Author: Regina Bannan

Sometimes the African American spirituals say it best. Today I think of “Ain’t gonna let nobody turn me ’round” because of the lines ending the refrain: “I’m gonna keep on walkin’, keep on talkin’, marching down to freedom land.” There was a whole lot of talkin’ this week about women’s ordination, and I will share…
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Kate McElwee’s letter to WOC members commenting on the North American Final Document for the Continental Stage of the 2021-2024 Synod emphasizes that the use of the word “ordination” is in the context of the co-responsibility of all the faithful because of our baptism. Part of paragraph 19 says: While clarity is still needed around exactly what…
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Maybe it happens every year for Easter, but I don’t notice it. Or maybe not. I am moved this year by articles in my usual sources that bring to life the way I understand the liturgical and theological basics of our celebrations. Daniel O’Hanlon’s was the second article I read (the first, by Mary E.…
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The full quotation is not an April fool’s joke. Sometimes we feel like holy fools, but our mission here at The Table is to reassure us all that we are not alone, nor are we the first: “It has sometimes seemed to me that, in the Church today, there are three perishable stones dangerously committed…
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Does it seem to you that I’ve been unusually positive this month? That’s because I have been ignoring the US bishops, but I’ve been thinking about them. Two articles in NCR, three dueling bishops, and a scandalous document brings them into focus, not in a good light. The headline writer for Michael Sean Winters lays…
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We thought we were so smart. Forced to take Latin, we freshmen had a new word: “the Ides.” Or maybe it was because we were forced to read Shakespeare’s version. We knew to “Beware the Ides of March.” We understood the power of Roman conspiracy. “Et tu, Brute?” and all that. It may not seem…
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The actual anniversary is next Monday, March 13, but pundits have been ruminating for a month. Amidst this effusion of commentary, I am going to highlight the articles in which the analysis advances the conversation about Francis and women. First, of course, is Kate McElwee’s in NCR. What McElwee does is document particular changes over…
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This week, I’m collecting articles under three headings: Pope Francis, whose tenth anniversary will be March 13; Synod, but I’m waiting for the North American report, which is due March 31; and Women, which I will write about this week for International Women’s Day, March 8. The Synod process has revealed worldwide concern about the…
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This is about the beauty and boldness of Eucharistic communities.  On the margins of the institutional church, my experience has been that women priests are more courageous and more willing to infuse their liturgies with issues of social and racial justice.   Not to say that male priests in Eucharistic communities don’t, but in my experience,…
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Moral theology has always made a great deal of sense to me. As a well-educated but non-specialist lay person, I like thinking seriously about issues in a way that is not simply political. Again this week, America has provided us with a continuing conversation about gender theory, with essays by two theologians: Abigail Favale of…
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