Looking back on 2024: DD’s Year in Review
An essential grace of 2024 is the undeniable movement of the Holy Spirit, whose work cannot be stopped. Through the collaboration of hundreds of synod members participating in the Synod on Synodality – and the courageous testimonies of scores of women serving faithfully in diaconal roles from around the world – the Synod affirmed that the question of women’s access to the diaconal ministry remains open.
This conclusion written in paragraph #60 of the final synod document – and born of prayer, encounter, and discernment – reflects a Church seeking to be attentive to the Spirit’s stirrings, co-responsible for mission, and responsive to the needs of its people. We end the year with hope and trust in God’s unfolding plan, as the decision to continue this discernment honors the complexity of the question and the desire for a Church that walks into the future together. Truly, it is good that the discernment continues. And it is good that the final synod document was approved by Pope Francis and is now part of the ordinary magisterium of the Church.
Discerning Deacons played a pivotal role in making the reality of women’s diaconal ministry more visible to the global Church. Through prayer services, testimonies, and synodal engagement, we brought the lived experiences of women ministering on the peripheries into the heart of the Church’s discernment. St. Phoebe continues to serve as a guiding light, her story reminding us that Jesus and his Church have called on women since the beginning of Christianity.
Here are some of the key contributions which the DD community and our collaborators made this year:
Discerning Diakonia Forum
April 29
Over 1,000 attendees participated in this virtual global synodal forum, including members of the Synod Assembly.
Twenty-eight Catholic organizations joined Discerning Diakonia as participating organizations.
Discussions centered on the vision of a prophetic, synodal diaconate that includes both men and women. Deacon William Ditewig grounded us in the history of the restoration of the diaconate as a permanent order.
Witnesses shared poignant testimonies of how they are living out diakonia in their lives. Click here to hear testimonies by Rosella Kinoshameg, AnnaMarie Pacione, Lonnie Ellis and Aimee Shelide-Mayer.
St. Phoebe Prayer Services
Monthly
Discerning Deacons concluded two years of hosting monthly St. Phoebe Prayer Services for a Synodal Church, involving hundreds of participants across various communities.
Throughout the listening, continental and assembly phases we prayed for the intercession of St. Phoebe for a synodal Church that commits to practices of encounter, listening, dialogue, and discerning the will of the Holy Spirit.
We are grateful for the Phoebe circles which took turns presiding at the prayer services, including Miami, California, Phoenix, CEAMA/Amazon, Australia, and Detroit.
Our concluding St. Phoebe Prayer Service for a Synodal Church was a two-part celebration, beginning in-person at San Lorenzo Chapel in Rome and closing with a virtual prayer service hosted by our Rome pilgrims later that evening on, Oct. 3rd. Click here to read the testimonies by Dermis de Jesús, Lisa Amman, Rosa Bonilla and Daniela Valdez shared at San Lorenzo Chapel.
St. Phoebe Feast Day Celebrations
September
Throughout September, Catholics at more than 130 parishes, schools, universities, and institutions in the U.S. and beyond celebrated St. Phoebe and lifted up women’s voices.
We witnessed the desire for a prophetic diaconate that includes men and women for a synodal church that goes out to the peripheries.
An international delegation of women ministry leaders presented an update on the growing devotion to St. Phoebe during a meeting with a member of the Vatican Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.
Pilgrimage to Rome
October
On September 30th, Pope Francis met with a 8-person delegation of women in ministry, and he blessed an icon of St. Phoebe. “Part of what we wanted to convey was our gratitude for the synod, which has created a way to dream together about what’s possible in our church,” Casey Stanton told the National Catholic Reporter in an interview after meeting with the pope.
During the Second Synod Assembly in Rome, DD and the Ecclesial Conference of the Amazon (CEAMA) co-sponsored a pilgrimage with 55 pilgrims from Australia, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, and the U.S.
On the Feast Day of St. Francis of Assisi, Oct. 4, Cardinal Pedro Barreto, SJ, president of CEAMA, offered welcoming remarks and Sr. Laura Vicuña Pereira Manso, vice president of CEAMA, led a presentation on Integral Ecology, the Ministeriality of Women, and Synodality. Click here to read the witness statements by Sr. Laura Vicuña, Sr. Elizabeth Young, Rosella Kinoshameg and Kascha Sanor.
Following the forum, Cardinal Barreto gifted Pope Francis our pilgrimage t-shirt, “For Every Francis, A Clare” which pilgrim Angela Dimler designed.
Jessica Morel offered the reflection during Mass at the Basilica di Santa Maria in Cosmedin – an ancient deaconry and early Christian welfare center, where charitable distributions were given to the poor. Ten members of her family traveled to Rome to witness her speaking! You can read Jessica’s full reflection here or hear her breaking open the Word here.
While in Rome, we made visible the statues of women deacons above the colonnade at St. Peter’s Square. We shared the stories of these and other notable saints with college and graduate students as part of Synodality CENTERS, a creative collaboration of 15 colleges from the U.S. who are sowing seeds for a synodal church through engagement with young adults, theologians, and campus ministers. Click here to learn about the women of the colonnade – Women of Courage and Confidence.
