Pope Francis Has a Woman Problem

By Jennifer Labbadia
Deputy Director of Development at Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good

Note: This commentary was first published March 31, 2015 by The Huffington Post.

Two years into Francis' revolutionary papacy, and it's clear: the Catholic Church still has a significant woman problem, and it isn't getting much better. Shortly after his election, Francis called for a new theology of women, saying that "it is necessary to broaden the opportunities for a stronger presence of women in the church." To date, the church hasn't gotten the memo.

So in the context of Women's History Month, how can the church step up its game?

First the church must acknowledge where it's gone wrong. Women today face a myriad of systemic injustices, which manifest themselves into unfortunate everyday realities. They endure domestic violence, sex trafficking, the gender wage gap, lack of access to education and widespread poverty among many others.

Why hasn't the church spoken more forcefully against these structural sins? Instead, the Church too often limits "women's issues" to sexual ethics, most notably contraception and abortion.

There is no better example than last month's Vatican Conference on Women.

At the four day conference, after discussing gender stereotypes ad nauseum, the Vatican shifted gears to the number one issue facing women globally: the morality of plastic surgery.

At a time where the sexual exploitation of women is the fastest growing criminal enterprise in the world, where women's access to education remains limited, and where there is a scandalous pay gap between men and women globally, the Catholic Church needs to focus on gender inequality, not the morality of plastic surgery.

Amid this bleak picture, there are signs of hope.

Under the leadership of Pope Francis, the Church is rediscovering the radical discipleship of women throughout its history. And now it can begin to examine new ways to promote gender equality both in the Church and in society. Pope Francis has said that we need a new theology of women, but perhaps more than that we need to recognize more fully the contribution women make every day in this church, a contribution that goes far beyond sexual ethics and femininity.

Kerry Robinson is one such example. A prominent lay woman in the United States, she uses her intellect, business acumen and fundraising capabilities to help create a better managed missionary church.

Robinson isn't alone. Religious women have been fulfilling Francis' call for a missionary church for decades. Sister Dorothy Stang, of the Sisters of Notre Dame De Namur, exemplifies this spirit. She spent much of her life courageously fighting for the rights of poor farmers in the Amazon and sought to protect the forest's rich natural resources from loggers and ranchers. Her prophetic leadership wasn't without cost -- she was martyred in 2005.

These two examples aren't exceptions. Catholic women everywhere are on the front lines and in the trenches, serving the excluded, defending the poor and spreading the joy of the gospel. If these women give it all up in service of the church, they too should be a part of its decision-making authority.

As my colleague Christopher Hale rightly notes, this is the way it was in the beginning:

After Jesus' death, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb to remove his body. On the way there, she encountered a gardener. The gardener revealed himself to be the risen Christ. As Mary ran to tell the other disciples the good news, she held within her the very reason of the church: to share God's saving love in Jesus. In that moment, some argue that she was the church.

The gardener knew what Pope Francis and the church must learn: when you want to get a tough job done, give it to a woman.

The Current Culture War and the Way Toward Reform: Integral Consciousness

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Following are two excerpts from Integral Consciousness and the Future of Evolution (2007) by Steve McIntosh.

There is in the developed world an increasingly bitter clash of worldviews wherein these stages are battling for control of the laws and mores of their societies. This cultural struggle is found not simply between liberals and conservatives; in the developed world, we actually face a three-way conflict between the values of traditionalism, modernism, and postmodernism. Or perhaps more accurately, we are faced with a tug of war between traditionalism and postmodernism for the soul of the modernist majority. But however we characterize the culture war, we can see that the stakes are high. Because progressive development is sorely needed, and because the cost of the culture war is developmental stagnation, we need to find the peace of greater agreement in order to make meaningful progress. With integral consciousness we can see how the values of each worldview stage are both part of the solution and part of the problem—each stage embodies both dignities and disasters. Traditional consciousness identifies the need to reduce lawless violence and evil in the world, yet it creates oppression. Modernist consciousness identifies opportunities for development and discovery, yet it creates gross inequalities. And postmodern consciousness identifies the need to honor and include everyone, yet it also creates blindness to comparative excellence. Because each of these worldviews is very much alive and well within the developed world today, not only are they each continuing to produce their particular kind of progress, each of them is also continuing to act out their particular kind of pathology. And this is where the cultural battle is joined.

