Phyllis Zagano

Phyllis Zagano (born August 25, 1947)^[1] is an American author and academic. She has written and spoken on the role of women in the Catholic Church and advocates the ordination of women as deacons.^[2][3]

Early life and education

Zagano was born in Queens, New York.^[1] She graduated from Sacred Heart Academy in 1965. She has a BA from Marymount College in Tarrytown, New York (1969); master's degrees in communications from Boston University (1970), in literature from Long Island University (1970), and in theology from St. John's University (1991); and a PhD from the State University of New York at Stony Brook in 1979.^[1]

Career

Zagano was program officer at the National Humanities Center from 1979-1980, and taught at Fordham University from 1980 to 1984.^[1] She was a researcher at the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York from 1984 to 1986 and a Coolidge Fellow at the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1987.^[1] She taught at Boston University from 1988 to 1999.^[1]

Since 2002, Zagano has taught at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York, where she is senior research associate-in-residence and adjunct professor of religion.^[1] In 2005 she held a visiting professorship at the Yale Divinity School in New Haven, Connecticut. In 2009, she was a Fulbright Fellow at the University of Limerick's Mary Immaculate College in Limerick, Ireland, where she was a lecturer.^[1] In 2015 she was a Fulbright Senior Specialist at the Waterford institute of Technology, in Waterford, Ireland.

Zagano received the 2014 Isaac Hecker Award for Social Justice from the Paulist Center of Boston.^[4][5]

In 2016, Pope Francis appointed Zagano to the Study Commission on Women in the Diaconate.^[6][7]

Her papers are archived by the Women and Leadership Archives of Loyola University Chicago.^[1]

Publications

Zagano's publications include:

• Woman to Woman: An Anthology of Women's Spiritualities Edited, with an introduction, 1993.^[8]
• On Prayer, 1994, 2001.
• Ita Ford: Missionary Martyr, 1996.
• The Exercise of the Primacy: Continuing the Dialogue. Co-edited, with an introduction and afterword, with Terrence W. Tilley, 1998.
• Things New and Old: Essays on the Theology of Elizabeth A. Johnson. Co-edited, with an introduction, with Terrence W. Tilley, 1999.
• Twentieth-Century Apostles: Christian Spirituality in Action, 1999.
• Holy Saturday: An Argument for the Restoration of the Female Diaconate in the Catholic Church, 2000; Catholic Press Association Book Award; 2002 College Theology Society Book Award.
• Dorothy Day. Edited, with an introduction, 2003.
• Called to Serve: A Spirituality for Deacons, 2004.
• The Dominican Tradition: Spirituality in History. Co-edited, with an introduction, with Thomas McGonigle, OP, 2006.^[9]
• Women & Catholicism: Gender, Communion, and Authority, 2011; Catholic Press Association Book Award in category B15, "Gender issues".^[10]
• Women Deacons: Past, Present, Future. With Gary Macy and William T. Ditewig, 2011.^[11]
• Women in Ministry: Emerging Questions about the Diaconate, 2012.
• Mysticism and the Spiritual Quest: A Crosscultural Anthology, 2013.
• Ordination of Women to the Diaconate in the Eastern Churches: Essays by Cipriano Vagaggini. Editor and translator, 2013.
• Sacred Silence: Daily Meditations for Lent, 2014.
• In the Image of Christ: Essays on Being Catholic and Female, Editor and translator, 2015.
• Women Deacons? Essays with Answers, 2016.
• The Light of the World: Daily Meditations for Advent, 2016.

References