Category: Women’s Ordination

Since I am so besotted by Avivah Zornberg, Scotch-Israeli master of midrash, and her insights into the Book of Exodus, I decided to expand on last week’s post. (As a quick reminder, midrash is the Jewish practice of deeply reading sacred texts again and again to uncover ever-changing and new sacred and intellectual layers of…
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No sooner had Pope Francis issued his curial reform which opened important Vatican positions to lay women and men, did Phyllis Zagano raise the question of women Cardinals. You probably know Zagano as a member of the first papal commission considering the question of women deacons. I assume that her persistent advocacy helped that commission…
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It is Holy Week. Throughout the world people are in processions. Some are participating in religious traditions; some are marching for their lives. Some begin in Palm Sunday joy and end in Good Friday grief; others begin in terror and grief and end in, if not joy, then at least safety and welcome. Still others…
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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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There are only so many ideas, apparently. I thought of this wonderful beginning for today’s blog and in saving it I found this, from May 20, 2020: Step by step the longest march can be won, can be won  Many stones can form an arch, singly none, singly none  And by union, what we will…
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Traditionally, the Catholic Lenten message to us about Christ’s forty day desert sojourn has been: Take time out of your busy lives to do the same. Immerse yourself in a severe and sere inner landscape, as harsh and unforgiving as the desert, and examine what tempts you away from God. Spend enough time in deprivation,…
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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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Priesthood is the topic of a three-day Symposium organized by Cardinal Marc Ouellet in what may be his last gasp as head of the Congregation of Bishops. In April 2021, I wrote about its lineup of women theologians based at Vatican institutions. They are scheduled for two sessions, one about complementarity and the other on…
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There is so much good news this week, I have 22 articles saved to write about. Brace yourself! Maybe that means 2022 will be a very good year for Catholic reform. First, of course, is Kate McElwee in NCR. You really owe it to yourself to read the whole thing. It’s Kate’s response to Michael…
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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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