Catholic Church doctrine on the ordination of women

The doctrine of the Catholic Church on ordination, as expressed in the current Code of Canon Law and the Catechism of the Catholic Church, is that "Only a baptized man (Latin: vir) validly receives sacred ordination." The Catholic Church teaches that this requirement is a matter of divine law and thus doctrinal. The question of whether only males can receive ordination to the diaconate has not been definitively ruled out the Magisterium (i.e., the pope, the Roman Curia, and the bishops), although some considered that there is a fundamental unity between deacons, priests, and bishops in the single sacrament of Holy Orders, which they interpret to mean that women cannot validly be ordained as deacons.Pope Francis, speaking of priestly ordination of women in February 2014, has stated that "with regards to the ordination of women, the church has spoken and says no ... That door is closed." The installed ministries of lector and acolyte, when formally conferred and exercised on a long-term basis (as opposed to an altar server, who only fills in for them), are reserved solely for men preparing for diaconal and priestly ordination.

Some supporters of women's ordination have asserted that there have been ordained female priests and bishops in antiquity. The church's position is that, although "a few heretical sects in the first centuries, especially Gnostic ones, entrusted the exercise of the priestly ministry to women: this innovation was immediately noted and condemned by the Fathers who considered it as unacceptable in the Church." In response some supporters of women's ordination argue those sects were not heretical but orthodox.

There is evidence that women were deacons within the Christian community. For example, Paul's letter to the Romans, written in the first century CE, mentions a woman deacon:

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