– pp. 74-75

When it comes to practicing the integral worldview, we have to remember that we are called to actually create this new level of consciousness ourselves. Those of us who can discern the emergence of this new stage of civilization here at its beginnings have the privilege of receiving the creative impulse of the first wave of integral values.

The truths of integral philosophy can be used to produce cultural evolution on many fronts. Wherever we find the culture war—in the workplace, in our schools, and even in our own families—we can skillfully work to raise consciousness by showing how different values apply to different life conditions. As we begin to see how just about every human problem is a problem of consciousness, we can then see how best to raise consciousness by distinguishing between the healthy and pathological values of a given stage, and by translating the values of one stage into terms that can be better appreciated by other stages. Think about all the ways that we can help keep well-meaning postmodern consciousness from literally dissolving the crucial structures of traditional and modernist values upon which our further evolution depends. And conversely, think about all the ways we can communicate the evolutionary necessity of postmodern values to traditionalists and modernists by showing how our civilization’s actual survival largely depends on the success of postmodernism.

– pp. 90-91

Love and Sex Campaign 2015 . . .

. . . IN PREPARATION FOR THE SYNOD

ON THE FAMILY

AT THE VATICAN, OCTOBER 2015

Pope Francis has asked lay people around the world to share their experiences on the Church's teachings and practices regarding sexuality, marriage, and family. This information is meant to help the bishops as they grapple with these complicated issues at the Synod on the Family in Rome this coming October 2015. Each of our experiences matters to help the total picture emerge. Now is the time to Claim Our Voices and take the following action steps.

Surveys

Survey 1: Deadline March 10

Has your pastor or parish staff urged you to go to the Archdiocesan website to tell the hierarchs how they can be more supportive of healthy family life? The Archdiocesan website links to a survey provided by the Vatican. It can be accessed directly by clicking here.

Don't be put off by the difficult wording of the questions. Simply find a few questions that mention topics which you have concerns about. Write whatever message you want the bishops to hear. We have been assured that all submissions will be accepted even if they don't exactly answer the question or if most of the questions are not answered at all.

Survey 2: Deadline April 15

After you have done that survey, click here for an easier survey we urge you to take too. It is sponsored by Catholic Church Reform International (CCRI) and this data will get to the bishops of the Synod also.

Stories

CCCR/Council of the Baptized is asking what we can do in our own local church, this Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, to promote healthy psycho-social development in families. First, how big is the problem? Can you relate some stories about the issues of contraception, divorce and remarriage, same-gender relationships, living together before marriage--issues to be studied by the bishops. Write your story to post on the CCCR website. Post it here.

Listening Sessions

Host a Listening Session in your home or parish. You invite the people, and CCCR will provide the program and facilitator. All concerns raised will be included in a report going to our archbishop, the papal nuncio, the pope, and all the US bishops attending the Synod in Rome.

Contact Mary Beth Stein marybsaint@hotmail.com 612-805-7091.

Position Paper

Council of the Baptized has published a position paper on this topic entitled: Toward a Healthy Christian Theology of Sexuality. Get a handle on the issues by reading this paper. Just click on the title. You may print and distribute it as you see fit.

What you can do: Invite some friends or fellow parishioners to talk about the position paper. Click here for two pages of suggested topics and questions that could guide small group study related to this document and topic.

Printable Summary of Actions

Click here.

Save the Date!

The League of Catholic Women
invites you to

Many Places at the Table:
The Contemporary Roman Catholic Church in the USA

with

Fr. Michael Joncas

Tuesday, February 24, 2015
Gather at 6:45 p.m.
Program begins promptly at 7:00 p.m.

The Woman's Club
410 Oak Grove St.
Minneapolis (south of Loring Park)
Free parking in adjacent lot
and in the lot across the street.

Cost: $15.00
Reservation checks due by February 20 to
League of Catholic Women
410 Oak Grove St.
Minneapolis, MN 55403

$20 for walk-ins on the day.

Fr. Joncas' presentation will address a number of important issues, questions and themes, including:

• What are the major national and international church events that help shape the different faith styles of contemporary Catholics?

• What are the central loyalties of each group?

• What are the obstacles to, and the opportunities for, conversations within and across the boundaries surrounding these different understandings of our shared Catholic faith?

• When we recite the Nicene Creed we profess our belief in "one catholic church." We should come away from this evening with a deeper understanding of just what that means in today's world.

