Bringing Our Stories of Implementing Paragraph 60 to Rome

Last Friday, I attended a St. Phoebe Listening Session — the first of four sessions Discerning Deacons is offering over the next few weeks as opportunities for people to contribute to our consultation during the Synod Implementation Phase. (The others are this Thursday the 29th, November 10, and November 14 — register here!)

On Discerning Deacons calls, I’m usually the one pressing the button to send people to breakout rooms, but this time I was right there with all the other participants: being spirited away all at once to a Zoom room.When we’d all arrived in our small group and gotten our cameras and microphones turned on, our facilitator Shannon reminded us of the prompt for our first round of sharing, which we’d be invited to pray with in the days leading up to the call:

What are some of your experiences of Paragraph 60’s implementation and of barriers to its implementation? What’s going well, and where do difficulties remain?

Shannon suggested we share in alphabetical order by our first names, so I shared first. And then I listened, jotting the occasional note when I noticed, like the disciples on the road to Emmaus, my heart burning within me.

One of my scribbles, pictured above, read,

“How prepared everyone is — our church would be so much richer with [our] baptismal co-responsibility unleashed.”

My small group members had taken seriously the call from the Vatican to reflect on the Church’s synodal journey during the Synod Implementation Phase. They came prepared with specific examples of how they had seen women’s leadership and ministry nurtured and expanded in the two years since the Synod ended — and of where they had seen it obstructed and retracted. I know from the reflection forms attendees completed at the end of the session that my small group was not the only one whose members were taking their baptismal co-responsibility seriously. Throughout the session, I was full of wonder and gratitude at the depth of wisdom being offered in our Church.

This year I’ve heard countless stories of faith leaders and communities who have creatively and faithfully worked to widen women’s participation in the life and leadership of their respective corners of the Church.

Take Katie, for example, who is one of many women and other laypeople stepping into roles directing their parishes and partnering with the priests who serve as canonical pastors to meet the needs of their vibrant parishes.

Or Liz, who coordinates a local parish Phoebe Circle that has worked with their pastor to establish a regular rotation of women breaking open Scriptures for the community.

There’s Sarah, who started a hospitality table offering coffee and company to migrants checking in for appointments at a local ICE office, and Carley, who has been playing a key role in animating prophetic Catholic witnesses defending the dignity of immigrants in her local community.

Take all 54 participants in PROCLAIM, who are working with their pastors and other local faith leaders to widen opportunities for women to preach, all in accordance with what is permitted by canon law.

And all of the leaders on the ground coordinating 70+ educational forums this fall about St. Phoebe and Paragraph 60.

Our church leaders are asking for stories about what is working! Celebrating implementation efforts is in and of itself an action worthy of our time — but talking about these practices is also one way we can help stabilize them and make them more widespread.

And, of course, for all the stories I’ve heard this year about what has been working when it comes to expanding access to women’s leadership and ministry in the church, I’ve heard plenty, too, about what hasn’t been working. And our church leaders need to hear these, too.

Now, within the Synod’s Implementation Phase, our team at Discerning Deacons has committed to working to ensure that the dream the Church put forward in Paragraph 60 of the Synod’s Final Document can reach its fullest potential—a dream of a Church where barriers to women’s flourishing and co-responsibility are removed; where women’s voices and stories are amplified at the pulpit, in the lectionary, and in classrooms; and where the discernment about women deacons is taken up in a truly synodal manner.

But we can’t fulfill our commitment without you. We need your stories to help tell our Church’s story — of what the Spirit has been bringing to life in our communities, and where we have room yet to grow.

When you participate in a St. Phoebe Listening Session, your reflections will help inform Discerning Deacons’ report for the Synod Implementation Phase, which we’ll hand deliver to Rome in 2027.

What is the Spirit saying through your life experiences? What is she doing through us, together, for our Church and its mission? Help us find out.

P.S. If you haven’t already, join us in an upcoming Phoebe Listening Session on Thursday October 29, November 10, and November 14 — register here!)