I originally posted this on my Substack, where I post more reflections type posts such as restoring the three hour liturgical fast.
Recently, Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich suggested restoring the subdeaconate for women as a non-ordained role that would allow greater participation in the liturgy and assist in the Church’s diaconal ministry.1
The language of “assisting the Church’s diaconal ministry” is notably broad and risks blurring the distinction between liturgical service and the diaconate itself, a distinction that remains the subject of ongoing debate.
That proposal raises a more basic question: does the the Missal of Paul VI (often called the Novus Ordo or Ordinary Form), or the Church’s current liturgical structure, actually need the subdiaconate at all?
There was a time when I would have answered yes without hesitation. As an instituted acolyte, who sometimes acts as a straw-subdeacon, the appeal is obvious. But after looking more closely at the historical role of the subdeacon, I have come to a different conclusion. I previously explored what a subdeacon is/was in an earlier post.
The subdeacon belonged to a liturgical system that no longer exists. His functions were tied to a set of restrictions that have since been removed or reassigned. Duties connected to the handling of sacred vessels and the care of linens that had contact with the Eucharist were once closely tied to clerical status. Today, those same functions are no longer reserved to clerics in the strict manner they once were. Instituted acolytes can assist with the purification of vessels, and lay ministers routinely carry out roles that would have been far more restricted in earlier periods.
Restoring the subdiaconate would not simply add a role. It would require redistributing functions that are already assigned elsewhere. When the subdiaconate was suppressed in 1972, his duties were divided among the lector, acolyte, and deacon. Reintroducing it would mean taking back responsibilities now carried by the deacon in the Novus Ordo. As of now it is the deacon who assists the priest with incense, prepares the altar at the preparation of the gifts, pours the water into the chalice, and assists with the missal during the Eucharistic Prayer. I previously examined where these duties went in another post.
That creates a second problem. As Pope Leo XIV recently noted, the diaconate is “not yet properly understood and properly developed and promoted within the Church.”2 Reducing the deacon’s already limited liturgical role in order to make space for a restored subdeaconate moves in the wrong direction.
On a functional level, the subdeacon made sense within the structure and time in which he existed. That structure has changed. Reintroducing the office now would not restore that system. It would duplicate roles, create confusion about roles and visible distinctions within the liturgy, and complicate a hierarchy that has already been simplified.
- The Catholic Herald, “Cardinal Hollerich Suggests Female Subdiaconate,” April 13, 2026, https://thecatholicherald.com/article/cardinal-hollerich-suggests-female-subdiaconate
- Deacon Greg Kandra, “Pope Leo on Ordaining Women as Deacons,” The Deacon’s Bench, September 19, 2025, https://thedeaconsbench.com/pope-leo-on-ordaining-women-as-deacons/
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