Making Visible the Vision of the Diaconate
Early in the year, the conversation around the inclusion of women in the diaconate seemed to be gaining momentum, fueled by a shared conviction that “a healthy Church needs deacons” as expressed by Synod member Deacon Geert de Cubber.
Throughout the year women witnessed the call they have received in their hearts to grow diakonia in their faith communities and respond to pressing pastoral needs through service, preaching and liturgy. Rhonda Miska who convenes the Catholic Women’s Preaching Circle to encourage women to break open the Word of God, observes, “In this circle, I watch women grow, develop, and claim their call to preach with more confidence and love.”
Our journey this year has been marked by prayer, witness, resilience, and hope—all deeply rooted in the Church’s tradition and the realities of our world. As Anna Robertson wrote in one of her reflections: “The Kingdom is at hand! Like Jesus, we, too, are living in urgent times, and our participation matters.” In a world aching for peace, Ellie Hidalgo highlighted the essential role of women in peacemaking.
We shared our emerging vision towards a prophetic, synodal diaconate in a May 2024 contribution for the Interim Phase of the global Synod.
Challenges and Opportunities
While 2024 was a year of hope and progress, it was not without challenges. In March, the Vatican announced the creation of 10 study groups tasked with exploring the complex issues raised during the First Synod Assembly. The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) assumed direction of Study Group 5, which includes women’s ministerial roles and the question of women’s access to the diaconate. Although the discernment would no longer be in the hands of the Synod members who represent the diversity of the People of God from six continents, we hoped that the study groups would embrace a culture of synodality and listen to the experiences of women in ecclesial ministry today who are responding to urgent pastoral needs – alongside their pastors and bishops.
Then in May, Pope Francis remarked during a ”60 Minutes” interview that women could not be ordained as deacons. This statement, which was not an official statement, nevertheless sparked disappointment and concern, seeming to close the door on an open discernment process which the pope himself had initiated. We remained hopeful that there was still time for Pope Francis to keep listening to women in ministry and to the signs of the times – urgent realities in need of pastoral care.
A Synodal Church in Action
The Holy Spirit continued to stir the hearts of synod members who traveled from diverse continents and were holding pressing needs being experienced by their faith communities. DDF prefect Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández announced that the second commission studying the diaconate would resume its work and that Synod members could submit materials, including testimonies of women in ministerial roles. Synod members insisted on meeting with Cardinal Fernandez and did so on Oct. 25 to represent the needs and hopes of their faith communities that women’s participation would continue to expand, and to not cut short the discernment about women’s access to the diaconate.
Indeed, the final synod document affirmed the ministry of deacons as being a valuable resource in the growth of a servant Church. “Deacons respond to the specific needs of each local Church, particularly reawakening and sustaining everyone’s attention to the poorest in a Church which is synodal, missionary and merciful.” (paragraph #73)
The Synod document also affirmed that “the question of women’s access to diaconal ministry remains open. This discernment needs to continue.” (paragraph #60).
This decision to continue the discernment — with its magisterial value — stands as one of the significant achievements of the synodal process this year, a testament to the Church’s commitment to ongoing learning of synodal practices of encounter, listening, and dialogue. We thank our Synod mothers and fathers for their witness to what the Holy Spirit is stirring in their local communities and allowing this to shape how the global Church moves together.
2024 was a year of holy urgency, where the call to renewal resonated across the Church. Through prayer and witness, Discerning Deacons contributed to a growing movement of synodal hope, one that seeks to renew the Church’s structures for mission. As we move forward, we do so with confidence in the power of love and the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
Building Toward the Future
Looking ahead, the mission of Discerning Deacons remains clear: to witness to a synodal Church that fully reflects the baptismal dignity of all its members and recognizes the contributions of women as being essential to its mission.
In 2025 we will do deeper dives in our storytelling about the call women are receiving to serve their Catholic communities as ordained deacons. We will keep shining a light on the gifts and graces of women in diaconal ministry from around the world as we grow in communion with our global Church. We will launch a preaching certificate in 2025 to prepare more women to be bearers of hope in their communities. We’ll also be kicking off a fellowship program for a cohort of leaders doing the work of diakonia in their communities – to offer them formation, support, and community in their ministry.
Support the Mission: Make a Gift to Discerning Deacons
Your support enables us to amplify the voices of women serving in ministry today and highlights the transformative impact they could have in our faith communities if the Church were to empower bishops to ordain them as permanent deacons. Women and men – working in a co-responsible, reciprocal, and synodal manner – could deepen their responses to pressing pastoral needs — bringing the light and hope of Christ to prisons, hospitals, military bases, campus ministries, rural communities, indigenous reservations, and countless places where they accompany and uplift those on the margins and peripheries. Your generosity allows us to imagine and live into the future.
To make your year-end contribution today – donate here.
We thank you, our readers and supporters, for your prayers, your ministries, your hope and your courage. May the good work accomplished this year inspire all of us to continue building a Church that is inclusive, prophetic, and fully alive in Christ. St. Phoebe, pray for us!
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