Roman Catholic Women

Last Saturday I wrote about Anglican women and I said they get noticed. The second half of that blog was supposed to be about Roman Catholic women who get noticed, but it was too long. We decided to split it and continue today.

I did note that WOC and The Grail, among others, are represented at the UN, and mentioned WOC’s many ways of supporting women seeking ministry.  There’s more Roman Catholic women getting noticed.

First I want to acknowledge two Mercy sisters. Carmel McElroy died this week, and FutureChurch’s Deborah Rose-Milavec, a force to be listened to herself, links McElroy’s scholarly work, Guests in their Own House: The Women of Vatican II, with women’s quest to be listened to in the synods of this century. The column is an excellent resource, especially if you’re shaky on the earlier period. Do you need to ask what happened to McElroy, a professor at St. Meinrad seminary, when she came out in favor of women’s ordination? She was fired, detailed in NCR. So much for being noticed.

The second Mercy sister is Theresa Kane, who is the subject of a biography by another FutureChurch force to be listened to, Christine Schenk, SSJ. Kane included in her 1979 welcome to John Paul II this memorable sentence:

“Our contemplation leads us to state that the church, in its struggle to be faithful to its call for reverence and charity for all persons, must respond by providing the possibility of women as persons being included in all the ministries of our church.”

The crucial blow-by-blow details of the event and what happened after are detailed in two excerpts from the biography in NCR. Once you read these, you’ll want to read the whole book, To Speak the Truth in Love, to learn more about this woman of great courage and humility. Kane kept teaching at Mercy College in Dobbs Ferry, NY, and served on the Board of WOC. Women noticed and did not condemn.

But feistiness is not limited to the past. Last May, I wrote about the Maria 2.0 movement in Germany, when women in 50 places in Germany stopped working as employees and volunteers in the church for a week.  Leaders of that movement are at it again as the German bishops prepare for a synod. (The pale reflection is the US is the Bishops’ meeting in Baltimore last month. An exercise in avoidance and old thinking.) At least the German bishops will address  “Women in ministries and offices in the church,” but they are not likely to satisfy the demands of Maria 2.0, sent to Pope Francis last spring, as summarized in a long article by Donald Snyder in NCR:

• Deny office to those who have harmed others or have tolerated or covered up wrongdoings

• Surrender all offenders to secular courts and to cooperate in all prosecutions

• Allow women access to all church functions

• Abolish mandatory celibacy

• Align the church’s sexual morals with reality.

I especially like the humor of that last one!!!

Snyder quotes various Maria 2.0 women, who explicitly speak out for women’s ordination. Mechthild Heil, for example, says: “This includes all ordained ministries and governing ministries.” That’s so perfectly clear! While they don’t expect the German bishops to challenge Rome, they challenge the bishops, as does theologian Julia Kopp. La Croix International reports on her interview on the bishops’ website; she’s critical of how “clerically stamped” the membership is and of the “safety measures” to prevent the resolutions from being adopted throughout the country. Kopp still expects concrete results that will require a Vatican response. The synod begins at the end of January; keep watching for how Roman Catholic women are listened to inside and outside the official meetings.

Meanwhile (to quote Stephen Colbert), Catholic Women Strike is being organized in the US for May 2020. Led by WOC and other Catholic reform organizations, the website will go live soon, and then you can become part of what’s being planned here for witnesses at the parish and diocesan level. Roman Catholic women will be listened to!