Quote of the Day

[San Francisco's Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone] constantly refers to confusion about church teaching about sexuality . . . implying that if we just understood the teaching, everything would be fine. But there is no confusion about contraception and, increasingly, same-sex civil marriage. There is strong, thoughtful, conscience-driven opposition. He also uses the words "timeless church teachings" and conveniently forgets how the church was wrong on Galileo and slavery and ignores that the "timeless church teaching" on same-sex adoptive parents was written in 2003.

Cordileone suggests that he is in line with Pope Francis. In one way, he may be correct: It doesn't appear that Francis is going to be changing any doctrine in the near future. But the whole world knows we have a pope who is focusing on Jesus' message of love and inclusiveness and who has told Cordileone and his fellow culture warrior bishops to quit being obsessed with the sexuality issues. Our archbishop doesn't even appear to be listening to his boss.

– Brian Cahill
Excerpted from "Cordileone's Continuing Controversy
in San Francisco Revolves Around Catholic Identity
National Catholic Reporter
February 13, 2015

Catholic Reform Network Says Synod Questionnaire Was Designed to Fail . . . and is Failing

Note: The following is a media release from Catholic Church Reform Int'l.

Catholic Church Reform Int'l (CCRI) has written an Open Letter to Pope Francis telling him that the 46-question survey requiring all essay-type answers devised by the Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops to gather feedback for the October 2015 Synod on the Family, is totally unworkable and not being promoted on most of the worldwide diocesan websites.

"We know it is an unworkable document," said Peter Wilkinson, CCRI coordinator from Australia, "because our research shows that, in the nine weeks it has been out there, few bishops and dioceses anywhere in the world are using it. The complex survey is not only doomed to fail, but sadly, appears to have been designed to fail."

"Not only will it not gather the voices of Catholic couples and families, but it will drive them away," said Rene Reid, CCRI co-founding director. "Whether it is intentional or not, this questionnaire is counterproductive, threatens to thwart the Pope's wishes, and could even endanger the effectiveness of the Synod itself."

Many bishops also want to hear the voices of Catholic couples and families, but now find themselves stymied by a Vatican tool unsuited to the task. It is overwhelming to even the most well-educated Catholic. Without the people's voices, those bishops elected to attend the October 2015 Assembly will have little to offer. "Pope Francis has made it clear that he does not want them turning up with formulations for pastoral care based simply on the application of doctrine or their own interpretation of what their people need," Virginia Saldanha, CCRI coordinator from India, pointed out. "That would defy the concluding directives of the October 2014 Assembly."

But the voices should not be only those of practicing Catholics. "Many Catholics no longer attend Mass," said Ms. Reid, "often precisely because of Church teachings, attitudes, and pastoral practices - the very issues that should be on the Synod's agenda. Pope Francis wants the bishops to find concrete solutions to the innumerable challenges that families face. The Lineamenta questionnaire not only shuts down the Faithful but completely leaves out those who are no longer practicing Catholics. If the Synod wants to 'look at the reality of the family today in all its complexities' as stated as its objective," said Ms. Reid, "there has to be a simplified, user-friendly means to gather the reflections of ordinary Catholics."

Catholic Church Reform Int'l, a network which spans 65 countries and shares Pope Francis's vision for a church engaged in a communal search of discernment, is now looking to develop an alternative survey, an uncomplicated living poll which, the CCRI letter explains "will be an invitation to all the baptized to share with the Synod their lived experience of marriage and family: 'How have their marriage and family life benefited from the teachings of the Church, or how has it caused difficulties or harm?' ...They will be asked for suggestions for change. 'If you were once a participatory practicing Catholic but have left the Church, what caused you to leave, what would bring you back?'" Brendan Butler, CCRI coordinator from Ireland who is serving on the committee designing the poll said: "CCRI wants a survey instrument which will be a pastoral agent in itself, looking to support families still in the flock, those on the fringes who will leave if some reform is not forthcoming, and looking to show welcome to those who've strayed or felt driven away."

"Too long have we lay Faithful colluded in silence out of a mistaken sense of respect," said Robert Blair Kaiser, CCRI co-founder and author. "We need to be speaking out, reminding bishops of the need to respond to families in the context of a complex and changing environment. If the Church is to be a credible instrument of the Gospel, it must instigate structural change in the way it operates. One key element of that is ensuring that all the baptized have a proper say in the governance of the Church."

To read the full letter to Pope Francis, click here.

