So, who are the members of that new commission on women deacons?

Commonweal has a few answers. The most familiar name, of course, is Phyllis Zagano, who has written and commented extensively on the subject since her landmark book “Holy Saturday” in 2002.

But who are the others?

Rita Ferrone offers an overview, giving a little more ink to the female members and noting “the fact that half of the commission is female makes this effort an outstanding exercise for the Vatican”:

Sister Núria Calduch-Benages teaches at the Gregorian University in Rome and is a member of the Pontifical Biblical Commission. She is Catalan. “The Bible is my passion” she says. From her writings on line it seems she has pastoral interests as well as impressive scholarly chops as a biblical scholar and philologist. Her area of special expertise is the Wisdom literature of the Old Testament.

Francesca Cocchini, an Italian, is a Professor at the University La Sapienza and at the Patristic Institute (the Augustinianum), in Rome. She is immersed in research on Origen and the Alexandrian tradition, but has also published books on the reception of the Pauline epistles and on Augustine. She has been associated with Sofia Cavaletti and the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd. I enjoyed reading a brief article by her on the Sisters of Sion website (a religious community of women committed to Jewish-Christian dialogue) concerning “Some Aspects of the Typological Method Which Are Valid Today.”

Sister Mary Melone, SFA, also an Italian, is an expert in the life and thought of St. Anthony of Padua. She is rector of the Pontifical University Antonianum, an institution of the Friars Minor, in Rome — the first woman to head a Pontifical University. Journalist Inés San Martín, writing in Crux, observed that although she has not openly advocated for women in the diaconate, she “has long spoken of the role of women in the Church, saying it’s unfair to dismiss the request for the diaconate because it might lead to female priesthood.”

…Rev. Msgr. Piero Coda, is Dean of the University Institute Sophia, Loppiano (near Florence), and he a member of the International Theological Commission. The Institute is a work of the Focolare movement. Coda has written about Chiara Lubich and he writes about the Trinity.

Rev. Robert Dodaro, O.S.A., an American, is dean of the Patristic Institute Augustinianum, in Rome. He is Professor of Patrology and an expert on Augustine. He is also known for his book on marriage: Remaining in the Truth of Christ: Marriage and Communion in the Catholic Church. 

Rev. Karl-Heinz Menke, is Emeritus Professor of Dogmatic Theology at the University of Bonn and member of the International Theological Commission. He specializes in the nineteenth century and writes about Christology.

Read it all.