Category: Rome

October 6th, 2018

Women’s Anger

Rebecca Traister has a new book that could describe us perfectly: Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women’s Anger. We are good. Are we mad? Traister spoke this evening – Thursday – at the Free Library of Philadelphia, and I encourage you to go hear her on the book tour. I hope she has the…
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September 29th, 2018

Votes for Women

First of all, I want you to support the effort by WOC to have women participants at the Synod on Youth have a vote. Does it surprise you that two lay religious congregation leaders of men will have a vote in the synod, but those of all the women will not? Sisters are laypeople, but…
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September 22nd, 2018

Ending Minority Rule

I was struck by two questions about the political process in the above article by Kai Wright in The Nation (September 24/October 1, 2018): Are we prepared to end the minority rule that white men have wielded over the United States for hundreds of years? Are we ready to tear down the foundation upon which…
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September 8th, 2018

Who but women can save the church?

  I remember exactly where I was when I heard the news of the Pennsylvania Grand Jury hearing, and I expect I will remember for quite some time. Twelve other young women and I had just concluded our initiation ceremony into the Loretto Volunteer Program, surrounded by the Sisters of Loretto at their Motherhouse on…
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June 9th, 2018

RBG, the Pope, and Two Cardinals

What I wish is that someone in Rome can get Pope Francis to watch the new documentary, RBG. Those who made this movie have chosen brilliantly from the briefs and opinions of Ruth Bader Ginsburg to express clearly the argument for women’s equality and how any different treatment harms them. For men’s equality, too, and…
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May 12th, 2018

The Met Gala

The “Optics” are over the top this week at Monday’s Met Gala. The bright reds in last week’s blog pale in comparison with the fashion statements in New York. But what are they saying? Four young Catholic writers have weighed in the Gala, which is an invitation-only event hosted by Anna Wintour of Vogue to…
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March 24th, 2018

The Good Pope and His Critics

I was not going to write about this article by Ross Douthat, published on the front page of Sunday’s New York Times “Currents” section.  But half the page is such a beautiful photo I cannot resist. Pope Francis is facing the Holy Door of St. Peter’s, his hands on two bronze panels with Latin inscriptions.…
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March 10th, 2018

“Major Statement on the Role of Women”

This is a quote from John Allen in Crux, who notes that every twenty years, “the Vatican has felt compelled to issue a major statement on the role of women.” Leave it up to Crux to remind us of Inter Insigniores in 1976 and Ordinatio Sacerdotalis in 1994. This time the major statement has been…
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February 10th, 2018

Embrace Your Heresy!

I am indebted to Simone Campbell for this week’s theme, courtesy of Marian Ronan. In The Georgetown Voice, the ever-revolutionary Campbell “then took audience questions, leading to a profession of her personal ‘heresy,’ her belief that women can and should be ordained. “’Ordination is an extension of baptism, and there are different kinds of baptism……
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September 29th, 2017

Take Action October 1st in Honor of St. Therese of Lisieux

This Sunday marks the feast day of St. Therese of Lisieux, patron saint of women’s ordination. Members and supporters of the Women’s Ordination Conference, the “Little Flowers of the Grassroots,” will honor Therese through prophetic actions around the world. Join us in celebrating St. Therese and all women called to priestly ordination. Here are some…
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