--- title: Female Deacons Would Make Catholic Church Stronger description: Sister Simone Campbell responds to Pope Francis saying he's open to the idea of a commission to study whether women could become deacons. canonical: https://time.com/4328523/pope-francis-female-deacons-commission/ author: Kirsten Salyer article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-05-12T21:19:52.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T17:31:03.801Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Simone Campbell: Women Deacons Would Strengthen the Church og:description: 'Inclusiveness is strength' og:url: https://time.com/4328523/pope-francis-female-deacons-commission/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt775e03bda4180df5/69889303cd1bbaa81e700acf/francis.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Pope Francis waves to the faithful as he arrives in St. Peter's Square for his weekly audience in Vatican City on May 4, 2016. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Simone Campbell: Women Deacons Would Strengthen the Church twitter:description: 'Inclusiveness is strength' twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt775e03bda4180df5/69889303cd1bbaa81e700acf/francis.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Simone Campbell: Female Deacons Would Make the Church Stronger  by [Kirsten Salyer](/author/kirsten-salyer/)  ## Kirsten Salyer May 12, 2016 9:19 PM CUT  Pope Francis waves to the faithful as he arrives in St. Peter's Square for his weekly audience in Vatican City on May 4, 2016. Pope Francis waves to the faithful as he arrives in St. Peter's Square for his weekly audience in Vatican City on May 4, 2016.Franco Origlia—Getty Images  by [Kirsten Salyer](/author/kirsten-salyer/)  ## Kirsten Salyer May 12, 2016 9:19 PM CUT Pope Francis said Thursday that he’s open to the idea of creating a [commission](http://time.com/4327661/pope-francis-female-deacons/ "undefined") to study whether women could train to become deacons, or ordained ministers, in the Catholic Church. In response to the pope’s willingness to consider the change, Sister Simone Campbell, the executive director of NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice, told TIME: --- > “” --- ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4328523/pope-francis-female-deacons-commission/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4328523/pope-francis-female-deacons-commission/"},"headline":"Simone Campbell: Female Deacons Would Make the Church Stronger","datePublished":"2016-05-12T21:19:52.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T17:31:03.801Z","description":"'Inclusiveness is strength'","url":"https://time.com/4328523/pope-francis-female-deacons-commission/","keywords":["women","gender","Religion"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt775e03bda4180df5/69889303cd1bbaa81e700acf/francis.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Kirsten Salyer","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/kirsten-salyer/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt775e03bda4180df5/69889303cd1bbaa81e700acf/francis.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Pope Francis waves to the faithful as he arrives in St. Peter's Square for his weekly audience in Vatican City on May 4, 2016.","caption":"Pope Francis waves to the faithful as he arrives in St. Peter's Square for his weekly audience in Vatican City on May 4, 2016.","creditText":"Franco Origlia—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4328523/pope-francis-female-deacons-commission/","name":"Simone Campbell: Female Deacons Would Make the Church Stronger"}}]}] ```