Women as Deacons – the Long Struggle for Women's Ordination in the Catholic Church by Rev. Dr. Ida Raming RCWP

 

Women as deacons – the long struggle for women's ordination

in the Catholic Church

 

The struggle for women's access to the diaconate in the Catholic Church has been raging for a long time, and women are still excluded from this office. This is fundamentally shameful for the leadership of the Church, because there is evidence that this office existed for women already in the early Church, as can be seen from texts in the New Testament:

 

"I commend to you our sister Phoebe, who is a deacon in the church in Cenchrea, that you may receive her in the Lord in a manner worthy of the saints..............." (Romans 16:1).

 

Later, however, in the medieval church, this office was contested for women due to the patriarchal attitudes that were prevalent at the time and still are today. This is evident from sources of ecclesiastical law in the Corpus Iuris Canonici, more specifically from the first part of the Corpus, the Decretum Grationi. A well-known legal scholar of the Middle Ages, Johannes Teutonicus, claimed that women were not eligible for ordination because of their gender.

 

However, although this opinion was probably the prevailing view at the time, it was not entirely unchallenged, as can be seen from the concluding remarks on C. 27 q. 1 c. 23 Commentary on the Decretum Gratiani, which states:

 

"Alii (the others, i.e. those who do not share Johannes Teutonicus' opinion) confess, however, that a nun can indeed be validly ordained, because on the basis of baptism any (suitable) person can be validly ordained." (dicunt, quod si Monialis ordinetur, bene recipit characterem (ordinis): quia ordinari (quaestio) facti est et post baptismum quilibet potest ordinari).

 

As evidence for this statement, reference is made to the following decision of the Council of Chalcedon (451 AD):

"No woman shall be ordained (ordinari) as a deaconess before she is 40 years of age, and then only after careful examination. But if, after receiving ordination and exercising her office for some time, she marries, despising the grace of God, she shall be excommunicated, together with the one who married her" (Decision of the Council on C. 27 q. 1 c. 23 Decretum Grationi).

 

According to this view, which contradicts traditional thinking, the indispensable prerequisite for valid ordination is not male gender, but baptism alone!

 

And today?

 

Women are still excluded from the diaconate and priesthood in the Catholic Church, even though the CIC states (can. 849 CIC/1983):

 

„Baptism is the gateway to the sacraments; its actual reception, or at least the desire for it is necessary for salvation; through it, people are freed from sin, recreated as children of God and through an indelible mark, conformed to Christ and incorporated into the Church“

 

This can. 849 CIC clearly contradicts can 1024 CIC: „Only a baptized man can validly recieve holy orders.“

Why has this not been recognized and observed long ago?

 

The anti-Christian patriarchal thinking that unfortunately still prevails, especially in the Vatican. prevents the progress that is so necessary and that Jesus Christ demands of the Church.

 

This is made clear in Mark 10,42ff.

 

Jesus says: „You know that the rulers of the nations oppress them (the people) and that the great ones make them feel their power: it shall not be so anong you; rather, whoever among you wishes to be great shall be your servant, and who ever among you wishes to be first shall be your slave. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served , but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many...“ (see also Matthew 20,25)

 

Stuttgart, March 2026 (vollständige englische Übersetzung)

 

Dr. theol. Ida Raming

 

Published in „Kirche In“, Juily 2025 issue

 

Further reading: Ida Raming, The exclusion of Women from the Priesthood . God-given Tradition or Discrimination?, 1973, 3^rd edition Lit Verlag 2024, see pages 115 and 164,