Archive for category Women in Catholic Church
‘Excuse me, Your Eminence, she has not finished speaking’ / National Catholic Reporter
Posted by Voice of the Faithful in Catholic Bishops, Clericalism, Synod of Bishops, Synod on Synodality, Voice of the Faithful, Women in Catholic Church on November 21, 2023
The synod recognized the church’s global infection with narcissistic clericalism. It said fine things about women in leadership and the care of other marginalized people. Yet the synod remains a secret in many places. Its good words don’t reach the people in the pews.
By Phyllis Zagano, National Catholic Reporter
“Without doubt, the best line to emanate from the synod on synodality is ‘Excuse me, Your Eminence, she has not finished speaking.’
“That sums up the synod and the state of the Catholic Church’s attitude toward change.
“In October, hundreds of bishops, joined by lay men and women, priests, deacons, religious sisters and brothers met for nearly a month in Rome for the synod on synodality. At its end, the synod released a synthesis report brimming with the hope and the promise that the church would be a more listening church.
“Some 54 women voted at the synod. Back home, women are still ignored.
“Why?
“It is not because women quote the Second Vatican Council at parish council meetings. It is because too many bishops and pastors ignore parish councils.
“It is not because women of the world do not write to their pastors and bishops. It is because without large checks, their letters are ignored.”
By Phyllis Zagano, National Catholic Reporter — Read more …
A daring hope for Catholic women / The Boston Globe
Posted by Voice of the Faithful in Future of the Church, Synod on Synodality, Voice of the Faithful, Women, Women Deacons, Women in Catholic Church, Women in the Church on September 25, 2023
Catholic women are a cornerstone of their communities. However, there is currently no available path for women toward formal, vocational ministry within the church, despite the integral role many women play in fulfilling unmet ministerial needs of the community.
By Kelly Meraw, The Boston Globe
“Next month, Catholics from around the world will gather in Rome to discuss and discern the future of the Catholic Church. It is part of an ongoing church-wide conversation, known as the Global Synod on Synodality, about listening to the Holy Spirit and renewing the church as a healing presence in communities, particularly in places like Boston, shaken by the clergy sex abuse crisis.
“Catholics in the United States are invited to be part of that ongoing discernment process. Our participation is crucial for ensuring the conversation remains focused on the needs of all Catholics and how we continue to be a community in an increasingly diverse and connected world. Among the many questions that will be discussed at the synod is how we should rethink women’s participation in the church. It’s a question that will have a meaningful impact not only on the lives of Catholic women but on all Boston Catholics.
“Catholic women are a cornerstone of their communities. However, there is currently no available path for women toward formal, vocational ministry within the church, despite the integral role many women play in fulfilling unmet ministerial needs of the community. Those of us who feel a call from God to minister in sacramental ways (baptizing, celebrating marriages, funeral services) and to preach must be flexible in our approach.”
By Kelly Meraw, The Boston Globe — Read more …
The synod could change whether women can be ordained as deacons or priests. These women are hopeful / National Catholic Reporter
Posted by Voice of the Faithful in Catholic Bishops, Pope Francis, Synod on Synodality, Vatican, Voice of the Faithful, Women Deacons, Women in Catholic Church, Women in the Church on September 19, 2023
Discerning Deacons co-directors Ellie Hidalgo and Casey Stanton told NCR they would like to see proposals about women’s participation emerge from the October meetings, especially since the topic surfaced in listening sessions around the world.
By Heidi Schlumpf, National Catholic Reporter
“Advocates for women’s ordination — to the diaconate, the priesthood or both — say they are hopeful about the upcoming synod in Rome, despite some high-profile opposition to the possibility of expanded leadership opportunities for women in the church.”Advocates for women’s ordination — to the diaconate, the priesthood or both — say they are hopeful about the upcoming synod in Rome, despite some high-profile opposition to the possibility of expanded leadership opportunities for women in the church.
While they would like to see concrete proposals that increase women’s participation, those who spoke to NCR said they are also excited about the process of synodality itself and believe the Oct. 4-29 series of meetings will surface fruitful conversation and dialogue.
