Responding to Pope Francis’s Comments on Women as Deacons

Elizabeth Young RSM, 6 June 2024

I was asked to provide an article for the National Association of Deacons’ newsletter The Diaconate on this topic, and they were happy for me to share it here as well.

On May 21, the American CBS television network aired a wide-ranging interview between anchor Norah O’Donnell and Pope Francis. They discussed children, hunger, peace, migration, abuse and other matters. Yet the headline from various forms of media around the world was: the Pope is not open to the possibility of ordaining women deacons.

I heard of this story immediately before an international Zoom meeting of women who feel called to such ministry. There was little time to digest the information, but I was not surprised or dismayed. I knew that Pope Francis was doing the best he could in often hostile circumstances. He is almost 90 years old, and has only dedicated one address specifically to permanent deacons during his pontificate. However, he has also been the great protagonist of synodality, and is demonstrably open to listening to the Holy Spirit, learning and developing his thinking.

However, I did not anticipate such immediate and pained reactions from people in my circles: women and men who have been discerning about the diaconate for several years. As well as a flurry of emails, our global Zoom meeting was derailed for about an hour so that people had a chance to debrief. The most powerful responses were those from women with children. Their daughters were angry and hurt on hearing this news. Other women felt their own grief, disappointment and despair.

Some people kindly checked in with me, to see how I was going. So I watched the actual interview as soon as I could. And Pope Francis’s prompt and definite, “No,” did feel like a hit. His rejection of women’s ability to minister did not seem to fit with my own experience of lay ministry, or the spirit of synodality and co-responsibility.

The relevant part of the CBS interview began with O’Donnell asking Pope Francis, “For a little girl growing up Catholic today, will she ever have the opportunity to be a deacon and participate as a clergy member in the church?” Francis simply responded, “No.” 

Then O’Donnell followed with, “I understand you have said no women as priests, but you are studying the idea of women as deacons. Is that something you’re open to?” He reflected (translated from the Spanish), “If it is deacons with Holy Orders, no. But women have always had, I would say, the function of deaconesses without being deacons, right? Women are of great service as women, not as ministers, as ministers in this regard, within the Holy Orders.” 

After praising women in general as changemakers and “custodians of life”, Pope Francis reiterated, “Making space in the Church for women does not mean giving them a ministry, no.” Finally, in response to O’Donnell’s question about washing the feet of women prisoners on Holy Thursday, Pope Francis proclaimed: “The message is that: men and women, we are all children of God. Men and women: we are all apostles, and we all can lead.” 

Therefore, I take away several positive conclusions. Firstly, Pope Francis does appreciate the value of women and their function in diaconal roles. He promotes the biblical understanding that we are all children of God (Acts 17:28; Gal 3:26-28). He goes further than this to proclaim that we are all sent, like the first witnesses of the resurrection, and have the ability to lead.

However, one of the seminal documents of Vatican II, Lumen Gentium, states, “…it is [the clergy’s] noble duty to shepherd the faithful and to recognize their ministries and charisms, so that all according to their proper roles may cooperate in this common undertaking with one mind.” #30 [Emphasis added.] With this understanding, the Church has since been forming, installing and commissioning lay people to ecclesial ministries, as they share in Christ’s threefold office of priest, prophet and royal person.

O’Donnell herself explained that her mother had been a eucharistic minister and cantor. In this we see the vision of St Paul: “…there are varieties of services [Greek: διακονιῶν/ Latin: ministrationum], but the same Lord… To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” 1 Corinthians 12:5,7

So it appears that women, and lay men, can and do have ministries within the Church. However, Pope Francis makes a qualification: he is not open to women as deacons with Holy Orders. This point is greatly debated, and the precise question that I have been asking myself for a number of years: why ordination?

For now, we will leave aside the well-documented historical evidence of women ordained as deacons for centuries in the Church: by the Bishop, within Eucharist, at the altar, with the laying on of hands, for the local community, with the title of ‘deacon’ and a recognised ordination rite. That information is now easy to find. However, what I can share more specifically is my own experience and research into the value of Holy Orders for the Church, the community and for the ordained.

I have spent three years interviewing quite a number of Australian deacons with a permanent vocation about their life and ministry for this blog. Each time, I have asked, “What do you think is made possible by the ordained diaconal ministry?” I have never heard a response that has been about power, influence, glory or male-specific roles. However, this is what I have heard…

Ordination clarifies the difference between a job and a ministry. Deacon Rod Pirotta said, “it is about strength and grace to live my vocation.” Deacon Tim Grauel said, “the diaconate is one of several ways to support the role of the baptised. In Pope Francis’ inverted pyramid, clerics are there to support, nurture and animate the gifts and graces received at baptism.” 

Deacon Adrian Gomez spoke of the diaconate as imaging Christ the servant. In his chaplaincy role, as a deacon, “My role description was the same, but I have become a public face of the Church.” It opens up possibilities for him to connect with students in creative liturgical ways. Deacon Tony Hoban said that it is a “privilege to encounter people on their occasional visits – like baptisms, weddings and funerals… It is a privilege to walk with people and relate to their struggles.”

Deacon John Collins explained that his ordination gave “a certain credibility and authority to provide for pastoral needs in my parish and diocese… it was a formalisation and closer connection with what I had been doing with the altar. It was a sacramentalism of what I had been doing all my life.” Deacon John Cinya saw that, as a deacon, he could do more to respond to people’s spiritual needs. He has a leadership role to foster community, especially in the liturgy, in which “everyone has to participate”.

So Holy Orders are significant for men in the diaconate. Recently, the Orthodox St Phoebe Center held a webinar about their most frequently asked question for women: If women can do these ministries without being ordained, why do we need to ordain women? One of their members had just returned from Zimbabwe, where she witnessed the ordination of Deaconess Angelic Molen. She had asked a local woman what difference the ordination made. The woman replied, “We now know that the Church has put its trust in Deaconess Angelic, so we can trust her too.”

Then, Metropolitan Serafim of Zimbabwe, the very one who had ordained her, chimed in to the webinar to explain more. The reception of the ordination of Deaconess Angelic had been very positive in his country, he said, because he was following the will of the people.

In the webinar, Dr Teva Regule also reaffirmed the gravity of ordination that I have previously reflected on. Ordination is a setting apart of people for ministry, that is recognised within a particular ecclesial community. The natural gifts of the person are “enlivened by the grace of the Holy Spirit”. The person’s pastoral service is tied to the liturgy and the altar and “connects the liturgy of our lives with the sacramental life of the Church.” The ordained receive trust, authority to serve, diocesan support, accountability, obedience, training and vetting beyond that of lay ministers. Catholic doctrine also views the sacramental grace of the ordination to be present in the ordained no matter what ‘function’ or role they may carry out. 

I know, as a professed religious and instituted Catechist, the value of lifelong public ecclesial commitment, which enables us to represent the Church to a world in need of Christ’s healing touch. So, although lay ministries are absolutely vital, we are still discerning about women being ordained to the diaconate, to serve the Church of the future. The Synod process that Pope Francis began is ongoing, and is yet to access all the studies on the matter.

I am sure that the Spirit is still working! Let us continue to highlight the value of all children of God, of women and of Holy Orders. Perhaps we have yet to really receive, appreciate and complete the gift of the reinstitution of the diaconate as a permanent vocation since Vatican II. And together, in our various ministries enlivened by the Holy Spirit, may we continue to serve the mission of Jesus Christ in the world.

Prayer Network