Why does the Catholic Church not ordain women? Were not deaconesses ordained in the early Church?
A common justification for the ordination of women is found in St. Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians.
Gal.3:28 “There is not among you Jew or Greek, there is not among you slave or free, there is not among you male or female: for we all are in Christ Jesus”.
Note: In order to understand what St. Paul is referring to, we must look at the text in context.
“Now before faith came, we were confined under the law, kept under restraint until faith should be revealed. 24 So that the law was our custodian until Christ came, that we might be justified by faith. 25 But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a custodian; 26 for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. 27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you are Christs, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise”.
Note: St. Paul is speaking of trying for justification before God, not the ordination of women. He is not saying that man and women are equal in everything.
Note: Some who reject the idea women refer to St. Paul’s epistle to the Corinthians and 1 Timothy which seems to support the strong interpretation of 1 Cor 14:34..
1 Cor.14:34 “The women should keep silence in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but should be subordinate, as even the law says”.
Note: This text cannot be used to prove St. Paul prohibits women’s ordination. But in the last part of St. Paul appeals to the Law. That would probably be Genesis 3:16, which speaks of subjection of women to husbands. So it seems not to be mere social custom he has in mind.
1 Tim 2:11-12 ” Let a woman learn in silence with all submissiveness. 12 I permit no woman to teach or to have authority over men; she is to keep silent”.
Tertullian [AD 200] “The women of these heretics, how wanton they are! They dare to teach, to dispute, to carry out exorcisms, to undertake cures, it may be even to baptize. Their ordinations are carelessly done, capricious changeable. At one time they put novices in office, at another time, men who are bound to some secular work; at another, persons who have apostatized from us, to bind them by vainglory…. Nowhere is promotion easier than in the camp of the rebels, where the mere fact of being there is a great service. And so it happens that today one man is their bishop; tomorrow another; today he is a deacon who tomorrow is a lector; today he is a presbyter who tomorrow will be a layman”. (On the Prescription of Heretics 41).
Note: It is not fully clear that the women are ordained since he says “may be even to baptize”. And then continues to speak of men.
“The boldness of that woman who took on herself the right to teach is evidently not going to give her the right to baptize as well..”. (On Baptism 17, c. 200 AD.
“It is not allowed to a woman to speak in the church nor to teach, baptize, offer, or claim for herself any function proper to a man, and least of all the office of priest” (On Veiling virgins 9.1. c. 206 AD).
St. Irenæus [AD140-202] “There was a certain other one of those who are with them, boasting he is the one who improves the teacher. His name was Marcus, most skilled in magic deception, by which he deceived many men and not a few women, to be converted to him as the most knowing and perfect and having the greatest power from the invisible and unspeakable places…Pretending that he was giving thanks over a chalice with mixed wine, drawing out at length the word of invocation, he made it to seem purple or red…. After this he gave women mixed chalices, and told them to give thanks in his presence. Then he took another chalice much larger than that on which the deceived woman gave thanks, and pouring from the smaller … to the much larger… the larger chalice was filled from the smaller chalice and overflowed” (1.13.2).
Firmilian [post AD 154] He tells of a certain unnamed woman who went into an ecstasy and came out a prophetess. By the power of the demon she did remarkable things: “And that women who first through marvels and deceptions of the demon did many things to deceive the faithful, among other things by which she deceived very many, also many times she dared to do this, namely, that by an impressive invocation she feigned she was sanctifying bread, and offering a sacrifice to the Lord, with the usual words for the proclamation, and she also baptized many with the regular legally correct words of interrogation, so that she seemed no different from the norm of the Church”. Firmilian goes on to ask: Would Pope Stephen accept her baptisms? ( Epistle 75.1-5 to Cyprian).
Origen Commenting on the words: “The women must be silent in the church”. “There were four daughters of Philip the Evangelist who were prophetesses. [He raises an objection]: If they prophesied, what is out of place if the others prophesy? [He replies to the argument] First, in saying that they prophesied, show the signs of prophecy in them. Secondly, if the daughters of Philip prophesied, yet they did not speak in the churches. We do not find that in the Acts of the Apostles…. For it is shameful for a woman to speak in the church”. (Fragment of commentary on 12 Cor 14:34)
St. Epiphanius [AD 374-77] “We come to the New Testament. If women were ordained to be priests for God, or to do anything canonical in the church, it should rather have been given to Mary in the New Testament…. But it was decided differently. She was not even entrusted with baptizing. [after mentioning successions of apostles and priests] but nowhere was a woman established among them. There were four daughters of the evangelist Philip, who were prophetesses, but not priests. …. Although there is an order of deaconesses in the Church, yet they are not appointed to function as priests or for any administration of this kind, but so that provision may be made for the propriety of the female sex…”. [at baptism etc.] Whence comes the recent myth? Whence comes the pride of women, or rather, the woman’s insanity?(Against Heresies 79 3-4).
St. John Chrysostom [ca..381-85] “‘Peter,’ he said, ‘Feed my sheep.’ He could have addressed him thus: ‘If you love me, fast, sleep on the ground, stay awake at night, help those who are injured, be as a father to little ones and as a husband to their mother.’ But now, passing by all these things, what does he say: ‘Feed my sheep.’ For many of the subjects could easily do the things I have mentioned, not only men, but also women. But when there is question of the headship of the Church and of the care of souls to be entrusted to him, let the entire female sex go back, in fact, the greater part of the male sex” (On Priesthood 2.2).
“Divine law has excluded women from the sanctuary, but they try to thrust themselves into it”. (On Priesthood 3.9).
St. Augustine [AD ca. 428] ” The Pepuzians or Quintillians are named from a certain place, which Epiphanius says was a deserted city. They think it is a divine thing, and call it Jerusalem. They give such principality to women that they even honor them with priesthood” (On heresies 27).
