Restoring Orders: A Conversation with Phyllis Zagano

From the beginning, the Christian community was characterized by many different forms of ministry carried out by men and women who, obedient to the working of the Holy Spirit, devoted their lives to the building up of the Church. At times, the charisms that the Spirit constantly pours out on the baptized took on a visible and tangible form of immediate service to the Christian community, one recognized as an indispensable diakonia for the community.

– Antiquum Ministerium, Apostolic Letter issued moto propio by Pope Francis, May 10, 2021

Our special thanks to Phyllis Zagano for joining us on September 26, 2024, to discuss the history and theology of the women’s diaconate. Dr. Zagano walked us through the evolution of Holy Orders from the ancient church through Vatican II, surveyed the various commissions that have been charged with studying the women’s diaconate in the wake of the council, and explained why she feels the argument that Pope Francis has opposed the women’s diaconate because of a long-term strategy to “declericalize” the church ultimately doesn’t hold up. We also looked at the links between baptism and ordination, and considered what to make of the fact that the women’s diaconate will not appear on the Synod agenda but instead be taken up by a “study group” specifically focused on ministerial forms.

Just Church: Catholic Social Teaching, Synodality, and Women (Paulist Press, 2023)

Theological Studies Journal (home of Dr. Zagano’s article, “Survey of Vatican Studies on the Diaconate of Women”)

Article archive at Today’s American Catholic

Just Catholic page at Religion News Service

“Women Deacons? The Synodal Process and Women’s Ordination” (Commonweal, July 23, 2023)

Selected excerpt from “Management, Not Ministry—The Future of Women in the Catholic Church?,” Rita Cassella Jones Lecture on Women and U.S. Catholicism at Fordham University, delivered September 17, 2024

What’s a Deacon? by Irene Kelly (Clear Faith Publishing) and accompanying parish bulletin inserts (for young readers and aspiring deacons and deaconesses)

Phyllis Zagano, PhD, holds a research appointment at Hofstra University in New York. She has lectured throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, and Australia. Her many awards include the 2014 Isaac Hecker Award for Social Justice from the Paulist Center Community in Boston. Dr. Zagano’s groundbreaking work on women in the diaconate led to her appointment in 2016 to the Pontifical Commission for the Study of the Diaconate of Women.

Image: Stained glass window depicting sacraments of marriage, holy orders, and extreme unction, narthex of Saint John Neumann Catholic Church, Sunbury, Ohio. Nheyob / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0