While the hierarchy entrenches itself in documents that repeat ridiculous formulas such as that the fact of being male is essential to be ordained, the Gospel continues to make its way. Not in the dicasteries or in the episcopal offices, but in the concrete life of the People of God.
The Vatican’s declaration of December 4—another negative regarding the ordination of women as deacons and priests—reveals an uncomfortable truth that can no longer be disguised: the ecclesiastical hierarchy is stopped, immobile, petrified in a model of power incapable of listening to the Gospel that it claims to defend.
It is an apparatus that fears to move because any step could fracture it. And while the apparatus clings to its rigidity, the Gospel continues its march, propelled by living communities that do not wait for permission to respond to grace. This disconnect between a paralyzed structure and a Gospel in motion is the clearest sign of the crisis facing the contemporary Catholic Church. A crisis that does not arise from the debate about the ordination of women, but from the institutional inability to let the Spirit circulate without fear of destabilizing the patriarchal architecture that sustains it.An unhealthy hierarchy, stopped, fearful, and monitored by its own guardians
The commission’s rejection is not an isolated event: it is the expression of a blocked, unhealthy church system, trapped between ultra-conservative sectors that monitor every word and gesture, and a believing base that cries out for recognition and justice.
They speak of synodality, of communal discernment, of a Church that walks together. But when the time comes to make decisions that affect the very heart of clerical power—such as the possibility of opening the sacramental ministry to women—the hierarchy retreats into a defensive fear. It does not decide. It does not risk. It does not advance. It is very sick.
Ecclesiastical leaders seem to govern under a permanent state of internal threat, fearing to provoke a rupture that, paradoxically, already exists in the real life of the communities.
The curia, sustained by ultra-conservative factions that fear losing control, acts as a pressure chamber that prevents any movement. The commission on the female diaconate is only the latest example of how the institution prefers paralysis before faithfulness to the Gospel. **The Gospel, on the other hand, does not stop**While the hierarchy entrenches itself in documents that repeat ridiculous formulas such as that the fact of being male is essential to be ordained, the Gospel continues to make its way. Not in the dicasteries or in the episcopal offices, but in the concrete life of the People of God.
Jesus did not choose as the first bearer of the paschal announcement a male priest, nor a guardian of the Temple, nor an expert in the Law. He chose a woman. Mary Magdalene.
He did not ask for permission.
He did not consult a commission.
She did not form a committee to assess the doctrinal impact.
She simply entrusted the mission to those who were there, available, faithful, open to the Spirit.
Mary Magdalene, apostle among the apostles, unsettles the hierarchy both yesterday and today. Her testimony continues to remind us that the Gospel flows in a direction contrary to the structures that seek to domesticate it.
The blatant contradiction: a hierarchy that paralyzes itself to not recognize what it itself knows
The historical evidence regarding women deacons is abundant. The demands of the People of God have been clear in the synodal process. The pastoral clamor of the communities is eloquent. The theological injustice is evident.
And what is the institutional response?
The hierarchy fears moving a piece of the board because it knows that the entire building would have to be reconsidered. It fears that recognizing women as sacramental subjects implies reviewing the theology of power, the clerical structure, the male monopoly over the altar.
It is not the Gospel that blocks the hierarchy; it is the hierarchy that blocks the Gospel.
Karl Rahner had already anticipated it: the Church of the future will be a Church of small communities or it will not be
Rahner stated that, faced with institutional rigidity, the Church of the future would be configured as small communities of faith, informal spaces where the Gospel is lived before it is regulated. Today that prophecy is being fully fulfilled.
Around the world, women, non-binary people, laypeople, theologians, community leaders, and committed faithful are sustaining communities where prayer, accompaniment, blessing, proclamation of the Word, and celebration of life take place. While the hierarchy insists on closing doors, these communities are opening them. These networks are already rebuilding from the ground up a Church closer to the movement of Jesus than to the curial palace. **Women’s ministry movements, inclusive Catholic communities, and grassroots Christian networks are the living expression of a Christianity that is not willing to wait for Rome to resolve its own political fears.** **An institution that fears losing control cannot listen to the Spirit.** The hierarchical Church speaks of the Holy Spirit with solemnity, but acts as if the Spirit were a subordinate official to the dicasteries. The commission states that it cannot issue a definitive judgment, but insists that women cannot be admitted to the diaconate. It is a message that combines doctrinal arrogance and profound institutional insecurity. **The structure fears opening a process that has already begun without it. It fears recognizing the spiritual authority that women already exercise. It fears legitimizing a movement that did not originate in the Vatican palaces, but in the peripheries where the People of God are risking their lives.**The most reasonable ecclesiastical leaders, trapped between what they know is true and what they fear to admit publicly, remain motionless. Paralyzed by the ghost of internal division, but unable to see that the true division is the distance between the Gospel and the hierarchy.
Renewal will not come from above: it will come from below, as always
The history of the Church is clear: it has never been the hierarchy that initiates great transformations.
He didn’t do it with the liturgy. He didn’t do it with the mission. He didn’t do it with religious life. He didn’t do it with the option for the poor. He won’t do it with the equality of women. The renewal, when it comes, will spring from those informal communities that Rahner glimpsed: small, resilient, creative, connected by grace and not by blind obedience. Communities already living the Gospel that the institution fears to proclaim. One of these communities that wants to follow this renewed path is the Christian Association — **Let’s abandon this hierarchy to its contradictions** The Vatican’s refusal is not only a doctrinal error or a pastoral setback: it is the confession of a hierarchy that is no longer capable of guiding the People of God. A papacy that fears breaking apart cannot lead. A curia that fears losing control cannot discern. **A Church that fears women cannot say it follows the Jesus who entrusted everything to the testimony of a woman.** **The Gospel continues on its way.** **The hierarchy is stopped. It’s time to create grassroots communities worldwide that can walk forward without the burden of fearful, sick, or corrupt leaders.** The question is no longer whether the hierarchy will allow women to exercise the sacramental ministry. The question is how long it will take to recognize what is already happening: that authentic renewal comes—once again—from below, from women, from the peripheries, from the Spirit that the hierarchy cannot domesticate. **José Antonio Vázquez Mosquera**English version translated with AI