Women in Ministry: Emerging Questions about the Diaconate

When Pope Paul VI implemented the decision of the Second Vatican Council to renew the diaconate as a permanent order of ministry, he asked the logical question: "What about women deacons?" That question continues to be asked throughout the Church as the possibility of restoring women to the diaconate emerges more and more as a pressing answer to the ministerial needs of the Church. In Women in Ministry: Emerging Questions about the Diaconate, theologian Phyllis Zagano examines three distinct questions about the possibility of women in the diaconate:

Is the inclusion of women in the permanent diaconate part of the unfinished business of Vatican II?

What are the ecumenical implications of women ordained as deacons?

Did Pope Benedict XVI envision the inclusion of women in the diaconate?

These three timely and important essays are introduced by Deacon William T. Ditewig, PhD, director of lay and deacon formation in the Diocese of Monterey in California and former executive director of the Secretariat for the Diaconate of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in Washington, DC.