Category: Feminism

When we speak of women’s (and non-binary gender’s) roles in the Church and world, we, more often than not, receive quite marvelous reflections like this one from Robancy A. Helen, a member of the Idente Missionaries, in her article “Women Everywhere Live Out Mission of Caring for Others” in the May 10, 2022, Global Sisters…
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I wasn’t, for the leak of a first draft of the Supreme Court decision on the Mississippi abortion case. Late June, early July was a long time away, and I was counting on two panels to be sponsored by Catholic Organizations for Renewal (COR) on May 18 and 25 for more information. But flipping through…
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There is only so much room in a single blog, so that’s why I am focusing on three women among the excellent articles that have arrived on my desk this week: Soline Humbert, Joan Chittister, and Christine Schenk. First, Soline Humbert. If you attended the wonderful WOW liturgy last Sunday and hung around for the…
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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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Women’s history month often invites us to look at women in the past, a valuable exercise that increases our knowledge and perspective. What strikes me about stories I am seeing this year about Catholic women is that they are living – and doing their work – now. Jeannine Gramick reflects for Lent on the desert…
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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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What you looking at Mr./Ms. Owl? And why can I barely see you when I look back? When asking myself or others the “big questions” in life about purpose, justice, spirit or the Spirit, security and tradition vs. monumental change, belief and believing, how, why, if…I sometimes get nowhere with prose, written or spoken. There’s…
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I heard the term “anger farming” only recently. It may have been around for a while, perhaps a long while, but it certainly seems particularly relevant right now. We all know the “anger farmers.” We see them on the news whether we want to or not; we see them constantly in the political and cultural…
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The cause of women is advanced in two surprising ways this week. A priest in Hoboken uses his religion column in the local newspaper to suggest that women’s ordination may not be impossible. And Pope Francis encourages religious and consecrated women to “fight back” if they are exploited. Rev. Alexander Santora, pastor of Our Lady…
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Like their pagan mothers and grandmothers, the women of early Christian Ireland lived comfortably with power. It wasn’t a feminist paradise—their society was ruled, after all, by aristocratic warriors—but women who became Christians were still influential in the new religion. Brigid of Kildare is one of the best examples. Today is her feast day. Patrick…
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