Called to Serve – Two Women’s Witness

Today we release a short introduction to two women seeking ordination to the diaconate in the Boston region: Philomėne Pèan and Kelly Meraw. Both of them are working in full time positions to serve members of their communities and churches, and feel a longing to be ordained as deacons. This would, they say, be a faithful restoration of ancient orders for women to the diaconate, a respected role women held for centuries before it fell out of practice.

“Called to Serve: Two Women’s Witness” is a short film worked on by documentary filmmakers Pilar Timpane and Andrea Patiño Contreras, and is part of a longer term film project that will look at women’s roles in the Church by Timpane and producer Christine Delp.

This Fall, Pope Francis invites the Church around the world to go on a journey of renewal by becoming a more listening, participatory, and inclusive Church. We hope stories like Kelly and Philomėne can have space to be heard within this inspiring process.

We seek to acknowledge these women’s work and dreams, and to hopefully reimagine how their gifts can be received within the Church. A seat at the table. Respect. To make visible what has so long been invisible. “Called to Serve” brings these women’s witness into full view.Called to Serve: Two Women’s Witness

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Endorser
“I have worked alongside many lay and religious women in my ministry who have exhibited outstanding ability for ministry.  Many have taught me by their example how to be a more effective minister, and by their instruction, helped me to grow in this role…It’s time that the Church gets in step with society and recognizes the equality of women in the workplace.  Women are as capable as men in the work of ministry, and have demonstrated the same equality in scholarship, skills and education as men.”
Fr. Joseph A. Genito, O.S.A
Pastor, St. Thomas of Villanova Parish, Philadelphia, PA
Witness
“If there were women deacons in my parish, lay women would relate in a deep and meaningful way to deacons who look, act, speak and feel more like themselves…Though I am an unlikely choice to wear the alb and stole, I have a deep commitment to service in Christ’s name and I try to live it every day. Any need that arises, I am ready to shoulder it, though some needs of our sisters and brothers would be well- or better-served by a woman’s different compassion.”
Deacon Bill Zapcic
Parish Deacon and Homilist, Retired Journalist, Tinton Falls, NJ
Endorser
“Not only is ordaining women as deacons a restoration of the dynamism of the early Church, it is a matter of justice!”
Fr. Stephen P Newton, CSC
Executive Director, Association of US Catholic Priests, Notre Dame, IN

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