‘It could be a world-changing decision,’ member of new Vatican committee on female deacons says

By Julie Zauzmer
August 2 at 12:14 PM

In May, Pope Francis remarked that the Catholic Church should study whether women could be “reinstated” as deacons — a proposal that could introduce a role for women in the Catholic clergy that has been open only to men for centuries.

On Tuesday, he made good on that comment, made last spring to a gathering of nuns. The Vatican announced the members of the new Commission for the Study of the Diaconate of Women, whose examinations may weigh both church tradition and also possibly take stock of contemporary views and needs among Catholic clergy and worshipers.

Seven men and six women will serve on the committee. They include priests, nuns and professors; several live in Rome, but one, Phyllis Zagano, teaches at Hofstra University in New York. Zagano has written a book entitled “Holy Saturday: An Argument for the Restoration of the Female Diaconate in the Catholic Church.”

“The dignity of women to be recognized as able to minister as part of the ordained diaconate — to recognize that dignity is world-changing,” Zagano said in an interview with The Washington Post shortly after she learned she had been tapped for the committee. “I think it really speaks specifically to the way the church views women. My hope for the commission would be that it would make a decision.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2016/08/02/this-new-committee-will-study-female-deacons-in-the-catholic-church/