Theologian explains why women cannot be ordained deaconesses

The leading mistake theologians in favor of Catholic deaconesses make is contending that women won’t be equal to men unless they are in the sanctuary too, Monica Migliorino Miller wrote in an opinion piece Crisis Magazine published Aug. 11. 

“The dignity of women is already secured in their being the sign of the Bridal Church to Christ,” Miller wrote.

Miller is the director of the activist organization Citizens for a Pro-Life Society and the author of the book “The Authority of Women in the Catholic Church.” In her piece, she responded to the contentions that women’s ordination advocate Phyllis Zagano made in her book Women: Icons of Christ and the ongoing arguments from “many in the Church” who hope that Pope Leo XIV will admit women to the diaconate. Zagano was part of Pope Francis’ 2016 Commission for the Study of the Diaconate of Women, which also met in 2020, but neither final report has been published.

“The ultimate issue regarding the possibility of ordaining women to the diaconate, as Zagano rightly notes, has to do with whether women can sacramentally image Christ,” Miller wrote.

Zagano argues that women’s inability to “image the human male Jesus exactly” doesn’t mean that women can’t be deacons, but Miller contends that “it is precisely because women do not, and cannot, ‘image the human male Jesus’ that they cannot be admitted to Holy Orders.”

“In order to get women capable of receiving Holy Orders, Zagano’s flat theology of image completely ignores the very nature of the covenant of redemption — a covenant that is nuptially ordered according to the very way God in Christ is in union with His people,” Miller writes. “Yes, in terms of what it means to be human, made in the image of God, men and women on that level are ontologically equal. But according to the nuptially ordered covenant, males and females are indeed differentiated according to the sacramental meaning of their gender.”

Miller writes that it is the marriage between Christ and the Church that saves the world.

“This is not simply a nice way of talking,” she writes. “This is a supernatural, God-ordained reality made sacramentally present in the human sexuality of men and women.”

She also explained that the diaconate role is innately unified with the roles of the priest.

“One may say that the ‘unicity of orders’ is tied to the unicity of the person of Christ. Christ the priest and Christ the servant are united in who Christ is to His people,” she writes. “If this is true, ordaining women to the diaconate creates sacramental incoherency — as we have demonstrated that the Covenant of Redemption is maritally ordered. Women are on the side of the Church to Christ — not on the side of Christ the male Bridegroom to His Church.”

Miller wrote that women did serve as deaconesses in the early days of the Church, as St. Paul noted in the Letter to the Romans (Romans 16:1), but it is not clear what their function and ecclesial status were.

In 2002, the International Theological Commission published a study, “From the Diakonia of Christ to the Diakonia of the Apostles,” which “provides a detailed examination of the history of the diaconate focused on New Testament evidence, the Apostolic Fathers, and early Church documents that include actual rites of ordination,” Miller noted.

According to the commission, both Pope Clement of Rome, St. Ignatius of Antioch, and St. Cyprian — all before 300 AD — remarked that bishops, priests, and deacons had different grades of hierarchy; it wasn’t a “modern accretion,” contrary to what Zagano claims, Miller said.

Miller explained that the Apostolic Tradition of St. Hippolytus, which was written by 220, explains that widows, who “were recognized as entering a kind of order within the assembly,” were “installed,” not “ordained.” Miller also wrote that the Greek terms for “installation” and “ordination” were used interchangeably regarding these ceremonies and that of deaconnesses. 

“There was no ‘laying on of hands because she does not offer the sacrifice and she does not have a liturgical function. Ordination is for clerics destined for liturgical service,’” Miller wrote. “While this passage concerns the installation of widows, it serves as an indication that women set aside for ministry were not ordained because they were not clerics at the service of the altar. The Apostolic Tradition also verifies that male deacons were ordained by the imposition of hands by the bishop, meaning that the ‘unicity of orders’ was also recognized in this third century document.”

Deaconesses were more common in the Eastern Church than in the Western Church, according to Miller.

The Didascalia Apostolorum, an early third century document, provides details regarding the role of deaconesseses and their duties. The document, according to Miller, teaches that deaconesses did not represent Jesus but instead were necessary for practical, pastoral reasons of ministry to women, during and after baptism, but only bishops, priests and male deacons could perform the sacrament of baptism.

“Women ministered to other women as it was unseemly for men to do so,” she wrote. “Deaconesses assisted in the baptismal ceremony of women who were indeed naked during the rite. Deaconesses anointed their bodies, as well as their heads. The deaconess would hold up a screen or drape to hide the body of the woman about to be baptized while the bishop, executing the baptismal rite, extended his hand over the drape to avoid seeing the woman.”

According to an Eastern Church fifth-century document called “The Testament of Our Lord Jesus Christ,” widows’ and deaconesses’ roles overlapped — and the ministry of widows was more than that of deaconesses.

The Apostolic Constitutions, which was published around 375 or 380, noted that deaconesses weren’t allowed to teach even other women or conduct baptisms. 

Miller wrote, “Were women actually ordained as deacons? The rite of installation of widows according to the Apostolic Tradition of St. Hippolytus states: ‘The ordination…of widows is to be carried out in the following manner….’ However, he is very clear that this ‘ordination’ did not employ ‘laying on of hands.’ And The Testament, following Hippolytus, indicates that the laying on of hands was restricted to the three sacerdotal orders.”

The deaconess wasn’t supposed to approach the altar, according to the fifth-century document “The Ordo and Canons Concerning Ordination in the Holy Church.” The document also specifies that laying on of hands by the bishop “in no way resembles the prayer used in the ordination of a deacon” and instead the purpose was to pray for her, according to Miller.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that only a baptized man can validly be ordained: “The Lord Jesus chose men (viri) to form the college of the twelve apostles, and the apostles did the same when they chose collaborators to succeed them in their ministry. The college of bishops, with whom the priests are united in the priesthood, makes the college of the twelve an ever-present and ever-active reality until Christ’s return. The Church recognizes herself to be bound by this choice made by the Lord himself. For this reason, the ordination of women is not possible.”

Miller noted that many ministries are open to women, and those involve immense authority in the Church. For example, Sr. Simona Brambilla leads the Vatican’s Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.

“Could, however, the Church reinstitute deaconesses? The answer is yes, but this would be an installation to a recognized formal office consecrating women to service completely separate from male ordination to the diaconate within the sacrament of Holy Orders,” she wrote. “But considering the many paths of ministry now open to women, is there even such a need for feminine formal office? In any case, as Canon 1024 states: ‘A baptized male alone receives sacred ordination validly.’”

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