A newly released Vatican report has concluded that women cannot be admitted to the diaconate understood as a sacramental degree of Holy Orders, while also acknowledging that the Church has not issued a final, definitive judgment on the wider question.
According to LifeSiteNews, the findings come from the Petrocchi Commission, established in 2021 by Pope Francis to study the historical and theological evidence surrounding the possibility of women deacons. The group’s final report, submitted on September 18 to Pope Leo XIV and published this week, summarizes several years of debate and diverse perspectives.
According to the report, the available evidence “rules out the possibility of moving in the direction of admitting women to the diaconate understood as a degree of the sacrament of Holy Orders, in light of Sacred Scripture, Tradition, and the Church’s Magisterium,” according to the commission’s statement. At the same time, the text notes that the Church is not prepared to make an ultimate determination, remarking that the conclusion “does not at present allow for a definitive judgment to be formulated, as is the case with priestly ordination.”
The commission’s members were not unanimous. Some participants argued that restricting the diaconate to men would harm efforts to affirm the “equal dignity of both genders” and referenced Galatians 3:28, which proclaims that in Christ “there is no longer Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female,” according to the report. Those in this group expressed hope for the possibility of women deacons on the basis that the diaconate serves the Church’s mission of service.
Other members emphasized that the diaconate is inseparable from the sacrament of Holy Orders. They highlighted the Catechism’s teaching that the diaconate is not merely a function but “one of the three degrees of Holy Orders,” and argued that any attempt to ordain women as deacons would destabilize the sacrament’s unity. This group insisted that “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,” according to the commission. To change this, they stated, “would not be a simple adjustment of ministry but a rupture of the nuptial meaning of salvation.”
That thesis received a split vote—five in favor and five opposed—indicating significant internal disagreement, according to LifeSiteNews.
Despite rejecting sacramental ordination of women, the commission overwhelmingly supported expanding women’s recognized roles within the Church. The members voted 9–1 in favor of increasing access to instituted ministries, stating that greater ecclesial acknowledgment of women’s contributions “will be a prophetic sign especially where women still suffer situations of gender discrimination,” according to the report.
Cardinal Giuseppe Petrocchi, who oversaw the commission, called for ongoing theological reflection on both the identity and mission of the diaconate, saying further clarity is needed regarding “structural and pastoral aspects that are currently not fully defined.”
The Church’s current teaching remains unchanged: the priesthood is reserved to “baptized men,” and, “for this reason the ordination of women is not possible,” according to the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The new report reaffirms that this principle applies also to the sacramental diaconate, even while encouraging renewed attention to the many forms of service carried out by women within the life of the Church.
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