Quote of the Day

[Pope Francis] has gotten rave reviews for his supposedly progressive views, although it may be only that he seems progressive when compared to Pope Benedict XVI, the pope whose philosophy, at times, sounded like the pastoral version of “Get off my lawn.” . . . [Francis has] said that evolution and “the notion of creation” were not “inconsistent”; urged the church to help the poor; and asked, “Who am I to judge?” on the issue of gay priests. . . . Yet it’s worth remembering that Francis has not actually changed any church doctrine on these issues. And he hasn’t done a thing to walk back Benedict’s egregious comments on transgender people, which suggested that in living our lives openly, we somehow make human dignity “disappear.” Then, this week, Francis praised Slovakian pilgrims for defending the family, in a quote that appeared to give support to a referendum in their country scheduled for today that could ban marriage and adoption for same-sex and transgender couples. Thanks to attitudes like this, the Roman Catholic Church has spent years driving away the faithful.

. . . [F]rancis’ words over the last year have given many Catholics, current and lapsed, reason for hope. But we are still waiting to see those hopes turned into action.

– Jennifer Finney Boylan
Excerpted from "Can the Church Return to the Faithful"
The New York Times
February 6, 2015

See also the previous PCV posts:
• Pope Francis and the Catholic Crisis
• Pope Francis' Woman Problem
• Pope Francis is Listening
• Tony Flannery in Minneapolis
• Creating a Liberating Church (Part 1)
• Creating a Liberating Church (Part 2)
• Creating a Liberating Church (Part 3)

Related Off-site Links:
The Trouble With Francis: Three Things That Worry Me – Mary E. Hunt (Religion Dispatches, January 6, 2014).
Pope Francis Might Not Be As Awesome As We Thought He Was – Asher Bayot (Inquisitr.com, January 18, 2015).

Still Dialoguing with the Archbishop: The Catechism?

By Paula Ruddy


At CCCR’s meeting with Archbishop John C. Nienstedt on January 20, the Archbishop mentioned that one of the valuable results of Vatican II was the Catechism of the Catholic Church. He didn’t elaborate.

At the word “catechism” a dark cloud enveloped my liberal soul. In a good faith effort to be open-minded here, I have to ask why I have that reaction.

I remember loving the Baltimore Catechism as a child in the 1940’s. It was a little blue book with questions and answers. The second question and answer I still love: “ Where is God? God is everywhere.” We memorized the questions and answers for catechism class at All Saints Parish in Lakeville, and we were called on, in fear and trembling, to answer questions at Confirmation. My mother and father could still spout the answers from their childhoods at St. Luke’s and St. Michael’s in St. Paul. There was open discussion on any and all questions, as I recall. In the hurly-burly of everyday life, the catechism questions and answers were tucked away on the hard drive of our minds for the most part, forming us somehow. They were articulated there if we needed them.

So why is an “adult” catechism such a problem to me now? I have a copy on my bookshelf. Can it be a comprehensive set of statements, most of which I value highly, without actually reducing Catholicism to a set of statements?

Is there a way to use the catechism to turn toward the world with the Gospel vision of the reign of God here and now, all of us evolving toward full union with God through conflict, suffering and joy, as in Jesus’ own life? Can the catechism support and enrich the Christian vision and help in the daily discernment of faithful living?

Help me out here. Am I the only one with a “catechism” attitude problem? What would the grown-up attitude be? If you use the catechism as a meditative reading, please tell us about it. Thanks.

Dear Pope Francis: Saving the World Requires Contraception

By Mark Seager
President, Population Connection Action Fund


Note: This commentary was first published February 1, 2015 by The World Post.


Don't get me wrong, Francis. You seem like a sincere, congenial man, and I admire you for bringing the world's attention to the need to address poverty, fight climate change, and eliminate inequality. But, sadly, your unwillingness to accept access to the full range of contraceptives as a necessary and moral good is completely incompatible with your efforts to make the world a better place.

You see, modern contraceptive methods – like the birth control pill, condom, and intrauterine device – do much more than provide people with a healthy sex life. Contraception saves lives, especially those of women and girls living in the developing world, who often don't have access to antenatal services. Mothers and babies die when women aren't able to delay, space, or avoid pregnancies. And young children whose mothers die in pregnancy or childbirth are more likely to die themselves.

