Searching for feminism 2

I return to my project two weeks ago, to look for references to feminism in the Catholic reform movement. First I do want to say that I don’t think that Joseph Ratzinger is now a convert to our cause; I think he just forgot to mention the women’s movement in his letter about causes of the sex abuse crisis.

Second, I do want to acknowledge that WOC’s values currently include:

† Feminist, Mujerista and Womanist Thought and Action: The hierarchy must not define male and female “roles” or perpetuate any system that defines or limits one’s gifts or calling on the basis of gender.

And one of our goals is:

† Incorporate feminist, womanist, mujerista, and other liberating spiritualities into every-day Catholicism.

I happen to know that people are considering the wording of the values so you might want to take a look at this page describing what we’re all about. And if you’re really ahead of the game, you can begin posting photos and inspiring quotes to your own feminist advent calendar.

I also want to acknowledge the clear articulation by executive director Kate McElwee at a recent Catholic Organizations for Renewal meeting that WOC is about ordaining women in the Catholic church. That’s OUR mission; we may share it with others but we claim it as ours, uniquely, as well:

To advocate and pray for the ordination and the full equality of women in an inclusive and accountable Roman Catholic Church.

Since I’m mentioning names, I will also acknowledge the contributions of program associate Katie Lacz, who is so helpful to us bloggers among her many other duties; Carol Johnson, our office manager in Washington; and Lilian Medina-Romero, recently hired as outreach coordinator to lead “Escuchando a las mujeres,” a grant-funded project to develop a “listening to women” resource for Spanish-speaking women in Catholic parishes.

WOC also works in coalitions with other organizations, and I want to highlight two today. The first is FutureChurch, and I find a project called “Feminism and Faith in Union.” This is an effort of FutureChurch, WOC, Call to Action/USA, and The Women Who Stayed, a ministry of the Church of St. Francis Xavier, a Jesuit parish in New York City. This interesting combination of activists at levels from local to international was launched at the women’s marches in January 2018 with the goal of bringing faith to feminism and feminism to faith.

Expanded to include FutureChurch’s resources to celebrate Mary Magdala in 2018, this site, along with the Reclaim Magdalene pages, was very helpful as we prepared for our college foray last week. “Did You Know” is a terrific one-page handout with very basic feminism. FutureChurch generates programs at a mile a minute and has many resources available for download and a few for purchase on its website. Co-Directors Deborah Rose-Milavec and Russ Petrus continue to focus on Catholics in the pews who want a deeper faith life, as well as to promote structural change everywhere from parishes to the Vatican.

When I noted the absence of a specific reference to feminist resources on WOC’s website, Kate McElwee asked if I had looked at WATER, the second partner I want to focus on today.

“Feminist” is in almost every paragraph on the WATER website. “WATER” began as an acronym for “Women’s Alliance for Theology, Ethics, and Ritual,” which defines the unique niche it fills in the Catholic feminist universe.

“WATER has built a growing network of scholars, ministers, and activists around the world who are committed to engaging theological training and scholarship in the service of social change.” While useful to the ordinary Catholic, dipping into “Introducing Feminist Theology” reveals pages and pages of books from the late 20^th century to today, both scholarly and popular works. Here, the one-pager answers the question, “What is feminist theology anyway?” and provides a complicated yet clear answer. What do you expect? It is complicated. 

Other resources document the specialties of principals Mary Elizabeth Hunt and Diann L. Neu: theology (10 pages, mostly of linked articles) and ritual (compilations on topics like healing, peace, and liturgical seasons, available to order). And lest you think WATER is too serious, the most recent issue of NCR has an article by Mary Hunt reviewing novels, mostly mysteries, by feminist theologians. I expect a new category in the bibliography! (Found in the print edition: “Feminist theologians bring wisdom to fiction,” May 3-16, 2019.)

I will end my search for “feminism” for now. I started this two weeks ago to see if this “f-word” is still alive and well in Catholic organizations. My conclusion: Yes, it is, but in some more than others. Of course, there are many groups that are less explicitly feminist that I could look at, and maybe sometime I will. The strength of feminist analysis is that it places women at the center. It will always be my lens for evaluating efforts at church reform, just as my late husband’s family used to ask of political actions, “Is it good for the Jews?”