The Catholic Church currently does not ordain women as deacons, though Pope Francis established commissions to study the historical role of women deacons in the early Church, leading to debate and calls for greater female participation in ministry; recent Vatican reports, however, voted against allowing women deacons, citing theological and canonical obstacles, while still supporting fuller recognition of women in other church roles. Last December, many were confused and disappointed when Study Group 5, one of 10 established during the Synod on Synodality to delve more deeply into theological, doctrinal and canonical questions, issued its 7-page interim report on women deacons and seemed to close the door once again on the admission of women to the diaconate.

Please join us on the eve of International Women’s Day to hear from one of the foremost experts on this question.

Dr. Phyllis Zagano is Senior Research Associate-in-Residence and Adjunct Professor of Religion at Hofstra University. She joined Hofstra University in 2002.

Her groundbreaking study, Holy Saturday: An Argument for the Restoration of the Female Diaconate in the Catholic Church (Crossroad, 2000), won both Catholic Press Association and College Theology Society Annual Book Awards More recent works have also received awards: Women & Catholicism: Gender, Communion, and Authority (Macmillan, 2012), (Catholic Press Association Book Award) and Women: Icons of Christ (Paulist 2020) (Catholic Media Association Book Award).

Her most recent book, Just Church: Catholic Social Teaching, Synodality, and Women (Paulist Press, 2023), examines synods past and present in relation to the application of Catholic Social Teaching to questions regarding women in the church.

She has been honored with the Catherine of Siena Distinguished Layperson Award from Voice of the Faithful (2012), the Isaac Hecker Award for Social Justice from The Paulist Center, Boston (2014); and the Louis J. Trivison Award from FutureChurch (2023).

On August 2, 2016, Pope Francis appointed her to the Papal Commission for the Study of Women in the Diaconate, which met four times in Rome between November 2016 and June 2018.

(Full Bio can be found here https://sites.hofstra.edu/phyllis-zagano/)