The first Study Commission on the Women's Diaconate was established in August 2016 by Pope Francis to review the theology and history of the ministry of women deacons (deaconesses) in the Roman Catholic Church. The commission report was not published. After the Amazonian synod, Pope Francis promised to re-open this commission. He established a second commission instead in April 2020.
Background
After existing for several centuries, the vocation of deacon was gradually transformed in the Catholic Church into an office reserved to men who were candidates for ordination as priests and were ordained as transitional deacons.[1] Participants in the Second Vatican Council recommended the restoration of the ancient permanent diaconate with votes taken in October 1963 and September 1964.[2] The Council's Dogmatic Constitution on the Church (Lumen gentium) said that:[3]
…the diaconate can in the future be restored as a proper and permanent rank of the hierarchy. It pertains to the competent territorial bodies of bishops, of one kind or another, with the approval of the Supreme Pontiff, to decide whether and where it is opportune for such deacons to be established for the care of souls. With the consent of the Roman Pontiff, this diaconate can, in the future, be conferred upon men of more mature age, even upon those living in the married state. It may also be conferred upon suitable young men, for whom the law of celibacy must remain intact.
Although the question of including women in the ordained diaconate was brought to the Council, in 1967, Pope Paul VI authorized the establishment of a ministry of permanent deacons, still restricted to men but open to married men. Under the rules he established, both permanent and transitional deacons belonged to a single order and were ordained according to the same rite.[4][5]
The Catholic Church had examined the question of women deacons in 2002, a report by the International Theological Commission, an advisory body to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.[6] On 26 October 2009, Pope Benedict XVI modified canon law to clarify the distinction between deacons and priests, writing that only the latter act "in the person of Christ", that the diaconate and priesthood are specific ministries rather than stages within the sacrament of order.[7]
Archbishop Paul-André Durocher of Gatineau, Canada, raised the idea of ordaining women as deacons when speaking to the Synod on the Family in 2015,[8] and continued to raise the issue following the synod.[9] A few senior prelates took opposing positions on the possibility of a female diaconate, including Cardinals Walter Kasper[10] and Gerhard Müller.[11] Some bishops[who?] support the ordination of women as deacons.[12][13]
In a May 2016 audience with women religious at the triennial assembly of the International Union of Superiors General (UISG), Pope Francis was asked about whether women could be included in the permanent diaconate, and was asked about the possibility of establishing an official commission to study the matter.[14] Francis responded that the history was "obscure" and that it was not clear what role deaconesses played or whether they were ordained, and added: "It seems useful to me to have a commission that would clarify this well."[15] Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi subsequently said that Francis "did not say he intends to introduce a diaconal ordination for women and even less did he speak of the priestly ordination of women."[16]
The commission's members appear divided in their views. Zagano has written a book titled Holy Saturday: An Argument for the Restoration of the Female Diaconate in the Catholic Church, while Menke has argued that women cannot be deacons because they cannot be priests.[23]
In August 2016, the UISG thanked the Pope for following through on his commitment and for the number of women members.[24]
Work of the first Study Commission and outcome
The Commission held its first meeting in November 2016 in Rome.[25]
The Study Commission produced an initial report to Pope Francis[26] by January 2019.[27] In May 2019, Francis said the Study Commission had not yet produced a "definitive response" due to a lack of consensus regarding the role of deaconesses in early Christianity. Francis stated that: "They worked together. And they found agreement up to a certain point. But each one of them has their own vision, which doesn't accord with that of the others. They stopped there as a commission, and each one is studying and going ahead." While Francis indicated that individual study continued, he did not indicate whether the Study Commission remains active as a body.[26]
Second Commission
The Amazonian synod called for a continued study of the female diaconate. Pope Francis promised first to re-open the previous commission but then decided to established a new commission on 8 April 2020 with the following members:[28]
^"Apostolic Letter: Sacrum Diaconatus Ordinem". The Holy See. 18 June 1967. Retrieved 8 August 2016. Finally as regards the rite to be followed in conferring the sacred order of the diaconate and those orders which precede the diaconate, let the present discipline be observed until it is revised by the Holy See.
^Muller, Gerhard Ludwig (2002). "II. Who Receives the sacrament of Holy Orders in the Degrees of Priesthood and Diaconate?". Priesthood and Diaconate: The Recipient of the Sacrament of Holy Orders from the Perspective of Creation Theology and Christology. San Francisco: Ignatius Press. ISBN978-0898708929.
