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On March 25, 2026, Dame Sarah Mullally was formally installed as the 106th Archbishop of Canterbury at Canterbury Cathedral. She is the first woman to hold this ancient office in its more than 1,400-year history. For many in the Church of England and broader Anglican Communion, this event marks a long-awaited triumph of inclusion and progress. Mullally, a former chief nursing officer who entered ordained ministry later in life, previously served as Bishop of London—the first woman in that role as well. Her installation, attended by royalty and political figures, was presented as a moment of celebration and reflection on the evolving role of women in church leadership.
Yet from a Catholic perspective, this "historic" event cannot be celebrated as a genuine advancement in apostolic ministry. It represents a further departure from the sacramental reality established by Christ and handed down through the apostles. No Catholic should validate it as authentic episcopacy. Sarah Mullally is not a bishop, and she is not a priest. Women cannot receive holy orders, and the Anglican innovations in this area—beginning with the ordination of women as priests in 1994 and bishops in 2015—render such "ordinations" null and void.
The History of the Archbishopric and Anglican Departures
The See of Canterbury traces its roots to St. Augustine of Canterbury, sent by Pope St. Gregory the Great in 597 AD to evangelize the Anglo-Saxons. For centuries, the Archbishop of Canterbury was in communion with the Bishop of Rome, serving as the senior bishop in England within the universal Catholic Church. The break came in the 16th century under Henry VIII, who severed ties with Rome to secure his divorce and assert royal supremacy over the Church in England. What emerged was the Church of England: a national church retaining much of Catholic liturgy and structure on the surface but increasingly shaped by Protestant theology and state control.
Apostolic succession—the unbroken line of bishops traced back to the apostles through the laying on of hands—was already called into question by changes to the ordination rites in the Edwardine Ordinal under Edward VI. In 1896, Pope Leo XIII issued the apostolic letter Apostolicae Curae, declaring Anglican orders "absolutely null and utterly void." The judgment rested on defects in both form (the words used in the rite) and intention (the understanding of what priesthood and episcopacy entail). The Catholic Church has never retracted this declaration; it remains the authoritative teaching.
The Church of England took further steps away from Catholic tradition in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. It began ordaining women as deacons in the 1980s, as priests in 1994, and as bishops in 2015. These changes were driven by cultural pressures for gender equality rather than theological development rooted in Scripture and Tradition. The ordination of women as priests was controversial at the time, leading to the departure of many Anglo-Catholics to Rome or other bodies. The move to women bishops deepened divisions. Sarah Mullally's path—consecrated as a bishop in 2015 and now elevated to the primatial see—embodies this trajectory.
The Theological Controversy: Why Women Cannot Receive Holy Orders
The core issue is not cultural or historical but sacramental and Christological. The Catholic Church teaches that the sacrament of holy orders configures a man to Christ the High Priest in a unique way. Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of the Father, chose only men as His apostles (the Twelve). He did so deliberately, not in conformity to the cultural norms of first-century Judaism (which had female religious figures in other traditions) but as part of the divine plan. The apostles, in turn, ordained men as their successors—bishops, priests, and deacons.
This practice was maintained universally in the Church for nearly 2,000 years. The constant tradition of the Church, the explicit teaching of Scripture (e.g., 1 Timothy 2:11-15, 3:1-7; Titus 1:5-9), and the living Magisterium confirm that the Church has no authority to ordain women to the priesthood or episcopate. St. John Paul II declared this definitively in Ordinatio Sacerdotalis (1994): the Church "has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women." This is not a matter of discipline that can change with the times; it touches the deposit of faith.
Holy orders is not a job or a leadership role open to anyone with talent and vocation. It is a sacrament that acts in persona Christi capitis—in the person of Christ the Head. The male priesthood reflects the spousal mystery of Christ and His Bride, the Church. A woman cannot image Christ the Bridegroom in this sacramental way, just as a man cannot image the Church as Bride in the sacrament of marriage. Attempts to do so distort the sign and empty the sacrament of its meaning.
When the Anglican Communion introduced women's ordination, it compounded the defects already identified in Apostolicae Curae. A church that ordains women as "priests" and "bishops" demonstrates that it no longer intends to do what the Catholic Church does in ordination: confer the ministerial priesthood that participates in Christ's eternal priesthood. The line of succession is broken not only by historical defects but by a fundamental change in the matter and intention of the sacrament. Sarah Mullally's "consecration" as bishop and subsequent "installation" as archbishop, therefore, do not convey holy orders. She remains a laywoman in terms of Catholic sacramental reality—however gifted or sincere she may be in her personal faith and service.
Why No Catholic Should Validate This "Parody of the Episcopacy"
Catholics are called to ecumenism and charity toward our Anglican brothers and sisters. Many Anglicans love the Lord, uphold moral teachings on key issues, and seek unity with the Catholic Church. Personal friendships and cooperation in the public square remain possible and good. However, charity does not require us to pretend that invalid sacraments are valid or that a fundamental break with apostolic Tradition is a "development."
To treat Sarah Mullally as a true archbishop or bishop would be to affirm a parody of the episcopacy—one that mimics the external forms (mitre, crozier, title) while lacking the sacramental substance. It would imply that the Catholic Church's constant teaching on the male-only priesthood is merely optional or culturally conditioned, which it is not. It would also confuse the faithful, especially those exploring the Catholic faith or considering the Personal Ordinariates established by Pope Benedict XVI for Anglicans seeking full communion while preserving elements of their heritage.
The Anglican Communion itself is deeply divided over these issues. Conservative provinces, particularly in the Global South (e.g., through GAFCON), have expressed grave concerns about Mullally's appointment, viewing it as incompatible with biblical teaching on male headship in the church and further straining the bonds of the Communion. Her elevation highlights the fragmentation: what one part celebrates as progress, another sees as abandonment of Scripture.
A Call to Clarity and Fidelity
The installation of the first woman as "Archbishop of Canterbury" is indeed historic—but not in the triumphant sense often portrayed. It marks another chapter in the gradual Protestantization and cultural accommodation of the Church of England, moving it further from the Catholic faith it once shared. Catholics should respond with prayer for unity, but unity grounded in truth, not ambiguity or false equivalence.
We pray for Sarah Mullally as a fellow Christian, that she may come to a deeper understanding of Christ's will for His Church. We pray for the Anglican Communion, that many within it may return to the fullness of the faith once delivered to the saints. And we reaffirm our own fidelity: the Catholic Church did not invent the male priesthood; Christ did. No synod, cultural shift, or installation ceremony can alter that reality.
Holy orders remain reserved to men because the Church is bound by the example and command of her Lord. To claim otherwise is not liberation—it is a departure from the apostolic foundation. True unity will come not through validating invalid orders but through a humble return to the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church founded by Christ on the rock of Peter.
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