The invitation was both humbling and sobering, for it drew us into a question that touches the Catholic Church at her most intimate levels of identity: her understanding of Christ, her sacramental structure, and her mission of service in the world.
The commission was not gathering merely to analyze historical data or to offer sociological recommendations.
Rather, we were summoned to enter into the Church’s long tradition of discernment, to listen attentively to the voice of the Holy Spirit, and to reflect on a matter entrusted ultimately to the successor of St. Peter, the steward of divine revelation.
For nearly four years, the commission studied, reflected and wrestled with the complexity of the topic. We approached Scripture, the Fathers of the Church, liturgical history, canonical development, the theology of holy orders and the lived experience of the Church.
At each step, we were reminded that this question — whether women may be admitted to the sacramental diaconate — is not an abstract theological exercise. It implicates profound dimensions of Christology, ecclesiology, sacramental theology and pastoral life.
Most especially, it implicates the Church’s fidelity to what the Lord has revealed and handed down through the apostolic tradition.
The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith recently released the findings of the commission.
Cardinal Giuseppe Petrocchi emphasized that the commission did not issue a definitive judgment, nor did it attempt to resolve every disputed point.
Rather, it offered clarifying elements, mapping out where theological consensus remains elusive and identifying areas where the Church’s discernment must continue with patience, fidelity and humility.
The nondefinitive character of the report does not imply doctrinal uncertainty but reflects the Church’s characteristic care when dealing with questions that touch the structure of the sacraments themselves.
In every theological inquiry — perhaps especially in one so sensitive — the first task is to breathe in the mind of Christ, allowing the light of revelation to illumine the path ahead.
Without this, the question can easily collapse into categories foreign to the Church’s self-understanding, such as secular egalitarianism or sociological analysis detached from divine revelation.
In this, it is critical to understand that the question of women and the diaconate is not a referendum on women’s dignity, nor a measure of their capability or ecclesial importance.
The Church has always affirmed, and continues to affirm, the indispensable and irreplaceable contribution of women to her life and mission.
Rather, the inquiry centers on what God has revealed and on the Church’s obedient receptivity to that revelation. It is a matter of theology before it is a matter of discipline.
The Church teaches that holy orders is one sacrament expressed in three grades, unified in the person of Christ who is both sacerdos and diakonos (cf. Matthew 20:28; Mark 10:45). These dimensions of Christ’s identity are inseparable. To divide them conceptually or sacramentally risks fracturing the unity of the sacrament itself.
The Second Vatican Council rightly emphasized the proper and stable character of the diaconate, yet this distinction does not imply a theological independence from the priesthood, nor does it provide grounds for redefining sacramental matter. Any potential development must emerge organically from revelation, not from historical analogy or pastoral desire alone.
The Vatican’s release of the report does not close the discussion but clarifies where the doctrinal questions remain.
While the dicastery invited further study, it is my judgment — formed through years of theological research, ecclesial service, and participation in the commission — that the question has now been examined with such breadth and depth that additional study is unlikely to produce new insights sufficient to support the admission of women to holy orders.
Pope Francis repeatedly reaffirmed that any development in this area must be firmly rooted in divine revelation, yet no such foundation has been demonstrated.
Indeed, canon law, revised under Pope Francis in 2021, now explicitly forbids even the attempt to confer sacred orders on a woman, imposing the penalty of excommunication on both the minister and the recipient.
This canonical development is a clear indication of the Church’s current understanding.
In light of these considerations, the central issue comes into clearer theological relief: The question before the Church is not simply whether additional research might uncover new data, but whether the substance of divine revelation contains the foundations necessary for such a development at all.
After decades of rigorous study, the consistent pattern that emerges is one of non-equivalence between deaconesses and the sacramental diaconate, and of an unbroken tradition in which holy orders has been conferred only upon men.
This is not a matter of insufficient scholarly attention nor of historical ambiguity waiting to be resolved; rather, it reflects the deeper reality that the sacrament of holy orders is instituted by Christ and entrusted to the Church as part of the deposit of faith, not as a structure adaptable to contemporary expectations or pastoral pressures.
For these reasons, the present impasse does not stem from a lack of research or openness, but from the Church's faithful adherence to what she has received.
Taken together, these indicators suggest that the Church continues to hold that she does not possess the authority to ordain women to the diaconate. Such authority cannot be assumed, inferred or constructed; it must be shown to exist within revelation itself.
While the commission acknowledged the provisional nature of its own conclusions, as a private theologian, I remain firmly convinced that until the Magisterium renders a definitive judgment, neither a fully articulated theology of the diaconate nor an integrated theology of woman can progress in a coherent and unified way.
The Church must walk with clarity and fidelity, ensuring that pastoral initiatives flow from revealed truth rather than from speculative proposals.
In the end, this moment in the Church’s discernment invites not frustration or polarization, but a renewed confidence in the wisdom of Christ, who governs his Church through the Holy Spirit and guides her unfailingly into all truth.
The question of women and the diaconate touches mysteries far deeper than structures of ministry; it touches the very form by which Christ continues his saving work in the world.
Until the Magisterium speaks on this issue, our task is one of fidelity: to remain rooted in the Tradition we have received, to honor the indispensable mission of women whose witness shapes the life of the Church in every age, and to allow the unity of holy orders — grounded in Christ the Servant and High Priest — to illuminate all our reflections.
In this fidelity, there is profound freedom, for the Church is never more herself than when she listens attentively to the Lord who speaks in her midst.