Casey Stanton is the founding co-director of a new initiative called Discerning Deacons, which is engaging Catholics from all over the world around the question of ordaining women to the permanent diaconate in our church. Just to be clear from the start, they’re not talking about ordaining women to the Catholic priesthood, which is a totally different topic. This question about women deacons is more open – it’s in the realm of the possible. Pope Francis has called a commission to discern this very question. And Casey and her team are working with Catholics to empower them to participate in this discernment process.

Listen to Casey for just a few minutes and you’ll see that she embodies the “diaconal” spirit: she is an expert speaker and preacher; she is utterly devoted to the communal prayer of the church; she is a practitioner of Gospel-centered social justice. She just can’t train to be ordained a Catholic deacon – yet – because she’s a woman. Her perspective is equal parts frustrating, inspiring, and hope-filled.

Learn more about Discerning Deacons: https://discerningdeacons.org/

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