Phyllis Zagano is the author or editor of twenty-seven books in religious studies and hundreds of articles and reviews in popular and academic journals. She is recognized as one of the foremost authorities on the diaconate of women. In 2016, Pope Francis appointed her to the initial Pontifical Commission for the Study of the Diaconate of Women. Dr. Zagano holds a research appointment at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York. Her most recent book is The Vatican and Women Deacons, which was published in April by Orbis Books.
In this conversation, Phyllis gives historical and cultural context for the office of the diaconate, including conciliar documents of the early church that support the ordination of women as deacons. She takes us through the findings of pontifical and theological commissions convened to study the issue of the women’s diaconate over the past fifty years, with a special focus on the problems of the second pontifical commission’s report published last December, and explores important distinctions between the priesthood and diaconate and installed and ordained ministries.
Phyllis also shares how lay ministries such as lector, acolyte, and catechist can function as avenues for lay preaching and help the church acclimate to seeing women at the altar, looks at the emerging role of parish life coordinator Pope Francis spoke of in his apostolic exhortation Querida Amazonia, and describes the idea that women cannot image Christ as a “heresy” with implications for female health and safety worldwide. “If the church is going to encourage the world to believe in the humanity of women,” she says, “the church has ways it can move.”
See also:
The Vatican and Women Deacons, official page at Orbis Books
Phyllis Zagano, “They Don’t Want to Say Yes,” Commonweal, July 28, 2026.
Phyllis Zagano, “Where the Women Deacons Question Stands at the Vatican,” March 13, 2026.
Justin McClellan, “Vatican Commission Votes Against Ordaining Female Deacons,” National Catholic Reporter, December 4, 2025.
Colleen Dulle, “Vatican to German Bishops: No Lay People Preaching Homilies at Mass,” America, June 23, 2026.
