Category: anti-oppression

Britney Spears is not someone I have paid much attention to over the years, so I was brought up short by Renee Roden’s Religion News Service article, published in NCR: “The trajectory of Spears’ career and public persona can be understood, some experts on evangelicalism argue, through the rise and decline of the evangelical purity…
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If you’ve been in a book club in the last ten years, you’ve probably read, or at least considered reading, something by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, the Nigerian writer. Perhaps her remarkable breakthrough novel, Americanah. Perhaps the earlier one our club read recently, Purple Hibiscus. Perhaps her TEDx talk made into a book, We Should All…
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A perfect theme for Memorial Day weekend. This is the title of an exhibit at the New Museum in New York City. It closes June 6, a week and a day from today. I am very grateful for a late review by Clifford Thompson in Commonweal that got me there last weekend. If I had…
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Right now I have sixteen tabs in my browser gathering material as I consider a USCCB plan to address the Joe Biden communion issue at their June meeting. I wrote last week about an article I haven’t even linked to again: “I must admit that if Father Louis Cameli had come down differently on communion…
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The Anti-Oppression Team is responsible for developing strategies that deepen WOC’s commitment to full inclusivity and equity within the structure of WOC itself and in the Roman Catholic Church. WOC values diverse identities, genders, and ministries as we strive to create a church and society where everyone is free to respond to God’s call without…
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“It stands out to me that, although a girl passing by, Darnella Frazier, had the presence of mind to record a video of the entire encounter on her cell phone so we could all see what happened entirely too clearly, we were not certain of the outcome.” Heather Cox Richardson’s Letters from an American gives…
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In addition to the weekly special edition blogs happening here, part of WOC’s Black History Month observation has been a series of posts over on our Instagram (@womensordination), each featuring a Black Catholic woman whose life we think should be more widely known—part of the canon, if you will. The series was inspired by a…
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We now understand how privilege operates. Some people get to do things that others don’t. Many are seeing that in the response of the police to “gatherings” in Washington this year. I’m not going to explore this here; I’m just putting it in your minds. Some people are able to be a lot more free…
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Sometimes you read something that is a sharp reality check. For me this week, it is a reflection by Molly Cahill in America: “An open letter to the bishops, from a young Catholic who’s only known a church in scandal.”  Could that be true? What does that do to her feelings about the church, her…
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This week, there really is an “elephant in the room”: the upcoming election – and, well, you know, another particular “elephant” – making it difficult to think about anything else. Having acknowledged that is our situation today, however, I would like to point a way forward to a brighter future – also definitely needed this…
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