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Witnesses
Helena Ditko
Parish Council Member & Catechist, San Fernando Region, CA,
February 4, 2025

The Church embodies the work of the people that need support and healing. God’s people deserve and desperately need the support and healing ministries of the Church amidst their suffering.

There are times in which women need other women for support and healing. Women also have a genius that compliments men in our church leadership to be the best they can be that is currently missing.

I want to support women who feel the call to become deacons in the Church. Opening the dialogue helps begin a conversation and furthers education on the role of the diaconate.

My experience of call has been one ministry jump to another over many years, perhaps by God’s design to bring me to this point of my life. Recently I began classes at for pastoral ministry, hoping to retire into a ministerial job in a few years. Being challenged by professors and classmates has been such a joyful time, and discerning my call for this phase of my life has opened me to many new and exciting possibilities. Exactly how I will be serving God and the people of God will gradually be revealed to me, once again, as is familiar, so I am listening. Learning about Discerning Deacons was God opening another door for me to explore.

I had never considered the diaconate for myself, but the same is true of my vocational exploration of monastic life, motherhood, married life, and the single life. God has a marvelous plan in all things and whether or not I am called to the diaconate, my service to God and God’s people will always continue. Discerning is a process that always comes with change.

Holy Spirit Comforter, Jesus the Son by your Incarnation, Death, and Resurrection, and Father, Creator of all things visible and invisible, guide your people along this path of life toward your desires for us to become one and holy. We come together as you are the Trinity in faith and hope, that you provide all things in due season. Continue to give us your grace, your peace, your healing comfort, and all the gifts we might need for this journey. Amen.

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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