--- 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=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4200 og:image:height: 2363 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=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Simone Campbell: Female Deacons Would Make the Church Stronger > Sponsored content. 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Inside TIME is the newsletter where TIME's Editor-in-Chief explains cover selection and the editorial reasoning behind major stories. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who is the editor of TIME? Sam Jacobs is TIME's Editor-in-Chief. He writes Inside TIME, a twice-weekly newsletter about the newsroom's reporting and editorial decisions. #### Is Inside TIME free? Yes. Inside TIME is a free newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent.  by [Kirsten Salyer](https://time.com/author/kirsten-salyer/)  ## Kirsten Salyer May 12, 2016 9:19 PM UTC  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](https://time.com/author/kirsten-salyer/)  ## Kirsten Salyer May 12, 2016 9:19 PM UTC Pope Francis said Thursday that he’s open to the idea of creating a [commission](http://time.com/4327661/pope-francis-female-deacons/) 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"}}]}] ```