Sr. Catherine Murray
“As women we continue to open possibilities to share our gifts in this church we love. We draw upon the witness of women church leaders who followed Christ – from Mary Magdalene and the early deaconesses to the present day.”
Archives: Witness
Katie Laskey
“I’m not sure I’m really called to be a deacon, but even the chance to have a platform in front of a parish during mass would be a revelation for folks, especially people who experience gender discrimination. The Church would start to live out a truer version of universality.”
Kathleen Carlton Johnson
“Women have been the caregivers and great support of most churches. Why? Because we deal with the personhood of the ordinary. The everyday matters of living. To me, that is what a deacon is. She extends the Church to the common community: visiting the sick and dying, helping parents with family problems, attending as a lector at Mass, burying the dead, and comforting families.”
M. Therese Lysaught, Ph.D.
“It is time for the Church to heed the Spirit’s voice, recognizing women’s call to the diaconate and allow the Spirit to restore and renew the Body of Christ so that it may fully live into its identity of missionary discipleship.”
Joan D. Martin, Ph.D.
“I feel that the Catholic Church as it is structured is not what Jesus envisioned for his followers—so many of them were women of his day. What happened?”
Keith Davis
“It is time to open up the permanent diaconate to all who are qualified regardless of gender. The Church needs this witness.”
Lena Denis
“Having women present in leadership at Mass would truly reveal the importance of women in the church.”
Deacon Frank “Jay” Vocelka, OblSB
“What a blessing it would be to see women … preaching the Good News from the pulpit and feeding God’s people at the Eucharist table as an Ordinary Minister of Holy Communion.”
Katherine Novinski
“My hope is that young girls will not be reminded on a weekly basis of how they are excluded from Catholic Mass and that young boys will not be reminded on a weekly basis of how they are empowered above women through the current Catholic institutional structures.”
Louise Beggs
“Our Church needs women to be fully alive and active in and through her. I hope I see women welcomed to enter and live the diaconate in our Catholic Church in my lifetime. I would sign up yesterday.”