Theological Panel Rules Out Ordination of Women as Deacons

Defers to Magisterium for a Definitive Decision

VATICAN CITY, OCT. 17, 2002 (Zenit.org).- The International Theological
Commission announced that one of its recent documents excludes the 
possibility of the ordination of women to the diaconate.

In the statement issued through the Vatican Press Office today, the general 
secretary of the International Theological Commission, Dominican Father 
Georges Cottier,responded to questions about the commission's five-year 
study of the diaconate raised by the French newspaper La Croix.

Father Cottier stated that the commission's study "tends to support the
exclusion" of ordaining women to the diaconate. La Croix on Oct. 8 reported 
that the commission's study left the issue open.

The commission, which includes renowned theologians, voted to approve its 
document during its Sept. 30-Oct. 4 plenary assembly in the Vatican. The 
commission is coordinated by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Today's press statement noted that the commission does not have "the role of 
pronouncing with the authority which is characteristic of the magisterium." 
Yet, the panel "presented two important indications which emerge from study 
of the matter."

"In the first place, the commission observed that the deaconesses mentioned 
in the tradition of the early Church cannot simply be assimilated to 
ordained deacons," the statement said.

"In support of this conclusion, Father Cottier noted that both the rite of 
institution and the functions exercised by deaconesses distinguished them 
from ordained deacons," the statement continued.

It added: "Furthermore, Father Cottier noted that the commission's study 
reaffirmed the unity of the sacrament of holy orders. The distinction 
between the ministry of bishops and priests, on the one hand, and that of 
deacons, on the other hand, is nonetheless embraced within the unity of the 
sacrament of holy orders."

In his 1994 apostolic letter "Ordinatio Sacerdotalis," John Paul II 
concluded "that the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly 
ordination on women and that this judgment is to be definitively held by all 
the Church's faithful."

The Vatican statement released today said: "The commission's reaffirmation 
of this teaching arose from a careful study of the ecclesial tradition, of 
the documents of the Second Vatican Council, and of the postconciliar 
magisterium of the Church."

It added: "Father Cottier said that 'it belongs to the magisterium to 
pronounce with authority on the question, taking into account the historical 
and theological research presented by the study of the International 
Theological Commission.'"

The theological commission devoted over five years of research to the topic 
of the history and theology of the diaconate before approving the text of 
its study. The study was carried out at the request of the Congregation for 
the Doctrine of the Faith.

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