De-clericalizing the Church without clericalizing the laity

In December 2013, nine months into his pontificate, Pope Francis was asked if a woman could be appointed a cardinal. Now the College of Cardinals is an administrative body rather than purely a sacramental one. In terms of historical precedent, lay cardinals have existed, Teodolfo Mertel being the last one appointed in 1858, before the practice was discontinued in 1917 by Pope Benedict XV.

Pope Francis declined to answer this canonical question directly, he did however respond by stating that “Women in the Church must be valued, not ‘clericalized'".

His response disappointed those seeking female ordination and expanded women’s rights. While activists equate power with the priesthood, Pope Francis viewed that relying on clerical titles for authority merely reinforces clericalism. Hence attempting to "clericalize" women reinforces the idea that clergy are the sole holders of power.

The Two Views of Power

As laid out in Lumen Gentium, ecclesial power is not a personal right but a sacred trust delegated by Christ through Holy Orders, encompassing the distinct mandates to teach doctrine, sanctify through the sacraments, and shepherd the Church.

There is also a temporal dimension of governance and power, in which bishops and cardinals exercise administrative authority, oversee financial affairs, and manage the practical and civil affairs of both their dioceses and the Vatican.

When looking back to Pope Francis, it seemed he focused on servant leadership and aimed to reform church governance by allowing qualified laypeople to manage administrative and financial roles. Theoretically this would allow clergy to focus more directly on their pastoral and sacramental duties.

His approach led to criticisms from some traditionalist factions within the Church who mainly viewed power through a rigid hierarchy where spiritual and administrative authority flows strictly downward through ordained clergy to preserve doctrinal purity. Progressive reformers on the other hand understood power through democratic participation and institutional equality, arguing that true lay authority required shared decision making and access to holy orders.

Ultimately, while Pope Francis distinguished between administrative control and sacramental ministry, both traditionalists and progressives tended to view true ecclesial power as inseparable from the ordained priesthood.

Lay Appointments and the Distinction of the Sanctuary

Both Pope Francis and Pope Leo XIV have treated lay empowerment and priestly identity as complementary rather than opposing forces. It seems that their underlying strategy rests on the assumption that the more laypeople share in running the Church, the clearer the priesthood's distinct, strictly sacramental role becomes.

We see this in 2018, when Pope Francis appointed journalist Paolo Ruffini as Prefect of the Dicastery for Communication, the first layperson to lead a major Vatican dicastery. Then in 2021 he appointed Sister Alessandra Smerilli as Secretary of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development. He expanded this strategy in 2022 by appointing Sister Raffaella Petrini, Sister Yvonne Reungoat, and laywoman Maria Lia Zervino to the Dicastery for Bishops, granting non-ordained members a direct voice in selecting future Bishops for the Church. In 2025 he appointed Sister Simona Brambilla as Prefect of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life, making her the first woman to lead a dicastery overseeing religious orders globally.

A more recent example of this strategy was Pope Leo XIV in June 2026 appointing Maria Montserrat Alvarado, an Mexican-American, the former President and COO of EWTN News, as the prefect of the Dicastery for Communication of the Holy See. Later in August 2026, Pope Leo named four laypeople to the Council for the Economy, the Vatican's financial oversight body. During the same month he also named Patrick Kelly, Supreme Knight and CEO of the Knights of Columbus, as a member of the Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life.

Reassigning administrative roles breaks the long-held assumption that institutional governance requires holy orders, dismantling clericalism at its root rather than simply granting laypeople clerical functions to make them feel empowered.

The Female Diaconate

In August 2016, Pope Francis instituted a study analysing if there was a historical basis for the women's diaconate. When the study reached an impasse on if early historical practices constituted sacramental ordination. He instituted a second study in April 2020 on female sacramental ordination.

Then in December 2025, the report was submitted to newly elected Pope Leo. It concluded that while deaconesses existed historically, evidence does not support admitting women to the diaconate as a degree of the Sacrament of Holy Orders.

It seems that the sacramental boundary of ordaining female priests remains the one line neither pontiff has been willing to cross. Executive, managerial, and administrative governance can be given to lay women and men without problem but sacramental ministry cannot.

The Vatican made this explicitly clear in June 2026 by rejecting a proposal from the German Bishop's synodal path to allow the laity to preach during mass.

By appointing laypeople to oversee Vatican departments, the Church seems to be transferring administrative authority while keeping the sanctuary strictly intact. Hence the priesthood and its sacred duties remain reserved for clergy alone.

The Bureaucratic Burden and the Synodal Response

Critics have often pointed out that bishops and cardinals hold such sweeping administrative, financial, and civil authority that they often function less as spiritual shepherds and more like corporate CEOs buried under paperwork.

Others note that this heavy administrative burden leaves them with little time or energy for direct evangelization and hands-on pastoral work, making them largely unapproachable to the very people they serve. Furthermore, reaching a bishop often requires navigating gatekeepers who control access to his desk, making approachability another concern.

Perhaps this is why both Pope Francis and Pope Leo have relied heavily on a process known as synodality. Historically, synods were brief, legislative gatherings of bishops called to settle canon law or enforce doctrine. As reimagined over the past decade, synodality has been transformed from an administrative event into an overarching philosophy of Church governance.

When participants gather in a synodal assembly, they sit at round tables as structural equals: cardinals, bishops, religious sisters, and laypeople. The documents produced by these assemblies carry no canonical penalties and issue no dogmatic decrees. Instead, they serve as records of consensus, designed to cultivate a culture of dialogue rather than top-down command.

Yes it is a slow process but it counters two deep-seated perceptions of Catholic life, which is the perceived authoritarianism of Bishops used to unchecked authority, and the passive servility of laity used to taking orders.

Reducing Administrative Power to Restore Pastoral Vision

The ultimate goal of dismantling clericalism is not simply to redistribute organizational authority or appease political sensibilities. It seems what Pope Leo is trying to do is to shrink the administrative burdens and paperwork that the college of cardinals are subject to. The result of which would be senior clergy that is less bureaucratic and more shepherdic.

This sort of redefinition challenges both extremes in the church. To progressives, it insists that lay empowerment does not and should not be based on holy orders. To traditionalists, it demands a radical surrender of clerical control over money, policy and executive administration.

By insisting that women and laypeople wield genuine authority without needing to be "clericalized," Pope Francis and Leo have directly implied that power in the Church was never supposed to be defined by the size of a chancery or the title on a desk. By slowly stripping administrative dominion away from Cardinals , the popes are attempting something far more radical than administrative restructuring. They are attempting to return the laity to the world, and the priesthood back to God.