Current Events of the Young Feminist Network

The current mission of the Young Feminist Network (YFN), is to equip and mobilize young Catholic women to integrate faith with feminism and to eliminate oppression within ourselves, society and the Roman Catholic Church. YFN is a national community of feminist Catholic women in their 20’s and 30’s. While maintaining our Roman Catholicism, YFN strives to make connections with women of all faith traditions and spiritualities. YFN activities focus on the following goals:

Goals:

• Create an inclusive Roman Catholic Church : We work toward changing and creating church structures that are fully inclusive, affirming and participatory.
• Eliminate oppression : We work to eliminate oppression and discrimination in ourselves, our families, our peers, our communities, and our church.
• Promote community faith life : We empower young women to participate in community faith life through parishes or faith sharing groups.
• Provide leadership opportunities : We provide young women with training and opportunities to develop skills in leadership and prophetic advocacy.
• Encourage healthy and diverse expressions of sexuality : We encourage young women to use their moral authority to make decisions about their sexuality, gender identity, and all other aspects of their body.

To work toward the above goals, YFN hosts national events, builds YFN chapters in local communities, and works in collaboration with WOC members to plan events that advocate women’s ordination and structural change in the church.

YFN’s national events provide leadership training for young Catholic women. In January 2006, YFN hosted a national Meet-Up that set the foundation for the wave of growth YFN had seen in 2005. One result of this Meet-up was the formation of the Los Angeles chapter of Young Feminist Network. So far, they have hosted separate discussions with two of the most celebrated feminist theologians of the past century: Rosemary Radford Ruether and Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza. Another result was the election of a new leadership team composed of six women—two Latinas, one African American, and three white women. YFN’s commitment to diversity on the national leadership team has been helpful in making YFN more diverse and inclusive. For example, the next national event in Chicago on August 16-17, 2007,l included diversity and inclusion training, as well as and education on the different types of feminist theology, including womanist, mujerista/Latina, and Asian feminist theologies. Also at the Chicago event, YFN members participated in interactive workshops on leadership, grassroots activism, strategic planning and spiritual nourishment in order to further develop their plan of action.

Building YFN chapters helps promote community faith life and develop feminist spirituality in community. For example, the Washington, DC chapter of YFN (DC YFN), which was re-organized in 2005, has an active leadership team that organizes monthly faith sharing communities, social events, and protest demonstrations. There are currently over 80 members. DC YFN has demonstrated that interactive events and opportunities for reflection keep members interested and actively involved.