Category: #achurchforourdaughters

More and more a possible path to justice for all genders, in the Church, in the world, becomes clearer to me: We must convince each other – and especially those in hierarchies and patriarchies everywhere – to act with the utmost urgency to restore, renew, and respect the endangered natural world. For as they –…
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If you are reading this and are female, you will know exactly what the “likability trap” is and probably have been at some point been at its mercy. I sure have and sometimes, I shudder to think, may still be. It’s a snare that entraps women who want to use their power to effect change…
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I’m still in “commencement speech” mode. Please bear with me. It’s just that at this time of the year so many extraordinary people are giving us – or, in the case below, have given us  – so much extraordinary inspiration and encouragement, I cannot resist passing it on. Paul Hawken, author and “visionary environmental activist”…
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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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Nothing, based on our experience Thursday as guests in a class for a course called “Catholic Philadelphia: Then and Now.” Maureen Tate of the Grail and SEPA WOC and I were asked to speak on the local woman priest movement by a woman professor in this area school run by a men’s religious order. Every…
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Last year, I was asked to write a poem for Women’s History Month to be read at Mass, and the priest actually let me read this!  As we close out March and begin April, that month of rebirth, I offer you this:  A Church for Our Daughters Would it be stone-clad?With some rocks left overFor…
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How much more can we take? We wore our blue armbands this past weekend to stand in solidarity with victims of sex abuse. We asked over and over for accountability, change, and redress from the Church that betrayed them, and yet, it seems daily, more and more abuse comes into the light. We protested unfair…
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On a recent February Sunday at Mass, we celebrated Black History Month. Our pastor, who is Caucasian, donned colorful, African-inspired vestments. After the welcome and gathering, he went down to the aisle and called forth two of the parish’s African-American elders. A tall woman and tall man in African garb joined their hands over him…
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Did you notice this line in Josepha Madigan’s speech to We Are Church in Ireland? The full sentence is “Yes, we say to our daughters, you can be an altar girl but don’t get too ahead of yourself, you will never be a priest.” I love that Irish women who have succeeded in politics are…
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Well, to answer the question with a shaky “yes”, I often have to turn to those with thoughts much wiser than mine.  Brian Cahill on SemNet Live in February 2015 tackled the topic in Our Troubled Church and Why Some of Us Stay and helped reacquaint me with some of that wisdom. He quotes Michael…
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