Author: Regina Bannan

May 16th, 2020

I’m Not Cheering

In the women’s supplement to the May issue of L’Osservatore Romano, Canadian Cardinal Marc Ouellet calls for more women in seminaries! But it’s not for the good of the women, though I would be happy if more academic jobs were made available to women theologians. No, this is for the good of the seminarians. I’m…
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May 9th, 2020

In Person for Pentecost?

France always makes me smile, whether or not I ever get to return. On a river barge cruise, we stopped for a home-hosted visit on a national holiday, Pentecost Monday. What? After the French Revolution and the secularization of society, the French still celebrate Pentecost Monday? Our small group was fortunate enough to be hosted…
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May 2nd, 2020

Spiritual Communion III

Way back in the 1990s when John Paul II issued his order not to discuss women’s ordination, very soon the debate shifted to whether it was infallible. While subsequent popes seem to be treating it as if it is, plenty of theologians demonstrated that it isn’t. I use this to introduce what’s happening this week…
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April 25th, 2020

Spiritual Communion II

The day after I wrote my blog on spiritual communion last week, the Pope addressed it. I don’t claim there was a causal relationship, but it’s clearly an issue that deserves examining again. I also appreciate the comments I received on and off-line, especially those of my sister, who spelled out the way the Archdiocese…
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April 18th, 2020

Spiritual Communion

Those of us around this TABLE are united in our belief that women should be ordained priests in the Roman Catholic Church. We probably have many different ideas about what that actually means, how and when that should happen, whether it already has happened. I started thinking about fundamental issues when I heard the Rector…
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April 11th, 2020

Packing the Court in a Stealth Holy Week

There are so many wonderful things being written in preparation for this Covid-19 Easter that I am as frustrated as could be by the Spy Wednesday announcement of the new Women Deacon Commission. In Philadelphia, our Stealth Holy Week began with a HOLY MONDAY celebration of the Chrism Mass with 36,000 viewers, according to the…
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April 4th, 2020

Nothing can ever be the same again!

One morning a few weeks ago, I woke up thinking that the Covid-19 epidemic was going to change an awful lot about ordinary life in the years to come. My totally original idea turns out to be not so original. The title of this blog comes from Jonathan Tulloch in The Tablet. He connects the…
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March 28th, 2020

The Road Is Open Again!

When I get an earworm, you get to share it. The Plot Against America, the new HBO series, begins with this Depression-era song, “The Road is Open Again.” This short film like those shown in theaters at the time is hopelessly sexist and blatantly political, but, having taught this period in American history for so…
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March 21st, 2020

Finding a Purpose

First, anger. This is ridiculous. Cancellations and closings. Then resignation, depression, indecision, boredom.  Whatever it looks like for you. Then finding a purpose. This was the sequence for me. How about you? Wednesday a group of florists around Philadelphia took the flowers they were not going to use and decorated Rittenhouse Square. What a boon…
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March 14th, 2020

The Rabbis on the Plane at Dawn

You may have realized that we were away for a few weeks. I am very grateful to the writers who contributed to this blog and encourage them and others to share their thoughts more frequently. Ellie and I love writing – but we are not the only voices that should be heard. We were on…
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