The Good News is that Women Priests Are Here Serving God’s People! https://arcwp.org/From Women’s Ordination Conference
Today, news broke from the second commission studying the women’s diaconate that had been convened by Pope Francis: The secretive commission, in a vote that didn’t even include all 10 of its members, voted 7-1 against restoring the women’s diaconateand reiterated that the church’s stance against women’s priestly ordination is “definitive.”
We share in the disappointment, outrage, and frustration you may feel.
The Women’s Ordination Conference is appalled by the Vatican’s refusal to open its doors to women, even a crack. This is a decision that will harm the global church. And we know fewer and fewer will have the patience to excavate hope from the Vatican’s claim there is “need for further study” on the question of women deacons.
For centuries, women have served in the tradition of Phoebe (Rm 16:1). Women of every generation have experienced and expressed their vocation from God to serve the church in ordained ministry. Today, the diaconal, and priestly, work of women keeps the church functioning around the world.
We stand reinvigorated by the necessity of our mission. We are awake, active, and continuing to disrupt the patriarchal status quo that attempts to deny the God-given gifts and equality of women and nonbinary people.
We reaffirm that WOC’s work is more important than ever. Our small and mighty organization has made ordination justice an unavoidable issue for the Vatican for 50 years—please, if you can support our work in this crucial moment, we ask you to give what you can.
From Future Church:
| Commission’s Assessment on Women Deacons a Failure of Courage, Synodality, and Leadership |
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DECEMBER 4, 2025 - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEToday the Vatican released the findings of the latest commission to study women deacons. While the commission states it cannot issue a “definitive judgment,” its assessment at this time is that women cannot be admitted to the diaconate “understood as a degree of the sacrament of Holy Orders.” This conclusion is a disappointing failure of courage, synodality, and pastoral leadership. At a moment when the global Church is in urgent need of reform and renewal, particularly on the role of women in the Church, the commission’s report reflects an institutional reluctance to engage fully with both the historical evidence and the current pastoral needs of the People of God as well as an unwillingness to listen to the Holy Spirit speaking through the experiences of women and the Synod process. The commission side-stepped decades of scholarship and abundant evidence showing that women were ordained as deacons in the early Church and beyond, in favor of reinforcing patriarchal barriers to actualizing women’s full baptismal equality and participation in the life and ministry of the Roman Catholic Church. Equally troubling is the commission’s claim that the 22 written submissions “[representing] few countries” it received after the Synod invited input “cannot be considered the voice of the Synod, much less of the People of God as a whole.” This statement fits a pattern of secrecy and obfuscation of this particular topic, ignoring more than a decade of calls from around the world to restore women deacons and the consistent raising of women’s ordination in global listening sessions as a part of the Synod on Synodality. After the question of women deacons was moved to Study Group Five, FutureChurch – joined by Women’s Ordination Conference and the Association of US Catholic Priests – sent a letter to Pope Francis, the Synod office, and the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith requesting that they consider the full body of scholarship on women deacons while reevaluating past biases on the subject rooted in clericalism. FutureChurch notes the commission’s admission that the question remains unresolved. This lack of closure only underscores what the faithful already know: the Holy Spirit is not finished with this issue, even if the commission is. And so, FutureChurch once again calls on Church leaders to engage the global Church honestly, to reckon with historical truth, and to finally open pathways for women’s sacramental ministry. As long as the Church refuses to affirm women’s gifts and recognize their vocations to ordained ministry, it will continue to undermine its credibility and mission. Catholics around the world — especially women who serve, preach, and lead — deserve more.
Contact: Russ Petrus, Executive Director
russ@futurechurch.org | 216-228-0869 x2 |
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