Month: June 2019

Just thinking – what would happen if leadership Catholics, 10 at a time, were able to be on a national stage and asked hard questions that revealed what they are passionate about? How do we get our information about church issues that matter to us? The written word. NCR, America, Commonweal – all have podcasts,…
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We talk about – or more often mourn the loss of – the gifts of women to our Church. Last week I wrote about an article touting women’s gifts as a resource to “save the world” and added, “and also the Church.” The reach and vision was universal. Now I’d like to focus on some…
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When Frank DeBernardo of New Ways Ministry and I first discussed expanding this blog to be more regular, we joked that not much is happening about women’s ordination – not like the many bishops leaping into the fray to condemn, fire, and otherwise attack LGBTQ people. Well, the latter has not abated and Bondings 2.0…
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“Can Women Save the World?” an author of a recent New York Times article asked. Wow, I thought. I was just hoping they could save the Church!  Tina Brown, founder of the Women in the World summit, former New Yorker editor-in-chief, and host of a podcast TBD, argues that “a new paradigm of female leadership…
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“Sexism masquerading as theology” is what I’ve always said about the church’s position on women’s ordination, and I see no reason to modify my position based on the new document from the Vatican Congregation for Catholic Education, which presents itself as a “Path of Dialogue.” “Male and Female He Created Them” is a really useful…
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Looking for where we find happiness as an inspiration for creating a new inclusive church for a new day? Worth a try, I think. I was originally inspired in this quest by an article in the November 2017 issue of National Geographic entitled “The World’s Happiest Places”.  Not to keep you in suspense, they are:…
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The New York Times last Sunday featured “The Sisters Project” about the “Nuns and Nones,” previously reported on by the NCR. , I mention the latter only to give us some insight into what is considered news by the broader journalistic community. This project is so hopeful: young, self-identified non-religious people live in convents where…
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Regina Bannan in The Table has given us enlightening, witty, and profound insights into James Carroll’s “To Save the Church, Dismantle the Priesthood” article in The Atlantic. Humbly, I’d like to add a progressive (I hope!) Catholic layperson’s reaction to part of the article as well. Often criticism articles like Carroll’s focus on analyzing problems,…
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This week my attention is drawn to the different ways ordained women understand their ministry. My first inspiration is a response in The Atlantic to the James Carroll piece that I wrote about last week. Susan Bigelow Reynolds writes of her experience in graduate school when she lived in a Catholic rectory (which the priests…
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