious leadership. The word "complementary" and it ...
* '' Mulieris dignitatem'', a 1988
apostolic letter Ecclesiastical letters are publications or announcements of the organs of Roman Catholic ecclesiastical authority, e.g. the synods, but more particularly of pope and bishops, addressed to the faithful in the form of letters. Letters of the pop ...
by
Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...
* Women in the Catholic Church *
Priest shortage in the Catholic Church In the years since World War II there has been a substantial reduction in the number of priests '' per capita'' in the Catholic Church, a phenomenon considered by many to constitute a "shortage" in the number of priests. From 1980 to 2012, the ratio ...
* * Nancy Ledins


Notes


References

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