Phyllis Zagano, PhD ’79 was recently appointed to serve on a 12-person commission established by Pope Francis to study the question of women deacons.
Zagano, who is widely published on the subject of women deacons, is the only American and one of six women to serve on this commission. Her books include Holy Saturday: An Argument for the Restoration of the Female Diaconate in the Catholic Church. The Senior Research Associate in Residence in the Department of Religion at Hofstra is also a Fulbright scholar and the 2014 recipient of the Isaac Hecker Award for Social Justice.