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.
At the synod in Rome, bishops repeatedly affirmed that women are already doing the work of deacons in the region, and they asked that this ministry be seen and recognized.
The Synod formally requested to share their “experiences and reflections” with a papal commission on women and the diaconate, and Pope Francis immediately responded, saying:
“I pick up the challenge. A glove has been thrown down. The women have put up a sign: ‘Please listen to us. May we be heard.’ And I pick up that gauntlet.”
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.
Filter your results:
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Witness
“As a college campus minister, diaconal ordination wouldn’t change how I encounter my students on the margins, but it would change how they encounter the Church through me. I wouldn’t be only Julia, their campus minister who tells them that God loves them unconditionally, but an official representative of a Church that loves them too.”
Julia Erdlen
College Campus Minister and Hospital Chaplain, St. Louis, MO
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Witness
“Restoring the diaconate in my church, to include women, supports the hopes and desires of our whole community where I see a longing for both male and female deacons to serve. As soon as I had the opportunity to become an acolyte, I became one. If I had the opportunity to become a deacon, I similarly would rejoice at the opportunity!”
Jessica Kenny
Chaplain, ConnectEd, Alta-1 College, Perth, Western Australia
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Witness
“If I were ordained a deacon, it would only be because I have accepted a call to a vocation that is equally accessible to women.“
Oblate James Holzhauer-Chuckas, ObSB
Executive Director of United Catholic Youth Ministries, Chicago, IL
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Witness
“Being able to be educated on who St. Phoebe is and giving others the chance to meet her, being part of a community of women who promote an inclusive model of the church, and seeing my own community come alive and heal from division provides a vision of what can and will be possible one day in the Catholic Church.”
Kathleen O'Brien
Maryknoll Bay Area Regional Coordinator in the Mission Formation Department
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Witness
“I have witnessed these women become Catholic high school teachers, professors, writers, administer parish life and leaders of prayer services. Women have been my peers and supervisors, except in diaconal ministry. I continue to hold out hope that women’s gifts for ministry and service can and will be acknowledged by the church.”
Fr. Tom Cwick, SJ
Pastoral Minister, North Side, St. Louis, MO
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Witness
“I am grateful as a pastor and a part of the BCCs here to learn and journey together with others. As a priest in our community, I am proud to be a part of this ministry to uplift women who are struggling. It is great joy and fulfillment. In my personal life, I have experienced the richness of acknowledging and uplifting the witness of women in the early Church and also in our Church today.”
Fr. Vincent Dsouza, SJ
Pastor and Base Christian Community Leader, India
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