Witnesses

"You will be my witnesses."

(Acts 1:8)

The preparatory process for the Synod of Bishops on the Amazon involved 87,000 people bearing witness to their laments, hopes and dreams for their communities and the Church they love.

During the 2021-2024 Synod on Synodality, calls to rethink women’s participation and to permit women to serve as deacons emerged on every continent. The Synod’s Final Document affirmed that “the question of women’s access to diaconal ministry remains open” and that the discernment should continue.

From the heart of the Amazon, across the Americas and around the world, diaconal women are responding to the needs of the people and exercising diaconal ministries, and their communities are welcoming and receiving their gifts.

“What comes from the Holy Spirit cannot be stopped” (Synod on Synodality Final Document, #60).

Here, we gather to listen to women serving in ministry today who are ready to be received as deacons in the Church. We also share prayers and hopes for our Church’s discernment, as we seek to bear collective witness to the movement of the Holy Spirit.

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Witness

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Witness

“I first arrived in Zambia almost 35 years ago. My deepest urge has always been the proclamation of the Gospel. Making Jesus known, loved, and meaningful to people’s lives is my absolute joy. For a long time, I considered myself an apostle and an evangelist. Truly, though, in these ministries, I feel as though I have served as a “deacon” without the formal title.”

Sr. Guadalupe Mancilla, CMS

Pastoral Minister and Religious Sister, Lusaka, Zambia

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Witness

“This work is essential for challenging the status quo, deeply exploring the Church’s history of the female diaconate, and courageously asking important questions. I also believe that the inclusion of women’s voices and experiences will increase emotional, mental, and physical safety for other women in church spaces.”

Krista Varney

Domestic Violence Advocate, Grand Prairie, TX

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Witness

“I know that women are being called by the Holy Spirit and women are living diakonia in creative, ordinary ways today. Now, as a mother of a toddler girl, I want to discern with the Church on how to make way for her to discern her own future calling, should the Spirit call her.”

Ana López

Spiritual Director and Theology Teacher, Los Angeles, CA

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Witness

“If women were able to serve as deacons, it would magnify the grace and love of God and make it more widely available.”

Judith Oberhauser

Retired Chaplain, St. Paul/Minneapolis, MN

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Witness

“I was not raised Catholic but converted in my adult life. As a child, Mother Mary would appear to me often…I believe Mary appearing to me as a child who knew nothing about the Catholic Church was more than her wanting me to find Christ through the Church. I believe she came to me because I was meant to do more for the Church.”

Christina Kovar

Adult Faith Formation Leader, Chicago, IL

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Witness

“I felt seen in my call to pastoral care, to teaching, to preaching—just as clearly as my ordained colleagues are seen in theirs. I felt valued. Not invisible. Not dismissed. I don’t know what the future holds—for me, or for the role of women in the Church. But I know this: I have hope.”

Jolaine M.J. Liupakka, PMin

Coordinator of Middle School & Confirmation, St. Thomas Becket, Eagan, MN

Witnesses

"You will be my witnesses."

Here, we gather to listen to women serving in ministry today who are ready to be received as deacons in the Church. We also share prayers and hopes for our Church’s discernment, as we seek to bear collective witness to the movement of the Holy Spirit.

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