Category: anti-oppression

Perhaps one of the most touching descriptions of God as multi-gendered, if gendered at all, came from Jesus’ analogy of God as Mother Hen. How appropriate for the Easter season! And how appropriate for all of us who witness for the leadership and ordination of people of all genders in our Church. From Luke 13:31-32,…
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How prevalent, how ingrained, how sad – still – is our penchant to evaluate our own our worth through other people’s eyes, especially, although not exclusively, if we are female or other-gendered. In these waning days of a month focusing on women, I offer a short piece that gives us one more tool to assess…
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After rejoicing last week about women’s leadership, I must write about my response to the Pew report issued this week analyzing Black Catholics in the US. Pew has an outsize influence on American religious conversation because they have data, careful data. All religious groups come under their scrutiny, not just Catholics, though Catholics, even Bishops,…
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This is a picture of a cross adorned for Lent outside the Iglesia de San Francisco in Antigua, Guatemala. At first I truly looked at the image with what I call “new eyes.”  I saw a child’s raggedy dress, workers’ crudely wrought hand tools, a sword pointed away from potential victims, a ladder offering elevation,…
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Those with roots in Europe may be more concerned about Ukraine than the Catholic press seems to be here. After all, we’re a lot further from the fighting and the sanctions. For example, in London The Tablet seems to devote its whole print issue to the crisis. The summaries of two articles intrigue me: “Robert…
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Does it not feel like an old, European war? Who knows what has happened in the two days between when I write this and when you read it. But I just think of all those TV shows and movies giving the lie to our peace witness. The flame draws us, or me, at least, but…
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Sometimes I need a reminder of why I do what I do. Regina Bannan’s February 12 post did give us a reminder of all the good news we who work for justice and inclusion of all genders, races, sexual identities in our Church and its priesthood have had recently. And I’m cheered – in a…
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Much of what we do in our circles of progressive Catholicism today draws directly on the work of those who acted for change in the wake of the Second Vatican Council. One of these key post-Vatican II leaders is the Peruvian priest Gustavo Gutiérrez, OP (1928-), whose foundational text, Teología de la liberación, perspectivas (1971),…
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I always start my class with a temperature check to gauge how much energy my students have. My favorite and easiest way to do this is by asking them to show me, on a scale of zero to three, where their energy level is. They then hold up that number of fingers in front of…
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Merry Christmas to you and your family: your family of origin and your chosen families as well. If it seems trite to focus on family at Christmas, being in a loving community is the essence of the message of Jesus. I have been moved by a post by Jacob Kohlhaas, an associate professor of moral…
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