Author: Bernadette Raspante

I had the opportunity to be with WOC in Rome for the first two weeks of the Synod and Synodality. The experience reaffirmed my vocation to continue to fight for the ordination of women in the Catholic Church.  There are so many things to write about regarding the Synod, and with the release of the…
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Holy Week readings in the Catholic Lectionary leave out the story of Mary Magdalene at the empty tomb. Here at WOC, we embrace Mary’s role as the Apostle to the Apostles, the First Evangelist, the first to interact with the Resurrected Christ, the one without whom we’d have no news of the resurrection.  Before the…
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My family’s tabletop nativity set is a hodgepodge of figurines. Some were gifts to my parents for their wedding, others are from both of my grandmothers’ sets, the angel is an ornament that has sentimental value. I have always loved that these pieces don’t match. They are made of different materials and their sizing is…
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It is around this time every year that this question comes, usually from a female or queer student. Some days it is easier to answer that question than others, but the day this question comes is my favorite day. It means that I get to lay the groundwork to tell my students about all of…
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Feminist and LGBTQ Twitter was a-buzz the last few weeks with conversations about a new modern adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. Fire Island (rated R) is based on the real-life setting of Fire Island (an island near Long Island, NY) that is home to two LGBTQ-centric resorts, Fire Island Pines is a gay…
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I always start my class with a temperature check to gauge how much energy my students have. My favorite and easiest way to do this is by asking them to show me, on a scale of zero to three, where their energy level is. They then hold up that number of fingers in front of…
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Last week Regina Bannan wrote not only about Black Catholic History, but called us to action by remembering that “[L]ike all history, Black Catholic History is being made today as well, and the history of earlier eras has been communicated with new urgency in the last year.” Regina’s post and the work of Black Catholic scholars…
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[Editor’s note: This post is the first in our weekly Black History Month series, which will appear on Thursdays in February in addition to our normal Tuesday and Saturday blogs. Check back weekly for more, and please share!] Even though Mikki Kendall’s Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot has been in…
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