‘Dismissed, discredited, and badly treated’

“Unless the catholic church will agree that I too am made in the image and likeness of God, then the church, particularly the hierarchy, will continue to see the backs of women’s heads as they race out of the church for the last time”. So says Professor Phyllis Zagano, in the third and final part of an extended interview with Pat Coyle on the issue of women deacons.

She also gives her assessment to date of the synodal process initiated by Pope Francis in terms of the issue of women in the catholic church whom she says are “dismissed, discredited, and badly treated.” And she answers candidly the question “Are you hopeful about the future and the ordination of women to the diaconate?”

Dr Zagano is Professor of Religion at Hofstra University in New York, the author of many books, and a specialist on the diaconate. She was appointed to Pope Francis’s first commission on the diaconate in 2016. She was the guest speaker at the Loyola Institute Trinity College Dublin’s seminar on synodality held on Friday and Saturday 14 and 15 April 2023.

Click here » to listen to part one of her interview.

Click here » to listen to part two.