Incredibly, if all women in the developing world who want to avoid pregnancy used modern contraception, the number of unintended pregnancies would drop by 70 percent and unsafe abortions would fall by 74 percent. The ability to plan one's family provides women and girls with more educational and job opportunities. And many economies would get a much-needed boost.

There is no doubt that universal access to contraception would bring us closer to achieving economic and gender equality in one fell swoop. Imagine that!

But, Francis, providing people with access to the full range of contraceptives is also crucial to combating climate change. If you're serious about engaging in this work, you simply must end your proscription of modern birth control.

Though the population-climate link is based on science, it's not rocket science. And your defense of the Church's ban on modern contraception – less than a week after you stated that "the majority" of climate change is caused by humans and after years of calling for climate action – is mind-boggling.

Modern-day contraceptives are extremely effective at preventing pregnancy when used correctly. And preventing unintended pregnancy helps to slow population growth – one of the leading causes of climate-changing greenhouse gas emissions.

According to a 2010 study, leveling the world population at 8 billion, instead of the projected 9 billion, by 2050 could provide 16 to 29 percent of the emissions reductions required to prevent dangerous climate change. It would have a much greater impact than if global deforestation were completely eliminated.

And while most of the world's climate pollution is being emitted from industrialized nations – namely, the United States – the fastest population growth is happening in developing countries – some of which, like Mexico and the Philippines, have a majority Catholic population. In fact, roughly 16 percent of the world population practices Catholicism, and the religion is growing fastest in Africa – the continent with the most rapid population growth.

Francis, that means nearly one-sixth (and growing) of the world population acknowledges your teachings. Nearly a sixth of the people on Earth have been told, by you, that it is a sin to use modern contraception. And all of them will contribute to and be affected by climate change.

Therefore, you have a responsibility to ensure that your followers have all the tools they need – including contraception – to reduce their carbon output and strengthen their resilience to the inevitable effects of climate change.

For many people around the world – especially women and girls living in poverty-stricken countries – having the ability to prevent unwanted pregnancies means they have a better chance at coping with extreme weather events. That's because families who are able to plan the birth of their children are likely to have more resources and, as a result, are more able to respond to changes in their environment.

Surely some of the families that you visited during your recent trip to the Philippines would have been better equipped to withstand the effects of super-typhoon Haiyan if they had access to contraceptives. It is largely due to the influence of the country's Catholic bishops that 90 percent of the unintended pregnancies – half of all pregnancies there – are the result of a lack of modern contraception.

Planning and preventing pregnancy is not only a personal choice; it's a human right that saves lives, combats poverty, and helps to close the inequality gap. But more than that it's a crucial requirement for slowing population growth and, in turn, saving the planet from its greatest threat – climate change.

The world is depending on you, Francis.


See also the previous PCV posts:
• Overpopulation and the Catholic Church: Can't We Become Part of the Solution?
• Contraception's Con Men
• Birth Control, the Bishops, and Religious Authority
• Out of Step With the Flock: Bishops Far Behind on Birth Control Issues
• We Are the 98 Percent
• Who Is the Church? And How Does the Church Discern Morality?

Related Off-site Links:
Bishops Don't Speak for Most Catholics on Contraception – Keith Soko (CNN, February 4, 2012).
Pope Francis Might Not Be As Awesome As We Thought He Was – Asher Bayot (Inquisitr.com, January 18, 2015).
The Trouble with Francis: Three Things That Worry Me – Mary E. Hunt (Religion Dispatches, January 6, 2014).

I'm a Catholic Feminist, and My Church Needs Me More Than Ever

By Kristina Keneally


Note: This op-ed was first published January 28, 2015 by The Guardian.


I recall standing in my grandmother’s kitchen with her yellow Bakelite phone to my ear, waiting on hold for a talkback radio program. I was eight years old, and my family was in another room listening to the Catholic Bishop of Toledo take questions from callers on the local AM station.

Finally it was my turn. “Bishop Donovan,” I said, “I’m in third grade. The priest at our school has come to our class to ask for boys to volunteer to be altar servers. Why can’t girls volunteer too?”

Poor Bishop Donovan. He mumbled something about church tradition and the importance of serving at mass as a first step towards priesthood – where, again, one obviously had to be male – and moved on to the next caller.

Unsatisfactory, I thought. And my career as a Catholic feminist began.

38 years later, I’m still a Catholic and a feminist. I’ve got a degree in religious studies, specialising in feminist theology, and while girls can be altar servers now (take that, Bishop Donovan), we’ve still got a long way to go, baby.

