Commonweal: ‘A Patriarchal Stalling Tactic’

Will the women deacons debate doom synodality?

Heidi Schlumpf

November 25, 2025

Link to article: https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/schlumpf-women-deacons-synodality-heidi-church-catholic

hen the study groups on controversial issues from the Synod on Synodality released their interim reports last week, some confusion arose about the topic of women deacons. The National Catholic Reporter’s initial headline that said the groups “cite women’s diaconate among priorities” was later updated to say, in effect, the opposite: “Synod study group not expected to take up issue of women diaconate.”

Study Group 5, on “some theological and canonical matters regarding specific ministerial forms,” was originally expected to include a discussion on the issue of restoring women to the ordained diaconate, but the interim report said “all synodal contributions related to this subject” had been forwarded to the second study commission on the female diaconate, a group created by Pope Francis in 2020. Study Group 5 will now take up the broader topic of “participation of women in the life and leadership of the church.”

The move from one study group to another study commission may seem like bureaucratic semantics. But some believe it suggests the issue will be removed from the official synodal process. And even though others anticipate the discernment continuing, the history of the treatment of this controversial topic gives reason for concern.

Recommendations for opening the diaconate to women—from both the International Theological Commission in 1997 and the Synod on the Amazon in 2019—have not been acted upon. Hopes were raised in 2016, when Pope Francis created the first commission to study the issue, at the urging of women religious leaders from the International Union of Superiors General (UISG). That commission’s report was delivered to Francis but was never made public. Instead, Francis created a second commission in 2020, whose membership seemed to indicate a new direction. It is this group that now has been given the task of continuing the conversation. 

That has Kate McElwee, executive director of the Women’s Ordination Conference (WOC), wary. “I think what many women feared and even distrusted about the synodal process has been confirmed by this latest update: the topic of women in ordained ministry is the exception to the synodal process,” she said. 

“We know that endless ‘study’ on the subject of women has long functioned as a patriarchal stalling tactic used by ordained men to preserve the status quo,” McElwee said. “The People of God have been very clear that women need greater opportunities for ministry, including the opportunity to discern and pursue their call to ordination. My hope is that the renewed work of the commission proceeds synodally, transparently, and most importantly, includes the witness of women called to ordained ministry.” 

The revived synodal process that became the late pontiff’s legacy made women’s leadership—even ordination to the diaconate and priesthood—an open topic of discussion, in contrast to the shutting down of conversation under Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI. John Paul’s 1994 apostolic letter Ordinatio sacerdotalis not only said that “the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women,” but also that the teaching was to be “held definitively.” The discussion of women’s ordination was off the table for decades before WOC participated in the synodal listening sessions and was included on the official synod website. 

Although ordination to priesthood was not discussed in the synod hall during the two Vatican meetings in 2023 and 2024, it seemed that the synodal process might offer the potential for change on the topic of women deacons. Summaries of listening sessions from every continent mentioned women’s leadership. So did the synod’s working document and synthesis document after the 2023 meeting, although the latter report called women deacons an area of “tension.” Before the second meeting, Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández, the Vatican’s doctrine chief, said the issue was closed. 

By then, the topic had been spun off into one of ten (now twelve) study groups. Study Group 5’s members have not been made public and its proceedings have been particularly secretive. Organized through the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, it has been led by the secretary for the Doctrinal Section, Msgr. Armando Matteo.

After the release of the interim reports on November 17, Matteo confirmed that the synod study group is no longer examining the issue of women deacons, and it is now in the hands of the revived 2020 commission whose members “respond to the Holy Father.” The study groups are expected to submit their final reports to Pope Leo XIV by December 31. There was no timeline given for the commission’s work.

Yet, paragraph sixty the Synod on Synodality’s final document said “​​the question of women’s access to diaconal ministry remains open. This discernment needs to continue.” That gives hope to Phyllis Zagano of Hofstra University in New York, who was a member of the first commission, even as she acknowledges disappointment that the study group won’t be recommending restoring women to the ordained diaconate.

“The Final Document of the Synod on Synodality is magisterial teaching, and it says the discernment about women deacons must continue,” she said:

I think now the discernment is whether the Church needs women ordained as deacons, and if it does, how [that] can be accomplished in its various regions. The question, as Pope Leo said not long ago, is one of cultural acceptance of women in the Church. So, the discernment continues, perhaps unevenly, but clearly toward the one goal of supporting a Church in mission that honors all the People of God.

Discerning Deacons, the U.S.-based group that advocates for the restoration of women to the diaconate, said in a statement that it welcomed the clarification regarding the status of Study Group 5 and was hopeful that both the study group and the second commission would “help the Church more faithfully recognize and support the gifts women are already offering—and more courageously discern the ways women may be called to serve in the future.”

The statement, provided by codirector Casey Stanton, noted women are already serving and leading in some parts of the world. “We hope the revived Second Commission will move forward with a truly synodal process that includes robust consultation,” the statement said. “What would it mean for the commission to take seriously the reality on the ground—including places like the Amazon—where bishops already rely on the ministry of women functioning as de facto deacons?”

It’s hard to know if this latest reshuffling is an attempt at obfuscation or just a blip in the process. But secrecy is hardly transparency, and the repeated delays are increasingly frustrating. A desire for greater leadership opportunities for women was a universal refrain during the synodal process—and the fact that several other study groups will also touch on it reveals its importance. But treating this issue differently than others also may be hinting that change is not coming anytime soon. That would be a major disappointment—and could even threaten many Catholics’ acceptance of the entire synodal project.

Heidi Schlumpf is Commonweal’s senior correspondent.