“My hope is in the commitment of all of us to be a synodal people,” said JoAnn Melina Lopez, director of faith formation at St. Basil Parish in Toronto, who will travel to Rome for a Sept. 30 ecumenical prayer vigil ahead of the synod. She will be part of a 17-member delegation of young adults affiliated with Discerning Deacons, a group that advocates for the restoration of women to the diaconate in the Catholic Church.
Documents summarizing two years of listening sessions in advance of the October series of meetings have included previously taboo topics, including women’s ordination, LGBTQ relationships, married priests and clergy sex abuse. In addition, for the first time in history, lay men and women will be included as full voting members of the synod.
By Heidi Schlumpf, National Catholic Reporter — Read more …
Editorial: Pope Francis, it’s time to release the women deacons report / National Catholic Reporter
Posted by Voice of the Faithful in Pope Francis, Voice of the Faithful, Women Deacons, Women in Catholic Church, Women in the Church on September 18, 2023
The courageous young adults who took part in the 2018 Synod of Bishops on young people pushed the 267 voting bishops at that assembly to say together that it was a “duty of justice” for the church to better include women in its all-male decision-making structures.
By National Catholic Reporter Editorial Staff
“By all accounts, Pope Francis has had an eventful papacy.
“This first pope from the Americas has breathed new life into the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, refashioned the Vatican’s staid bureaucracy, and pushed the Catholic Church to focus on the needs of the environment and global peripheries.
“One especially interesting turn: Only 22 years after Pope John Paul II claimed the church had “no authority whatsoever” to ordain women as priests, Francis in 2016 created a first-of-its-kind papal commission to study the history of the ordination of women as Catholic deacons. Even more, in 2020, after that commission had wrapped up its work, the pope created another.
“For an institution known for thinking in terms of millennia, this is something akin to lightspeed. And Francis deserves special applause for listening to the voices of Catholic sisters, long neglected, or, worse, mistreated by the Vatican, who bravely asked him to create the first commission.
“What’s particularly frustrating, then, is the near-complete lack of transparency about the work of the commissions.”
By National Catholic Reporter Editorial Staff — Read more …
I am a woman who serves like a deacon. Will I ever share St. Phoebe’s title? / National Catholic Reporter
Posted by Voice of the Faithful in Religious Women, Voice of the Faithful, Women Deacons, Women in Catholic Church, Women in the Church on September 5, 2023
In some places, there is hesitation to seek the intercession of St. Phoebe, a hesitance to recognize her as a deacon. We know that the deacons of today are not the same as the deacons of the first centuries. But why are we afraid of this dream of women received as deacons? Women like me are already doing such work — just without the title.
By marie Philomene Pean, National Catholic Reporter
“As a young girl growing up in Haiti, I remember feeling like I lived in a paradise as I rested easy in my mother’s lap. She and our community made me feel safe, loved and seen. It was not hard for me to come to know God as a loving mother who cares for all his children. I sensed that God knew me and called me by name to go out and proclaim his word.
“By the age of 8, I was serving as a lector in our parish, and by the age of 18 was leading retreats for the Legion of Mary and speaking to groups of all ages. I felt welcomed to share who I was and bring forth my gifts.
“I had a vision of Jesus when I was about 15 years old, seeing him as a handsome Black man who patiently asked me the same question he had asked Peter in John’s Gospel: “Do you love me?” (John 21:15-17). I sensed then that Jesus was asking for my whole life.
“It has not been a straightforward path. I came of age in the 1990s, when the clearest way for a woman to live a deeper call and commitment to the church was through religious life. I spent years discerning becoming a nun — first volunteering with a community of sisters, then entering as a novice.
“The regular prayer, sisterhood and studies was enlivening. But I struggled, especially when service to the church too closely looked like servanthood. There were real constraints that limited how we could develop our gifts and capacities as women.”
By Marie Philomene Pean, National Catholic Reporter — Read more …
Synod raises hopes for long-sought recognition of women in the Catholic Church / National Catholic Reporter
Posted by Voice of the Faithful in church reform, Future of the Church, Synod of Bishops, Synod on Synodality, Voice of the Faithful, Women Deacons, Women in Catholic Church on August 21, 2023
‘It’s remarkable the shared cry that came through in ‘Enlarge the Space of Your Tent’ around the deep connection between creating a new synodal path in the church and a church that more fully receives the gifts that women bring,’ (Casey) Stanton (co-director of Discerning Deacons) said.
