Last week, I told Kate McElwee that I had more to say about working for the church, and I do. But first, I will draw your attention to other writers who address the issue. Jamie Manson is always pastoral. In her comments on the Supreme Court’s “ministerial exception” decision, she highlights the effects of allowing…
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This Sunday the Community of Mary Magdalene in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania will celebrate (via Zoom) the gifts of this amazing benefactor/saint to our lives with a mass with readings from the lost apocryphal text, Gospel of Mary. At the end of Mass, we will have the pleasure of honoring Dr. Shannen Dee Williams with the…
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These words in Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s dissent on Wednesday to the Supreme Court’s decision regarding birth control should be engraved on all our hearts. When debating deep moral and religious issues, we must understand ambiguity, which the majority decision does not do. The rights of these employers have suddenly become paramount; the rights of…
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When I opened Facebook one day in June and saw the headline, “Men Think God is a Man,” I thought, well doesn’t that say it all…  In 2020, quite a few men still believe that God is a man. While I don’t particularly care to paint all of man-kind with one broad brush, there is…
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“All men are created equal.” Is there one among us who has not wished that this had been stated in another, more inclusive way? That the whole American project could have been based on a different premise? While we celebrate the progress we have made, we are conscious of how much more we want to…
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Does this scene seem familiar? Marie (not her real name), a white woman sitting close enough to touch me, reached out, took my arm and said to me, “Inez, when I see you, I do not see color. I just see your beautiful soul.” Crash! My face must have shown what I was feeling, because…
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Will the powers that be pay attention to Daniel Horan’s column this week in NCR?  The sentences that make me most want to cheer are these: “it is demonstrably clear that those who invoke ‘gender ideology’ generally don’t know what they are talking about. Such folks would do well to listen to leading scholars on the subjects…
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I had never heard the phrase “opportunity hoarding” before, and I had no idea that I had been, and maybe still am, doing just that. Oh, when I first heard the phrase, I could easily see how the Church hierarchy had definitely been hoarding opportunities – forever – and grew rather self-righteous and puffed up…
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The Supreme Court decision affirming that sex discrimination includes discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation isn’t getting the notice it deserves. Think of this like the Brown vs. Board of Education decision in that it defines another fundamental right, one that many LGBTQ persons have been denied, often in Catholic institutions. However, the…
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I am trying to do the “homework on white privilege” that so many African-American leaders, writers, clergy, activists, citizens are advocating. I had done some of the work before as part of our parish’s racial healing initiative which had us reading the literature, meeting weekly in small racial healing groups, and trying to learn, grow,…
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