• Rich Barlow

    Senior Writer

    Photo: Headshot of Rich Barlow, an older white man with dark grey hair and wearing a grey shirt and grey-blue blazer, smiles and poses in front of a dark grey backdrop.

    Rich Barlow is a senior writer at BU Today and Bostonia magazine. Perhaps the only native of Trenton, N.J., who will volunteer his birthplace without police interrogation, he graduated from Dartmouth College, spent 20 years as a small-town newspaper reporter, and is a former Boston Globe religion columnist, book reviewer, and occasional op-ed contributor. Profile

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There are 13 comments on Should Women Be Ordained Catholic Deacons?

  1. What a wonderful blast from the past! The bio associated with this article failed to mention that Phyllis taught at BU (1988-1999), in the College of Communication, the School of Theology, and the Program of International Relations, and was Director of the Institute for Democratic Communication. I served on university and Faculty Council committees with her during the Silber era, and I’ve always found her to be an inspiration for framing discussions of misogyny that took place closer to home.

  2. All positions in the Church should equally be available to all. This is imperative although understandably this will require a process to ensure understanding and support from all members of the Church.

  3. Let us pray that women can once again be ordained as Deacons in the Roman Catholic church. I knew Phyllis was active with Voice of the Faithful but I wasn’t aware that she was a BU alumna. Robert thanks for the update that she taught at BU as well. For more information on the Synod on Synodality see the link below.

    https://www.usccb.org/synod

    Voice of the Faithful welcomes your input at the link below.

    https://www.votf.org/content/you-can-now-register-votf-synod-synodality-input-sessions-april-may

  4. As a practicing Catholic for over fifty years,I have seen the gap and have been praying that in my life I may see a female deacon who would attend to certain issues that a female Christian would feel comfortable if it was a female in attendance.the natural God given gift like witnessed in Martha of the Bible is needed in the world today

  5. When a male becomes a priest an account is set up for them to prepare for retirement. This does not happen for nuns. Nuns do not get money from the church to help them after retirement. The Catholic Church has become a good ole boys church.
    I am a Catholic. Old enough to have grandchildren and will die a Catholic.
    The Catholic Church has become a business. God wants us to help each other get through life, not build a bigger and bigger Catholic business. . When I walk into my Catholic Church there is a sign right in front of you that says confession before every mass. In other words confess you sinners!
    So the Catholic Church should not make women, and children feel guilty all the time

    1. Women should be allowed to be deacons. Women finally do not have to wear something on their heads before they walk in church! These rules were not directed by God. They were made by narcissistic men of the church. No I am not a male hater. I love my grandsons and son in law. I have male friends who I respect.

  6. We are ALL made in the image of God. Therefore every human has the potential to be called to ministry, whether it is the diaconate or priesthood. From a legal stance here in Ireland, I cannot see how the Catholic church has not yet faced employment discrimination. I am aware that the church has its own laws but surely we should be obeying the laws of the land? Why is the Catholic church so reticent? It is another nail in the coffin for the church here in Ireland where it is seen more and more irrelevant to the majority of the younger generation.

  7. Despite Zagano’s alleged scholarship and expertise, the strategic omissions and misrepresentations she presents here of the women deacons of the early Church are obviously strategic to further a certain modern ideological viewpoint of gender that is not accurate to the actual roles of women in the early Church. Women in the early Church were present at baptisms of other women to maintain decency and privacy at a time when people were expected to receive a full body anointing completely undressed. Furthermore, women deacons taught other women and children at a time when the genders were strictly segregated at Church.

    These observations would be disappointing if Zagano hadn’t already clearly communicated her bias through the delight in which she described speaking so uncharitably to that representative of the CDF over lunch, and the ease with which she slandered churchmen with whom she disagreed as simply misogynistic. It’s sad. Pray for everyone struggling to accept God’s design in the world.

  8. There are plenty of Protestant denominations which allow female clergy. The Catholic Church is based on centuries of tradition, and does not need to change itself to respond to the whims of the modern world. The reason to go to church is to worship God, we should not be so concerned about what is in it for us. I feel Catholicism should not change its policy on female deacons.

  9. No to women as ordained anything in any church. I’m a woman and I don’t want some woke women being priestesses. It’s witchcraft and the first thing a femae priestess will do is bring in gay men as deacons and advocate for pro abortions. It’s ludicrous. I want a male leader in that pulpit preaching with a strong voice.

    Female leaders of countries or businesses are great,just not in the church.

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