The Priesthood’s Ritual Logic

There was a lot of disappointment, even irritation, over last year’s decision by a Vatican commission to shelve further discussion by the Synod on Synodality of the possibility of ordaining women to the diaconate. I do not doubt the sincerity of those who advocate for what they argue is a restoration of an office that existed in the early Church and that, tellingly, continues to exist in some Eastern Churches. Nor am I a scholar who can parse the exact meaning of the Greek terms used to describe those early Church ordinations. Still, the Eastern Churches do not ordain women to the priesthood, and the function of women deacons in the East is circumscribed by an understanding of traditional gender roles. I think it is possible to acknowledge the need for women to have real decision-making authority in the Church while doubting that ordination is consistent with the Church’s sacramental theology and practice and its historical self-understanding.