In the midst of a priest shortage, Pope Francis has declared his intention to create a commission that would study the possibility of the ordination of women as deacons, potentially opening a horizon of new opportunities and religious equality for women in the Catholic Church.

The announcement came May 12 at an International Union of Superiors General session held at the Vatican for leaders of women religious congregations.

“Constituting an official commission that might study the question?” said Pope Francis at the meeting, according to National Catholic Reporter. “I believe yes. It would do good for the church to clarify this point. I am in agreement. I will speak to do something like this.”

The commission could lead to the addition of women to the church’s all-male clergy, a goal that many women religious have been seeking for decades. Currently, deacons must be married or celibate men over the age of 35, according to CNN.

“Opening a commission to study the diaconate for women would be a great step for the Vatican in recognizing its own history,” said The Women’s Ordination Conference, according to CNN. “While WOC celebrates this step from the Vatican, until women are included in all decision-making structures and as priests and Bishops of the Church, equality remains painfully denied.”

Deacons are ordained members of the Catholic Church that can perform many of the same actions as priests, including the sacrament of baptism, matrimony, and funeral services.

While it is believed that women served as deacons in the early church, the capacity in which they served remains unclear. In recent years, debate has arisen over the lack of female leadership and input in the church. Francis addressed this idea during the session as well.

“Francis responded that the integration of women into the life of the church had been ‘very weak,’ and said: ‘We must go forward,’” wrote the National Catholic Reporter.

This is especially interesting considering the recent trend of using deacons to fill in gaps caused by a shortage of priests. 

Local parishes in the Archdiocese of Seattle, including Christ the King, have been holding meetings to address these gaps.

The issue stems from the fact that the Archdiocese has less priests but more parishes today than it did in 1980. Since 1980, the number of parishes has grown from 130 to 146, while the number of parish priests has dropped from 204 to 160. The number of missions has also decreased from 35 to 27.

To address this challenge, the North Seattle Deanery is considering either “maximizing lay leadership in service to the Catholic faith community and our parishes,” or to have “parishes working more closely together under one pastor or pastoral team… serving multiple parishes,” as described in the document “Pastoral Planning in the Archdiocese of Seattle”.

While Francis’ proposed commission is only one step towards strengthening the integration of women into the church, it is a positive one. Church leadership suffers not only from declining numbers of priests, but also a lack of women’s voices, as acknowledged by Francis during the conference.

“[A] woman looks at life with true eyes. We men cannot look at it so. The way of seeing problems, of seeing whatever thing is totally … different than men,” said Francis, according the the National Catholic Reporter. “They have to be complementary. In consultations, it is very important that women be there.”

There is no certainty that such a commission will bring any change, especially since the role of women in the church is a hot-button issue. Such discussions will face strong opposition from those who strongly denounce the ability of women to become priests, and who fear that allowing women to serve as deacons will enable them to serve as priests. Still, Francis’ announcement is a sign of progressive change in the church as the Vatican formally explores this groundbreaking issue.

Don’t worry, WOC. Equal participation of women in the church might not be as far off as once thought.