Category: Women’s Ordination

Few church leaders embraced Vatican II like Archbishop Raymond Hunthausen, who as a young bishop attended all four conciliar sessions and returned to the U.S. with a prophetic vision for implementing the Council’s teachings. Sadly, he passed away earlier this week at age 96. Hunthausen advocated for oppressed persons everywhere. He protested nuclear weapons as…
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While I am a cradle Catholic, over the past few years I have found myself captivated by the practice of shamanism.  What draws me in is the emphasis on the spiritual connection with all the living—humans, plants, animals, the earth.  A few months ago I was out on retreat in the remote wilderness of Wisconsin…
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I love the designated theme of this year’s Mary Magdalene Feast: “Celebrating Feminism & Faith in Union”. With this focus, how proudly we can join with other Catholic renewal groups in affirming the national and international Women’s Marches, #MeToo and #CatholicToo, all brave advocates for justice and rights of women, and those who participated in…
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I have to admit that I have not read the “Theology of the Body” (TOB). During the years that John Paul II (JPII) gave these weekly addresses, 1979 to 1984, I was living my own mind-body duality: ending and starting marriages while getting a PHD in American Civilization. So I can’t answer Luis Gutierrez’s questions…
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There is a wonderful half hour series on some PBS stations (and probably podcasts, too) called Poetry in America. It highlights how poets and poems have informed, enlightened and inspired our thinking on all kinds of issues. Check out, as an example, the one focusing on Gwendolyn Brooks’ poem, “To Prisoners”. Because I have been…
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The first image that comes to mind when I hear “summer solstice” is one of druids, female priests mostly, sliding through darkening forests to host rituals of enthrallment and enchantment. Imagine: women as priests in ancient celebration of the communion of the body and bounty and promise of nature and the blood of life-giving fertility.…
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In this graduation and other end of year tributes season, suppose we in the women’s ordination and church renewal movements actually did receive an award – a prestigious award – and public acclaim – and applause – for what we have done to attain justice for women in the church? After we got over the…
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What I wish is that someone in Rome can get Pope Francis to watch the new documentary, RBG. Those who made this movie have chosen brilliantly from the briefs and opinions of Ruth Bader Ginsburg to express clearly the argument for women’s equality and how any different treatment harms them. For men’s equality, too, and…
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What on earth am I talking about, you well may ask. Happiness: that shallow, ephemeral, fleeting condition? Is that the place to start creating a new church for a new day? And yet, if we did want to go on a journey of envisioning the kind of church full inclusive ministry and leadership might create,…
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From across the pond, as they say, it’s very bold of me to speculate on the meaning of the Irish referendum on #8 to make abortion legal. Probably unwise, too. But that’s never stopped me. And I have been feeling more than thinking about it all. Most interpretations focus on another radical change in a…
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