(N.B. The first part of that headline is Catholic, the last half is “synodal”, meaning denying or contradicting doctrine or dogma while insisting on the label “Catholic” nonetheless. Bait and switch.)
The commission’s president said the issue was ultimately doctrinal rather than historical.
The Vatican released the findings Dec. 4 of a study commission on the female diaconate established by Pope Francis in 2020.
The commission’s seven-page report was submitted Sept. 18 to Leo XIV by its president, Cardinal Giuseppe Petrocchi, and made public at the pope’s request.
At the commission’s second session, held on July 11-16, 2022, members voted 7-1 in favor of a thesis that said: “The status quaestionis [state of the question] surrounding historical research and theological inquiry, considered in their mutual implications, excludes the possibility of proceeding 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 Magisterium of the Church, this assessment is strong, although it does not allow for a definitive judgment to be made at this time, as in the case of priestly ordination.”
Pope Francis established two commissions to study the possibility of women deacons during his 13-year pontificate. The first, created in 2016, did not result in a published report.
But the document released Dec. 4 said the first commission concluded that “the Church has recognized the title of deacon/deaconess in relation to women at different times, in different places, and in various forms, but has attributed a non-univocal meaning to it.”
Pope Francis created the second commission in 2020, following discussions about the female diaconate at the 2019 Amazon synod.
At its first session, held on Sept. 13-18, 2021, the second commission voted 7-0, with one abstention, in favor a statement that said: “Based on the current state of historical research and our knowledge of biblical and patristic evidence, it can reasonably be stated that the female diaconate, which developed unevenly in different parts of the Church, was not understood as the simple female equivalent of the male diaconate and does not appear to have had a sacramental character.”
More: https://www.pillarcatholic.com/p/vatican-commission-says-no-to-women
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