Study Commission on the Women's Diaconate

Pope Francis created two Study Commissions on the Women's Diaconate, the first in August 2016 to review the theology of women deacons and their nature in the first centuries of the Catholic Church, and a second in April 2020 following discussion of the possibility of the women's diaconate at the Synod on the Amazon in October 2019. Their membership was equally divided between men and women. Neither resulted in a published report.

Discussing the ordination of women in October 2023, Cardinal Robert Prevost, the future Pope Leo XIV, excluded the possibility of women priests but observed that the possibility of women deacons has been the subject of two Vatican commissions. He said this demonstrates "openness to giving consideration" to that question.