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Witnesses
Mary Caroline Jonah
Retired Pastoral Associate, Detroit, MI
April 4, 2024

“I started out in aeronautical engineering. In graduate school, I had an experience that made my faith come alive. About a year later, I experienced a call to priesthood. I was receiving direction from an Episcopal priest, and belonged to the most radical church of any denomination in Detroit. The church supported me all through my journey. I believe God called me from my ministry as an ordained pastor in the United Methodist Church so that my life would be a presence of an ordained woman in the Catholic Church. This is the heart of what I am in all I do. God is again calling the Church to be ministered to, and minister with ordained women. [If women were deacons,] [w]omen would then be able to preach at Mass, the only place most Catholics gather. There is a reality to ordination which is irrevocable and affects all we are, all we say, all we do, all who encounter us, all who are blessed, fed, healed, housed, taught by us.”

Witness
“I have been blessed with women who have shared their many gifts with me. They have broken open Scripture for the people of God with their own perspective and insight. They have shown ways of leading which empower and confirm the value of each individual person. They have offered perspectives and visions of the Spirit’s call to live God’s love for all.”
Don Highberger, SJ
University Campus Minister and Hospital Pastoral Minister, St. Louis, MO
Witness
“If I could be ordained a deacon, the people would hear the Good News preached with authority at the pulpit and in the world. For me personally, it would feel like the ability to serve in the manner in which God has put on my heart to serve. As a minister of the word, liturgy and charity, I would preach the word to inspire others to love God and their neighbor. I would continue to bring communion to the sick and imprisoned, but I would also free our priests by taking on some baptisms, weddings, and funeral services that are outside of the Mass. It would feel like the fullness of what I was meant to do.”
Theresa Shepherd-Lukasik
Director of Adult Faith Formation, St. Joseph Parish, Seattle, WA
Witness
“And when I get antsy waiting, as I often do, I remember the women I met who showed me that the ‘not yet’ is an “already.” Women deacons have existed and continue to exist. Someday, I may be one of them.“
Julia D’Agostino, MDiv
Theology Student, ThM Candidate

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