Can Women Become Catholic Priests?

No. The Catholic Church ordains only men as priests, and it teaches that it has no authority to ordain women. Canon law states that “a baptized male alone receives sacred ordination validly,” and in 1994 Pope John Paul II declared the question settled. Many Anglican, Lutheran and Methodist churches ordain women; the Orthodox churches do not.

What does the Catholic Church teach about women priests?

The rule appears in canon 1024 of the Code of Canon Law and in the Catechism of the Catholic Church: “Only a baptized man (vir) validly receives sacred ordination.” The Catechism gives the reason in the same paragraph. Jesus chose men to form the Twelve, the apostles chose men to succeed them, and “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” (Catechism 1577). The rule covers all three orders, bishop, priest and deacon.

Pope John Paul II restated the teaching in his apostolic letter Ordinatio Sacerdotalis of May 1994. He wrote 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 phrase “no authority” carries the argument: the Church holds that Christ fixed the form of the priesthood and that it cannot change what he established.

In October 1995 the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, then led by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, answered a formal question about the letter. It ruled that the teaching belongs to the deposit of faith and “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.” John Paul II approved the reply.

Why does the Church ordain only men?

Ordinatio Sacerdotalis gives three grounds, in words it quotes from Pope Paul VI’s 1975 letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury: “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.”

Inter Insigniores adds a sacramental reason. At Mass the priest acts in persona Christi, in the person of Christ, when he speaks the words of consecration. The declaration argues that a sacramental sign needs a “natural resemblance” to what it signifies, so that “if the role of Christ were not taken by a man” it “would be difficult to see in the minister the image of Christ.”

The documents deny that the rule measures women’s worth. John Paul II pointed to Mary: that she “received neither the mission proper to the Apostles nor the ministerial priesthood clearly shows that the non-admission of women to priestly ordination cannot mean that women are of lesser dignity, nor can it be construed as discrimination against them.” The Catechism also teaches that ordination is a call, not an entitlement for anyone: “No one has a right to receive the sacrament of Holy Orders” (Catechism 1578).

Did Jesus choose any women apostles?

No. Luke records that Jesus spent a night in prayer and “when day came, he called his disciples and chose from them twelve, whom he named apostles” (Luke 6:12–13). All twelve were men. When the apostles replaced Judas, Peter said the new apostle must be “one of the men who have accompanied us,” and the lot fell on Matthias (Acts 1:21–26).

Women were among Jesus’ closest followers. Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Susanna “and many others” traveled with him and the Twelve and “provided for them out of their means” (Luke 8:1–3), and women were the first to bring news of the empty tomb to the apostles (Luke 24:9–10). Paul commends “our sister Phoebe, a servant of the church at Cenchreae” (Romans 16:1); the Greek word for servant is diakonos, the word later used for deacons. He greets Andronicus and Junia, whom some translations call “well known to the apostles” (ESV) and others “outstanding among the apostles” (NIV) (Romans 16:7). Priscilla and her husband Aquila taught the preacher Apollos (Acts 18:26).

Two of Paul’s letters restrict women’s speech in the assembly: “I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man” (1 Timothy 2:12), and “the women should keep silent in the churches” (1 Corinthians 14:34). Catholic teaching reads these passages alongside the practice of the Church, while some scholars read them as instructions for particular congregations. Supporters of women’s ordination point to Galatians 3:28: “there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” In 1976 the Pontifical Biblical Commission, asked to study the question, concluded that the New Testament alone did not settle it.

Were there women deacons in the early Church?

Yes, in some places and in some form. The Council of Chalcedon in 451 ruled that “a woman shall not receive the laying on of hands as a deaconess under forty years of age” (canon 15). The Council of Nicaea in 325 said that the deaconesses of one dissenting group, the followers of Paul of Samosata, “since they have no imposition of hands, are to be numbered only among the laity” (canon 19). Historians still disagree over whether deaconesses received a sacramental ordination like male deacons.

Pope Francis set up two commissions on the question, in 2016 and 2020. The second, chaired by Cardinal Giuseppe Petrocchi, voted seven to one in 2022 to rule out admitting women to the diaconate “understood as a degree of the sacrament of Holy Orders,” while adding that this did “not at present allow for a definitive judgment to be formulated, as is the case with priestly ordination.” Its report was published in December 2025 at the request of Pope Leo XIV. The Church treats the diaconate as a more open question than the priesthood. In January 2021 Francis opened the lay ministries of lector and acolyte to women (Spiritus Domini).

Are there any women Catholic priests?

Not in the Church’s eyes. Groups such as Roman Catholic Womenpriests, founded in 2002, hold ordination ceremonies for women without the Church’s approval. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith ruled in a decree of December 2007 that both “the one who attempts to confer a sacred order on a woman, and the woman who attempts to receive a sacred order, incur an excommunication latae sententiae,” an automatic excommunication whose lifting is reserved to the Holy See. The Church regards these ordinations as invalid.

Can the teaching change?

The Church’s answer is no. Because the 1995 ruling calls the teaching infallible and part of the deposit of faith, it is widely read to mean that no future pope or council could decide otherwise. Pope Francis said on his flight back from Rio de Janeiro on 28 July 2013: “as far as women’s ordination is concerned, the Church has spoken and said: ‘No’. John Paul II said it, but with a definitive formulation. That door is closed.”

Some Catholic theologians dispute the level of authority claimed. A 1997 report presented to the Catholic Theological Society of America said: “There are serious doubts regarding the nature of the authority of this teaching and its grounds in Tradition.” Advocates of women’s ordination also point to the Phoebe and Junia passages, to the history of deaconesses and to the shortage of priests in many countries.

Many lay Catholics would welcome a change. In a Pew Research Center survey of February 2025, 59 percent of U.S. Catholics said the Church should allow women to become priests and 68 percent said it should allow women to become deacons.

Which churches ordain women priests?

Most Anglican provinces ordain women as deacons and priests. The Church of England ordained its first 32 women priests in March 1994, and Libby Lane became its first woman bishop in 2015. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and its predecessor churches have ordained women since 1970, while the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod does not. The United Methodist Church gave women full clergy rights in 1956. The Eastern Orthodox Church, like the Catholic Church, ordains only men as priests and bishops.

Related reading

• Can women serve as pastors and preachers?
• Anglicans and Catholics: the differences
• What does the Bible say about women pastors?