Pope Francis’s recent comment that Catholics need not “breed like rabbits,” while insisting that artificial contraception is still banned, left many shaking their heads. Here was yet another example of the all-male Catholic hierarchy completely failing to understand what it is like to be a woman, or to live in a family, or to exercise control over fertility.

The Catholic church so overtly and fully excludes women from certain jobs and seeks to deny them certain rights that some dismiss the idea that a true feminist can profess the Catholic faith. Yet this is precisely why the Catholic church needs feminists.

The idea that one can’t be a Catholic and a feminist usually starts with a misunderstanding of what it is to be Catholic. In strict technical terms, a Catholic is someone who believes in those things listed in the Apostles Creed and the Nicene Creed: God, the creator of heaven and earth; Jesus Christ, the son of God who was crucified, died and resurrected; the Holy Spirit; the holy Catholic church (that is, the entire community of those who believe in Jesus Christ); the communion of saints; the forgiveness of sins; the resurrection of the body and life everlasting.

That’s it. No mention in our creeds of artificial contraception, an all-male priesthood, denying communion to divorced people or excluding homosexuals. It’s not particularly surprising – not one of the four Gospels records Jesus passing significant comments on such matters.

Everything in the Catholic church after Jesus’s death and resurrection represents human attempts to interpret and apply the teachings of Christ to our circumstances. Because men fairly exclusively ran the world until very recently, it has been fairly exclusively men in the Catholic church who’ve done the interpreting and applying. Not overly surprising, then, that the result is a set of teachings and rules that exclude and oppress women.

A Catholic feminist insists that women’s experience is just as valid as men’s when it comes to understanding the nature of God, the teachings of Christ, the movement of the Holy Spirit and how we are to live as Christians in the world today.

OK, I hear you saying, but how can a Catholic disagree with the church? Don’t you Catholics believe the (male) pope is infallible? Aren’t you required to follow what the (exclusively male) bishops say?

There’s no simple answer to that question, but the short answer is no. First of all, papal infallibility (and its related concept, the infallibility of the church) is not what people often think it is. The pope is not infallible in every utterance he makes. In fact, he only very occasionally speaks infallibly, and when he does it is specifically noted. For example, the Assumption of Mary (into heaven) is an infallible teaching. The ban on artificial contraception is not.

Secondly, a Catholic has an obligation to follow her fully-formed conscience, even if it brings her into conflict with church teaching. A fully-formed conscience consults not only scripture and church teaching but also the sciences and human experience.

Conscience is a crucially important aspect of Catholic teaching and was given great emphasis in Vatican II, the reforming and modernising council that took place between 1962-65. Conservative popes – such as John Paul II – have sought to redefine conscience in order to discourage debate and dissent, but the role of a fully-formed conscience in the life of Catholics is significant and cannot be extinguished.

A Catholic feminist is a bit like a conscientious objector. She loves what sits at the heart of her faith, and fights what she cannot, in good conscience, accept in her church.

Sometimes people ask me why I don’t just leave such an anachronistic institution and join a Christian church where women can have a say, serve as ordained minsters and formally contribute to theological and moral teachings. Sometimes I ask myself the same question. It’s not easy being a Catholic feminist – sometimes it is downright infuriating – but I love the sacraments and the liturgy of the Catholic church, and I love the value it places on scripture and tradition. Why should I abandon my expression of faith to the all-male hierarchy? Why not stay and advocate for a more inclusive church, better theology, and teachings more reflective of the lived experience of women?

I’m no saint, but when I am most exasperated with the church, I recall that among the communion of saints are hundreds of examples of people who openly disagreed with the church hierarchy. Think of Mary MacKillop – excommunicated at one point – now elevated to sainthood by the same institution that threw her out.

Agitators for change are part of the Catholic church’s rich history: Catholic feminists follow in that tradition.


Related Off-site Links:
Altar Server Scandal is Reminder of How Far the Catholic Church Has to Go with Women – Lydia O'Connor (The Huffington Post, January 30, 2015).
Vatican Hits Sour Note with Women, But Progress May Come – Nicole Winfield (Associated Press via Yahoo! News, January 31, 2015).
Pope Francis, Women, and the Band of Brothers: The Ambiguity of the Jesuit Heritage That's Being Ignored by Commentators on Francis as Reformer – William D. Lindsey (Bilgrimage, January 31, 2015).