"Radicals and the Rule" Recap, Video, and Photo Gallery

If “joy is an infallible sign of the presence of God,” to quote Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, the palpable joy in the first meeting of Benedictine sisters and feminist theologians, Joan Chittister and Teresa Forcades, showed that the Divine Spirit was present and acting. The event, “Radicals and the Rule,” held October 11, 2019 at All Souls Unitarian Church in Washington, D.C., gathered more than a hundred supporters of women’s ordination to hear the two women speak about spirituality, feminism, and gender justice.

“Your efforts, and mine, have got to be to free women everywhere,” said Sr. Joan, connecting the issue of women’s ordination to broader questions of gender equality worldwide.

The evening highlighted the strengths of both women: Chittister’s well-known gift for storytelling and aphorism; and Forcades’ potent mixture of intellect and spirituality that left many feeling as though she had guided them on a retreat that evening. 

Chittister and Forcades began by sharing their attraction to Benedictine spirituality and the feminist ideals within it: the idea that all people have a voice and are to be treated as equals as they participate in the building up of community.

“We don’t come to you, two Benedictines, as academic or historical figures to impress you,” Chittister said. “We’re here because we see that this generation will never survive, never become the fullness of itself, until this final event, this ‘women’s issue,’ this ‘women’s situation,’ is confronted and resolved.”

Forcades and Chittister spared no words as they broke open the women’s issue in the church and beyond. “The church cannot advocate in a full, credible way for the dignity of the human being if it does not acknowledge the full dignity of women, and that has to do with making decisions,” Forcades said. “I don’t think [Pope Francis has] understood the importance of really exposing the indignity of the present situation.”

Chittister agreed. “I myself see sexism as the original sin of the church,” she said. “And I’ll say it all my life because it’s completely in contradiction of the Jesus story and of the meaning of the church itself.”

In a moving exploration of a feminist theological reading of the beginning of the Gospel of John, Forcades, who is a trained medical doctor, explained that when we read in English that the Son “is in the bosom of the Father” (John 1:18), the Greek word is kolpos, which means female genitalia, a space that has the capability to adapt to what enters into it. So it is an image of a “queer Father.” She went on to say, “The father has a place that can adapt to welcome another. That is the perichoretic idea of the Trinity….It has a welcoming capacity, an embracing capacity.”

Chittister pointed out that many of the heresies about women in the church come from a pre-scientific era that has been thoroughly debunked by our growing understanding of biology, psychology, and other sciences.

But Forcades warned of putting too much emphasis on the forward march of modernity, noting that in medieval times, “the ideal of human life is sanctity, and this is always open to women.” With the dawn of the modern, Enlightenment era, that ideal shifted to rational capacity, she said, and with universities often off-limits to women, their ability to reach that ideal was stunted.

Chittister and Forcades debated whether the church has truly lifted up the memory of women throughout its history. “This same church which is sexist, which we want to change and challenge…this same church has preserved the memory and the works and the writings and the social initiatives of the women of the past, in a way that no other institution of the world has done,” Forcades said. She continued by saying that she felt that the church has lifted up many holy women. Chittister cut in: “But what if you’re being bought off?” “Bought off?” Forcades asked.

“Maybe it’s one of the cleverest sexist tricks,” Chittister said, and pointed out how she wandered her church as an eight-year-old, trying and failing to find a female saint among the stained-glass images.

She wondered aloud to the audience, why did the churches with no stained glass, with none of that history, “free” women first by opening up the possibility of ordination?

Forcades argued in return that people shouldn’t assume that society outside of the church is any kinder toward women. “The critical consciousness has to be extended everywhere,” she said.

Both women agreed that the connection between the exclusion of women in the church and the detrimental effects on society was clear.

“Do not separate the Women’s Ordination Conference and its questions from the questions of women everywhere,” Chittister said. “The condition of women in everything—human rights, femicide, climate change, child care issues, sexual abuse—they all stem from the very same thing: The notion of what a woman is as a created being. And churches have warped that meaning for thousands of years.”

She urged those present to boldly speak out against the sexism that continues unchallenged, from the obvious lack of women in power to the subtler forms found in exclusive language: “If a woman can’t claim as a pronoun in this church, how in God’s name do you think she can ever claim the diaconate?”

The evening ended with both women religious sharing what gave them hope in the midst of the challenges within the church. Forcades said she finds strength and hope in the practice of contem-plative silence, unstructured and uncontrolled.

“Every day…dare to go naked in front of yourself, in front of your God, in front of your truth, and see what happens,” she said.

Chittister said she finds hope in people finding the points in their religion where they can fight for the fullness of life. And she encouraged people to act with courage and confidence: “Look them straight in the eye, honey; they’re more afraid of you than you are of them.”

Both agreed that despite the challenges, this is a time of hope and opening within the church. “Francis is at least opening a door to questions. That hasn’t happened!” Chittister said. “Now, you must rush into those rooms!”

When we planned our groundbreaking event, “Radicals and the Rule,” we knew that traveling to D.C. would not be possible for many of our members. In order to share the joy and wisdom we all experienced that night, we are offering the opportunity to rent a video of the evening’s conversation to watch online on Vimeo for $10.

With the rental, you can watch the video any time over a 72-hour period. We hope this helps you feel like a part of the special evening we were lucky to present. Your purchase helps support WOC and make events like this possible.

We are also excited to share two collections of beautiful photographs from “Radicals and the Rule,” as well as our “Speak the Truth in Love” rally honoring Sr. Theresa Kane here: Radicals and the Rule & Speak the Truth in Love Rally

We have always known that we have a special community: Determined, creative, prophetic, and persistent. Now we have even more beautiful evidence to prove it. May the images, and the words of Srs. Joan and Teresa, give you renewed hope and purpose.