One of the most hotly-debated topics today in the Catholic Church concerns the role of women. Jane Coll upholds as binding the Church teaching that they cannot be ordained as priests. She then explores whether women could be ordained deaconesses. The author takes a new look at this issue and seeks an answer that is compatible with the teachings of Scripture, Tradition and the Magisterium. She has based her work on the premise that the Church cannot introduce any changes that contradict the deposit of Revelation. By discussing the meaning of the Sacrament of Ordination and the role of women in the Church under the teachings of Scripture, Tradition and the Magisterium she indicates that, while the Church could not ordain women as priests, it could ordain them as deacons. However, are such deaconesses part of the sacrament of Order or are they sacramentals? Could the whole issue of women's ordination be side-stepped by creating an order of non-ordained deaconesses with wide parish responsibilities? This book attempts to answer these questions as well as a host of others on this fascinating and topical theme.