Pope St. Gregory I [AD 593-94] Tells of a priest, Nursinus, “who from the time of his ordination loved his presbytera as a sister, but avoiding her as if an enemy, never allowed her to come to him” (Dialogues 4.11).
Note: The wife of a presbyteros, was called a presbytera. Nursinus observed celibacy from the time of his ordination as a priest.
Council of Nicea [AD 325] “We have mentioned the deaconesses, who are enrolled in this position, but since they have not received any imposition of hands at all, they are surely to be numbered among the laity” (Canon 19).
Council of Laodicea [AD ca. 372] “Those who are called presbyteresses or presidentesses, should not be established – [the word used is kathistemi- could also be translated as ordained] in the church”.
Council of Nimes [AD ca. 394-396] “There is a report that women seem to have been, we know not in what place, admitted to the levitical ministry, contrary to apostolic discipline, and unknown until today ….an ordination of this sort must be annulled, and care taken that no one for the future be so bold” (Canon 2).
First Council of Orange [AD ca. 441] “Deaconesses are certainly not to be ordained, and if there are some, they must bow their head under the blessing given to the people” (Canon 15).
Statuta Ecclesiae Antiqua, [pre AD 500] “Let not a woman, howsoever learned and holy, presume to teach men in the community”.
Council of Epaon [AD 517] “We entirely suppress throughout our region the consecration of widows, whom they call deaconesses”. (Canon 21).
Council of Tours II [AD 567] “If an Episcopus does not have an episcopa, let no throng of women follow him” (Canon 19). … “If a presbyter be found with his presbytera or a deacon with his deaconissa or a subdeacon with his subdeaconissa, he must be considered excommunicated for a full year and removed from every clerical office” (Canon 13).
Sixth Council of Paris [AD 829]”That women must not go to the altar is abundantly found in the Council of Laodicea, 45, and in the decrees of Pope Gelasius, 26. So this so illicit a thing, entirely abhorrent to the Christian religion, is forbidden for the future”. (Canon 49)
Apostolic Constitutions [ADca.400] “Chose as a deaconess a faithful and holy woman for the ministry of women… For we need a female deaconess for many things, first, when women are baptized, the deacon only anoints their forehead with holy oil and after the deaconess spreads it on them. For it is not proper that women be seen by men” (3.16.1-2)
“A deaconess does not bless or do any of the things priests and deacons do. She just takes care of the doors and ministers when women are baptized,for the sake of propriety” 98.28.6).
Note: The names presbytera, diaconissa, and subdiaconissa commonly meant the wives of priest, deacons, or subdeacons.
Council of Chalcedon [AD 531] “A deaconess is not to be ordained [cheirotoneisthai] before the age of forty and this with diligent examination. But if she received the imposition of hands and for some period has stayed in the ministry, she gives herself to marriage, she has scorned the grace of God. Such a one is to be anathematized along with the one joined to her” (Canon 15).
Note: The Council of Nicea (AD325), canon 19, specified Deaconesses were not to be ordained. Since one General Council cannot contradict another, we must look to the terminology. Church terminology was not yet fully stabilized, for example, the meaning of the word sacramentum, was not settled until the 12th century. Here Chalcedon does use the word that can mean ordain, cheirotoneisthai, whose basic meaning is to choose, by a show of hands, as in an election. Thus in the Didache (15), the people chose the Bishop.
On Oct. 15, 1976, the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, published the Declaration on the Question of the Admission of Women to the Ministerial Priesthood.
“For some years now, various Christian communities stemming from the sixteenth-century Reformation or of later origin have been admitting women to the pastoral office on a par with men. This initiative has led to petitions and writings by members of these communities and similar groups, directed towards making this admission a general thing: it has also led to contrary reactions. This therefore constitutes an ecumenical problem, and the Catholic Church must make her thinking known on it, all the more because in various sectors of opinion the question has been asked whether she too could modify her discipline and admit women to priestly ordination. … For these reasons, in execution of a mandate received from the Holy Father and echoing the declaration which he himself made in his letter of 30 November 1976, the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith judges it necessary to recall that the Church, in fidelity to the example of the Lord, does not consider herself authorized to admit women to priestly ordination. (Inter Insigniores)
In his most recent apostolic letter, Ordinatio Sacerdotalis (On Reserving Priestly Ordination to Men Alone; 1994), John Paul II made an unequivocal statement: “I declare 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”
Note: Questions were raised by certain parties about the level of Church teaching on this issue and in response the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, headed by Cardinal Ratzinger issued the following response on October 28, 1995:
Responsum ad Dubium (Response to the Question)
Dubium: Whether the teaching that the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women, which is presented in the Apostolic Letter Ordinatio Sacerdotalis to be held definitively, is to be understood as belonging to the deposit of faith.
Responsum: In the affirmative.
This teaching requires definitive assent, since, founded on the written Word of God, and from the beginning constantly preserved and applied in the Tradition of the Church, it has been set forth infallibly by the ordinary and universal Magisterium (cf. Second Vatican Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium 25, 2). Thus, in the present circumstances, the Roman Pontiff, exercising his proper office of confirming the brethren (cf. Lk 22:32), has handed on this same teaching by a formal declaration, explicitly stating what is to be held always, everywhere, and by all, as belonging to the deposit of the faith.
The Sovereign Pontiff John Paul II, at the Audience granted to the undersigned Cardinal Prefect,
approved this Reply, adopted in the ordinary session of this Congregation, and ordered it to be published.
The Church, then, has made clear declarations. If we further keep in mind that nobody has a right to be ordained (cf.
Catechism #1578 and Hebrews 5:4: “And one does not take the honor upon himself, but he is called by God”.
We can only say with St. Augustine: “Rome has spoken, the case is closed”.