I don't suppose you can cite a magisterial document that definatively addresses diaconal ordination on this?
In 1976, the
Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith discussed the issue of the ordination of women and issued a
Declaration on the Question of the Admission of Women to the Ministerial Priesthood which concluded that for various doctrinal, theological, and historical reasons, the church "... does not consider herself authorized to admit women to priestly ordination." The most important reasons stated were first, the church's determination to remain faithful to its constant tradition, second, its fidelity to Christ's will, and third, the idea of male representation due to the "sacramental nature" of the priesthood. In April 1976, the
Pontifical Biblical Commission released a study examining the exclusion of women from the ministerial priesthood from a biblical perspective. They made the following points: "The masculine character of the hierarchical order which has structured the church since its beginning...seems attested to by scripture in an undeniable way." "As a matter of fact, we see in the Acts of the Apostles and the epistles that the first [Christian] communities were always directed by men exercising the apostolic power."
[5] However, in the conclusion of the document, they write:
"It does not seem that the New Testament by itself alone will permit us to settle in a clear way and once and for all the problem of the possible accession of women to the presbyterate. However, some think that in the scriptures there are sufficient indications to exclude this possibility, considering that the sacraments of eucharist and reconciliation have a special link with the person of Christ and therefore with the male hierarchy, as borne out by the New Testament. Others, on the contrary, wonder if the church hierarchy, entrusted with the sacramental economy, would be able to entrust the ministries of eucharist and reconciliation to women in light of circumstances, without going against Christ's original intentions."
[6] On these last three paragraphs, voting was held to determine the positions on these matters held by the various members of the Commission. On whether the New Testament settles, in a clear and final way, the question of whether women can be admitted to the
presbyterate, they unanimously voted against the proposition (170); on the question of whether there are in the Scriptures sufficient indications to exclude the possibility of women priests, they voted against the proposition (125); and on the question of whether the Church would be able to entrust the ministries of the
Eucharist and
Reconciliation to women, without going against Christ's original intentions, they voted in favor (125).
[7] None of these votes had even the slightest doctrinal weight.
The Church has issued a number of documents stressing that priestly ordination for women is impossible.
[8] In 1994,
Pope John Paul II declared the question closed in his letter
Ordinatio Sacerdotalis, stating: "Wherefore, in order that all doubt may be removed regarding a matter of great importance
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."
[9] However, the Church has not so far addressed the problems which intersex individuals pose to its theological position.
[10]
In 1995, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a clarification, explaining that
Ordinatio Sacerdotalis, though "itself not infallible, witnesses to the infallibility of the teaching of a doctrine already possessed by the Church.... This doctrine belongs to the deposit of the faith of the Church. The definitive and
infallible nature of this teaching of the Church did not arise with the publication of the Letter
Ordinatio Sacerdotalis".
[11] Instead, it was "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," and for these reasons it "requires definitive assent."
[12]
The Church teaching on the restriction of its ordination to men is that
masculinity was integral to the personhood of both
Jesus and the men he called as
apostles.
[13] The
Roman Catholic Church sees maleness and femaleness as two different ways of expressing common humanity.
[14] Despite the common academic phrase "
gender roles", which implies that the phenomenon of the sexes is a mere surface
phenomenon, an
accident, the Roman Catholic Church teaches that there is an ontological (
essential) difference between humanity expressed as male humanity and humanity expressed as female humanity.
[15] While many functions are interchangeable between men and women, some are not, because maleness and femaleness are not interchangeable. Just as
water is necessary for a valid
baptism, and
wheaten bread and
grape wine are necessary for a valid
Eucharist (not because of their superiority over other materials, but because they are what Jesus used or authorized).
[16]
Pope John Paul II, in
Ordinatio Sacerdotalis, explained the Roman Catholic understanding that the priesthood is a special role specially set out by
Jesus when he chose twelve men out of his group of male and female followers. John Paul notes that Jesus chose the Twelve (cf. Mk 3:1314; Jn 6:70) after a night in prayer (cf. Lk 6:12) and that the Apostles themselves were careful in the choice of their successors. The priesthood is "specifically and intimately associated in the mission of the Incarnate Word himself (cf. Mt 10:1, 78; 28:1620; Mk 3:1316; 16:1415)."
Pope Paul VI, quoted by
Pope John Paul II in
Ordinatio Sacerdotalis, wrote, "The Church holds that it is not admissible to ordain women to the priesthood, for very fundamental reasons. These reasons include: the example recorded in the Sacred Scriptures of
Christ choosing his Apostles only from among men; the constant practice of the Church, which has imitated Christ in choosing only men; and her living teaching authority which has consistently held that the exclusion of women from the priesthood is in accordance with God's plan for his Church."
But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to use authority over the man: but to be in silence.
1 Timothy 2:12 (Bible)
Concerning the "constant practice of the Church", in antiquity the
Church Fathers Irenaeus,
[17] Tertullian,
[18] Hippolytus,
[19] Epiphanius,
[20] John Chrysostom,
[21] and
Augustine[22] all wrote that the ordination of women was impossible. The
Council of Laodicea prohibited ordaining women to the Presbyterate, although the meaning of Canon 11 has long been disputed.
[23] In the period between the
Reformation and the
Second Vatican Council, mainstream theologians continued to oppose the ordination of women, appealing to a mixture of scripture, Church tradition and natural law.
[24]
The Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued and published on May 29, 2008, in the Vatican newspaper
L'Osservatore Romano, a decree signed by Cardinal
William Levada, on the existing ban on women priests by asserting that women "priests" and the bishops who ordain them would be automatically excommunicated "
lata sententia".
[25][26]
