A Vatican commission has voted against allowing women to serve as Catholic deacons, upholding the Church’s long-standing practice of an all-male clergy, according to a report submitted to Pope Leo and released on Thursday, December 4. The panel, in a 7-1 vote, concluded that historical and theological evidence “excludes the possibility” of women serving as deacons at present, though it suggested that further study on the issue could continue.

For the past decade, the idea of women deacons—ordained individuals who can assist in Church services but cannot celebrate Mass—has sparked intense debate within the 1.4 billion-member Church. Deacons can perform many duties such as baptisms, witnessing marriages, and presiding over funerals, and in some regions, they can lead parishes in the absence of a priest, though only a priest can celebrate Mass.

Historically, the role of deacon was seen as a step toward priesthood but was redefined in the 1960s reforms as a permanent position for married men. Some women feel a spiritual calling to the position, which the Church frames as a role of service. The commission, led by a cardinal and a priest from the Vatican’s doctrinal office and including both male and female scholars, stated that their opposition to women deacons is strong but “does not as of today allow a definitive judgement to be formulated.” The conversation began under Pope Francis following a 2016 request from the Rome-based umbrella organization for Catholic sisters and nuns. Francis created two commissions to study the matter, whose deliberations were conducted in secret. Thursday’s report marks the first public disclosure of their findings.

Some advocates for women deacons criticized the report. Phyllis Zagano, a Hofstra University scholar and member of Francis’ first commission, said it portrays the issue negatively, selectively using comments from past reports without full context. Reform groups also condemned the decision: the German group We are Church questioned it theologically, anthropologically, and pastorally, while the U.S.-based Women’s Ordination Conference criticized the lack of female input in the deliberations, calling the ruling “a deep, theologically unsound insult.”

The report, sent to Pope Leo by Italian Cardinal Giuseppe Petrocchi, head of the second commission, was dated September 18 and indicates that the commission had voted in July 2022 against allowing women deacons. However, a February 2023 meeting saw a 9-1 vote in favor of expanding women’s access to ministry opportunities, though without detailing specifics. The report emphasized that it is now up to Church leaders to discern which ministries could be opened to women to meet contemporary needs.

Pope Leo, relatively unknown before his May election, has not publicly commented on the issue. While Pope John Paul II reaffirmed the ban on women priests in 1994, he did not specifically address the question of women deacons. Advocates for women deacons cite historical evidence that women served in this role in the early Church, including Phoebe, mentioned as a deacon in one of St. Paul’s letters.