By Claire Giangrave, National Catholic Reporter
‘When Pope Francis called two years ago for a worldwide discussion among rank-and-file Catholics about the main challenges and issues facing the church, the question of women’s ministry and leadership echoed loudly in parishes and bishops’ assemblies.
“The question is resounding more loudly as the summit of bishops and lay Catholics known as the Synod on Synodality, scheduled for October, draws near. Participants and observers alike recognize that any conversation about reforming church hierarchy or promoting lay involvement, Francis’ twin goals for the synod, has to include honest exchanges about the role of women.
“‘It’s not just one issue among others that you can tease out,’ said Casey Stanton, co-director of Discerning Deacons, a group committed to promoting dialogue about the female diaconate in the church. ‘It’s actually kind of at the heart of the synod and we need to take a step forward that is meaningful, and that people can see and feel in their communities.'”
By Claire Giangrave, National Catholic Reporter — Read more …
Joy and hope amid struggle at Women of the Church event / National Catholic Reporter
Posted by Voice of the Faithful in church reform, Future of the Church, Synod of Bishops, Synod on Synodality, Vatican, Voice of the Faithful, Women, Women Deacons, Women in Catholic Church, Women in the Church on August 2, 2023
‘Because we’re living through it, we can fail to see how radical and exciting a time this is in the church,’ she (Kristin Colberg, associate professor of theology at St. John’s School of Theology and Seminary) said.
By Heidi Schlumpf, National Catholic Reporter
“At the third Women of the Church conference for Catholic women leaders, a morning prayer service began with a reading of the Gospel account of Mary of Magdala witnessing the resurrected Jesus outside the tomb. Participants were then asked to call out a word from the scripture passage that spoke to them. The most frequently shared word was ‘weeping.
“Catholic women have much to weep about, and many at the conference expressed pain, frustration and hurt by experiences of sexism in the church. But the overall vibe at the three-day event was one of joy and hope — brought on not only by the opportunity to pray, network and celebrate together, but also by optimism about the church’s upcoming synod on synodality and what it might mean for women’s leadership in the church.
“Keynote speaker Kristin Colberg set the tone the first night of the conference with her presentation titled ‘Fruit and Seed: New Roles for Women in a Synodal Church.’
“‘What’s happening with women in the church is not just the beginning of something new, but it’s the realization of something that’s already happening,’ said Colberg, associate professor of theology at St. John’s School of Theology and Seminary.”
By Heidi Schlumpf, National Catholic Reporter — Read more …
To reach and keep young Catholics, the church must recognize women’s leadership / Miami Herald
Posted by Voice of the Faithful in church reform, Future of the Church, Prophetic Voices, Voice of the Faithful, Women Deacons, Women in Catholic Church, Women in the Church on June 20, 2023
I co-direct Discerning Deacons, a project inviting Catholics to consider women’s inclusion in the permanent diaconate — an order that already includes married men ordained to serve in the life of the church.
By Ellie Hildago, Co-director of Discerning Deacons, in the Miami Herald
“Women play a vital role in passing on the faith to the next generation. But when 99% of Catholic churches will have a male preacher this Sunday in a world where 50% of the Catholic population are women, it’s time for our daughters and granddaughters — and sons and grandsons — to see us naming out loud a problem we’ve endured quietly in our hearts.
“What seemed normalized to my devout Catholic Cuban grandmothers, and became uncomfortable for my mother and has become unacceptable for me, is now unbearable for my nieces and many of our daughters. This will have untold consequences for the future of Catholic ministries.
“According to a report by the Pew Research Center, as of 2022, 43% of Hispanic adults identify as Catholic, down from 67% in 2010. In my work listening to older Hispanic/Latino Catholics in Miami, Los Angeles, New York and elsewhere, I often hear how their children and grandchildren have become disengaged from their families’ long-standing, multigenerational Catholic faith. The loss of family unity feels enormous.”
