May 26th, 2020
Recently I became a vegetarian. Big deal, you might think, especially if you have been vegetarian or vegan for a long time or all of your life. Oh no, you might think, not one of those people especially if you’ve been a lifetime devotee of the ‘food chain’ justification of meat-eating or just continued enjoyment…
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May 23rd, 2020
Having just called my 95 year-old cousin with COVID-19 in a rehab facility in New Jersey, I am especially appalled by this comment from Cardinal Timothy Dolan to President Donald Trump, described in Crux: The New York cardinal said he was “honored to be the lead-off batter, and the feelings are mutual sir,” noting that…
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May 19th, 2020
I am writing during “Laudato Si’ Week”, the fifth anniversary of Pope Francis’ encyclical letter: “On Care for Our Common Home”. This particular encyclical made me proud to be Catholic (instead of a confusing mixture of semi-lapsed, semi-faithful) and grateful to have a Pope, if only to give us someone as a world-recognized spokesperson with…
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May 16th, 2020
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
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
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
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
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
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
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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