Phyllis Zagano is an internationally acclaimed Catholic scholar and lecturer on contemporary spirituality and women's issues in the church. Her award-winning books include Holy Saturday: An Argument for the Restoration of the Female Diaconate in the Catholic Church (First Place, 2001 Catholic Press Association and 2002 College Theology Society), Women & Catholicism: Gender, Communion, and Authority (Second Place, 2012 Catholic Press Association), Women Deacons? Essays with Answers (First Place, 2017 Catholic Press Association) and Women: Icons of Christ (Second Place, 2021 Catholic Media Association). 

Her writing is widely translated — her best-selling On Prayer: A Letter for My Godchild is in Indonesian, Spanish and Italian as well as English — and she edited the Liturgical Press' "Spirituality in History" series.

She belonged to the 2016-2018 Papal Commission for the Study of the Diaconate of Women. Winner of two Fulbright awards, her biographical listings include Marquis Who's Who. Her professional papers are held by the Women in Leadership Archives, Loyola University, Chicago. She holds a research appointment at Hofstra University, Hempstead, New York.

 

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St. Phoebe is depicted in an icon by Eka Fragiadaki of the Angelicon workshop in Crete, Greece. (Angelicon/Eka Fragiadaki)

Women Religious, Women Deacons Q&A: Why would the ministry of women religious/women deacons be beneficial?

Feb 11, 2021

Essay, Part 5 of 5: The discussion about women deacons has always been about ministry. It has been about ministry because the ministry of women is about the needs of the church. It is not about clerical power.

Laity and religious hold a rally in support of nuns gathered for the August 2012 assembly of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious in St. Louis. Earlier that year, the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith had ordered reform of the o

Women Religious, Women Deacons Q&A: Would ordination co-opt women's religious life?

Feb 4, 2021

Essay, Part 4 of 5: Much has been written about women's religious institutes being "outside the system," freer to act on behalf of the people of God. Would the presence of ordained members weaken this prophetic stance?

(Wikimedia Commons/G. Mannaerts)

Women Religious, Women Deacons Q&A: Who could be the general superior?

Jan 28, 2021

Essay, Part 3 of 5: The diaconal ordination of a woman religious would make her institute or order mixed — comprising both clerical and lay members. The question arises: Would their major superior have to be a deacon?

The mosaic of the Holy Virgins, in the sixth-century Church of St. Apollinare Nuovo, Ravenna, Italy (Wikimedia Commons/Sailko)

Women Religious, Women Deacons Q&A: What about ordained women religious?

Jan 21, 2021

Essay, Part 2 of 5: The diaconate does not replace religious life. The diaconate is necessary for those women religious for whom it is a genuine vocation, distinct from their vocation and identity as religious.