RCWP=Activism?

One of my news sources of choice is The Nation magazine. I read it weekly because I find stories that are different from those trending even in the liberal side of the mainstream press. There’s a closer look and often a challenge to the status quo, whatever the subject.

The subject is rarely religion, but this week two exemplary articles burst forth. One is “Thunder on the Left” about ministers like Traci Blackmon and Cornel West who are challenging claims of “Christian values” on the right. Journalist Wen Stephenson poses this question to a dozen thinkers: “What, then, might an authentic Christian resistance to white Christian nationalism look like?” Responding from Catholic perspectives are Nicholas Hayes-Mota at Boston College and David Bentley Hart at Notre Dame, who present different but equally radical slants on the church’s social justice teaching. There’s lots more.

But it all seems much less complicated than the second article, which winds together women’s ordination and abortion, which many people have been trying to keep separate for years. Roman Catholic WomanPriest Victoria Rue argues for doing the opposite in a thoughtful profile by Molly Morrow. Like the young people who circle through NCR and America, Morrow is a student writing fellow. I have hope that journalism has a future when I learn she is editor in chief of the University of Chicago’s political newspaper, The Gate. This fellowship is focusing on abortion rights, and true to The Nation’s form, she had searched out a more complicated story for its Activism Newsletter.

And Rue’s personal story is complicated. It includes two early abortions and two ordinations, first as a deacon on the Danube and then as a priest on the St. Lawrence. I combine these experiences in one sentence and then take a turn because they all illustrate the kind of discernment that every Synod document proposes to endorse. Discernment is not one and done. Our consciences draw us to the right way in each situation we face, if we are honest with ourselves and our God.

Decision-making about both pregnancy and priesthood has been imposed on women by the church, and Rue and others like her of every gender are speaking out about wresting free of those bonds. Historically speaking, we have always fought against these limits and charted our own ways in both areas. We have been spiritual leaders, and we have taught each other ways to exercise reproductive choice.

Ordination is public act, mostly. Roman Catholic WomenPriests and others have claimed and changed the rituals. While still controversial to some among the faithful from the Pope on down, others equate these priests with all other Catholic priests, and the sacraments they lead with those of the church. Rue describes liturgies she has celebrated, but she also has a broader purpose here and it has to do with activism: “What RCWP has been unified in its online presence about is simply ordaining women. That’s it. That’s been the clearest ‘social justice’ piece that we’ve done.” She indicates how she’d like RCWP to move: “We’re advocating for the presence of social justice in the forefront, as much as ordaining women.” And the one particular piece of social justice she focuses on is abortion.

Abortion is not a public act, mostly. The right of the pregnant person to make a private choice within the medical system is fundamental. Rue uses her own experience to urge Roman Catholic WomenPriests to a ministry that is especially appropriate to that private choice, as Morrow explains it:

accompaniment, an individual-focused approach…in order to be nonjudgmental spiritual advisors to those considering abortion or who have already undergone the procedure. The term comes from liberation theology, a Catholic ideology created by Peruvian priest Gustavo Gutiérrez, combining Catholic teaching with class politics. It is frequently invoked by progressive Catholics on matters of public health and social work for the poor. The term ‘accompaniment’ is also used by Latin American feminists to describe the process of being present with and supporting those seeking abortions.

Moving from that private realm of accompaniment – which most priests probably have been doing – to a pubic decision is what Morrow’s article is really about. In June, the American branch of Roman Catholic WomenPriests—USA (RCWP) met in a forum to consider abortion and reproductive rights. Many Catholic reform organizations have done the same since the Dobbs decision was pending and then issued. The sessions have been facilitated by Catholics for Choice, now led by Jamie Manson, who has also been a leader in speaking out for women’s ordination.

Morrow says “the official RCWP organization has been disunited in its activist work, with a lack of consensus over their official stance on abortion,” and the forum did what was intended: open the floor for discussion and suggestions for action, of which there were many, well beyond private accompaniment. Yet space was allowed for those who still may be struggling:

For Rue—and the rest of RCWP—that political work looks very different from secular reproductive justice political activism. A key point Rue stressed over and over was that, in her view, women priests need not agree with abortion on a personal level, but instead merely provide a nonjudgmental, spiritual presence for pregnant individuals, whose beliefs on abortion also may vary greatly.

This may have been the way for RCWP to move forward with a positive approach to a more active role for reproductive rights at the same time respecting those who are not there yet.

My usual approach is to write about documents and this is a slender reed to subject to such shaking out. I was not there and I am not a member. Yet I have supported RCWP from its beginnings and know and admire many of its members, including Victoria Rue. While Morrow’s is not a typical biographical profile, it includes a much fuller portrait of Rue than I have provided. While Morrow is not a theologian, she provides significant background on abortion from a variety of Catholic perspectives. While Morrow does not report typical organizational decisions, she captures a more open style of dealing with a complicated issue. And I am again confirmed in my belief that women working for Catholic ordination of people of all genders present a challenge to activists of all persuasions.