By Joshua McElwee
VATICAN CITY, Dec 4 (Reuters) - A high-level Vatican commission voted against allowing Catholic women to serve as deacons, maintaining the global Church's practice of all-male clergy, according to report given to Pope Leo and released on Thursday.
The commission, in a 7-1 vote, said historical research and theological investigation "excludes the possibility" of allowing women to serve as deacons at this time but recommended further study of the issue.
The report said the group's assessment of the matter was strong, but "does not as of today allow a definitive judgment to be formulated".
The late Pope Francis instituted two commissions to study the possibility of women serving as Catholic deacons, who, like priests, are ordained, but cannot celebrate Mass.
The commissions met in secrecy. Thursday's report is the first time that the results of the discussions have been made public.
Pope John Paul II banned women from serving as priests in 1994, but did not specifically address the issue of women deacons.
Advocates point to evidence that women served as deacons in the early centuries of the Church. One women, Phoebe, is mentioned as a deacon in one of the letters of the apostle St. Paul.
(Reporting by Joshua McElwee, editing by Alvise Armellini)