By Ellie Hildago, Co-director of Discerning Deacons, in the Miami Herald — Read more …
Indigenous women are doing the work of deacons. Is Pope Francis ready to recognize it?
Posted by Voice of the Faithful in church reform, Pope Francis, Religious Women, Synod of Bishops, Vatican, Voice of the Faithful, Women Deacons, Women in Catholic Church on June 7, 2023
The service we provide. Not the service we could provide, the service we are already providing. The vast majority of permanent deacons live and minister in the Global North. But at the recent Amazon Synod, the leaders of the church in the region—both bishops and lay leaders—were very clear that it is women in the Amazon who are doing the work of deacons, and it is the desire and hope of that ecclesial community to recognize these women as deacons, ready and worthy to receive the sacrament of ordination.
By Casey Stanton, America: The Jesuit Review
“In early June, Pope Francis received three Indigenous women leaders from the Ecclesial Conference of the Amazon (CEAMA), an innovative form of church governance in which the bishops of the Amazon share formal leadership with Indigenous lay women, women religious, lay men, priests and deacons. During the audience, the women invited the pope to consider the full and equal participation of women in the church, including through preaching in parish settings and ordination as deacons.
“One of the women who attended the audience with Pope Francis was Laura Vicuña Pereira Manso, C.F. Sister Laura is currently serving as the vice president for CEAMA, a historic leadership role within a body that has steadily called upon the pope to more deeply consider the ministerial roles of women in the church since the Synod of Bishops on the Pan-Amazonian Region in 2019. (The final document of that synod called for greater leadership roles for women but stopped short of calling for the ordination of women to the diaconate.)
“As someone who is working to foster a conversation based in discernment around women in the diaconate, I value the wisdom and experience of CEAMA and Sister Laura. I had the opportunity to travel a shared camino with her to seek the intercession of Our Lady of Gudalupe in Mexico City in September 2022, the liminal time between the conclusion of the listening phase of the synodal process and anticipation of the report from Rome that would synthesize what millions around the world had shared and heard. We both felt drawn to seek the intercession of the Guadalupe, Mother of the Americas, as our church discerns new pathways to more fully receive the gifts of women for ministry and leadership.”
By Casey Stanton, America: The Jesuit Review — Read more …
My daughters have hard questions about the church. Are women deacons the answer? / America: The Jesuit Review
Posted by Voice of the Faithful in Catholic Bishops, church reform, Future of the Church, Pope Francis, Vatican, Voice of the Faithful, Women Deacons, Women in Catholic Church, Women in the Church on May 1, 2023
My kids, who are now teens, had been asking difficult questions, and I did not have good answers. They asked: ‘If God loves us all unconditionally, why doesn’t the church?
By Katie Mulcahy, America: The Jesuit Review
“Although I had attended Catholic school all my young life, I was never familiar with the concepts of synod, discernment and the diaconate. That was until last spring, when a friend invited me to her church for a Discerning Deacons event titled ‘Hope, Change and the Catholic Church.’ It was a cold Sunday evening, the Oscars were on, and I did not feel like driving across the city. But this is a friend who always shows up for me, so I went.
“Looking back on that evening, I believe it was the Holy Spirit who was nudging me to go. I had been feeling apathetic about my place in the church. My kids, who are now teens, had been asking difficult questions and I did not have good answers. They asked, ‘If God loves us all unconditionally, why doesn’t the church? Aren’t women and girls also made in the image of Christ?’ And here is a question that stopped me in my tracks: ‘If we value one group over another, aren’t we enabling oppression against the second group?’
“I attended the Discerning Deacons event with 700 other folks—men, women, teens, senior citizens, all looking for hope, professing their faith through song, prayer and sharing stories. We heard testimonies from women who have dedicated their lives to ministry and service in the church. One story really struck me: Casey Stanton, a co-director of Discerning Deacons and a woman with advanced degrees in divinity, felt called to serve in prison ministry. Because Ms. Stanton could not be ordained as a deacon in the Catholic faith, she was limited in how much she could minister to the female prisoners. I couldn’t help but wonder: Who else is restricted in their ministry because of the limitations put on women?”
By Katie Mulcahy, America: The Jesuit Review — Read more …
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