Go in Beauty by Robert Gass

All go in Beauty

Peace be with you

'Til we meet again

In the Light.

Kathie Ryan, ARCWP, IS GOING BALD FOR A CAUSE!

Robert Wilson MacMillan Jr. Obituary - Visitation & Funeral Information

A note from Bridget Mary: I give thanks for Bob, a man of deep wisdom, intellect and good humor.

All of us at Mary Mother of Jesus Inclusive Catholic Community will miss him . We count on Bob to continue to pray for and support our women priests movement . Bridget Mary Meehan ARCWP

Obituary for Robert Wilson MacMillan Jr.

Robert W. (Bob) MacMillan, 90, of Englewood, FL; made his transition on Monday, June 24, 2019 at Sarasota Memorial Hospital.
He was born on October 2, 1928 in Providence, RI to the late Robert W. and Mildred F. (Bell) MacMillan.
Bob proudly served in the US Marine Corp 1946-1947 and the US Army from 1951-1954. 

Bob Graduated with a Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Texas; a Masters in Education from the State College, Framingham, MA and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of RI in Political Science.

Dr. MacMillan was the first dean of the College of Human Science and Services at the Univ. of RI. He, also, served as the Chairman of the Education Department, founded the Curriculum Research and Development Center and served as Professor of Education at URI. Prior to his years in education, Bob worked for GoodYear Tire and Rubber Company in sales. In 1966 he served as the Assistant Director, of Peace Corps Training at the Univ. of TX.

In 1978, Dr. MacMillan was appointed by Governor J. Joseph Garrahy of Rhode Island to chair a task force to study the State’s child welfare services which resulted in the current Department of Children, Youth and Families.
He is survived by his loving wife of 38 years, Pat MacMillan; four daughters: Maureen Gemma of Mt. Dora, FL; Karen MacMillan (Mike Cahill) of Englewood, FL; Robin MacMillan (Brian Wells of Portsmouth, RI;; Gwyn MacMillan (Joseph DeSantis) of N. Providence, RI; six grandchildren and four great grandchildren.

A Graveside Service with Marine Corp honors will be held on Wednesday, October 2, 2019 at 2:00 PM.

 

When it comes to church reform, despair is not an option - Ordain Women Priests!!

When it comes to church reform, 

despair is not an option

Christine Schenk

During this season of Pentecost I find myself searching for hope in the midst of horrific stories about financial corruption by a West Virginia bishop, priests who raped and sexually abused my religious sisters, and bishops from eight states in the Northeast who spent over 10 million dollars lobbying against sex abuse victims. I am outraged to learn that Baltimore Archbishop William Lori - who was delegated by the Vatican to investigate Wheeling-Charleston Bishop Michael Bransfield - had accepted over $10,500 in gifts from him. In his final report to Rome, Lori decided to delete his own name as well as those of ten other influential prelates who had also accepted financial gifts from the Wheeling bishop.  Bransfield bestowed his monetary gifts over ten years while young priest assistants were simultaneously complaining (to no avail) that he was sexually harassing them. Lori told the Washington Post that if he had included the names of high-ranking churchmen (among whom were Cardinals Donald Wuerl, Timothy Dolan and Kevin Farrell) it could suggest that there were "expectations for reciprocity" but he had found "no evidence to suggest this."  After the Washington Post story, nine of the prelates involved, including Lori, pledged to return the money to the Wheeling-Charleston diocese. Along with the still-unfinished scandal involving defrocked Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, it is difficult to ignore ever-mounting evidence that the clerical system governing the Catholic church is in a significant state of decay. A recent Pew study found that nearly 70 percent of U.S. Catholics believe clergy sex abuse is an ongoing problem and 25 percent have scaled back both their donations and their Mass attendance over the issue. All of which is very depressing. Yet, I can't help believing that the Holy Spirit - who loves creating something new out of chaos - is summoning us to build a new church governance - one that includes sorely needed checks and balances and involves all of the People of God. But how do we get there from here?   Well, that part isn't exactly clear. But we will get there, although I suspect it will be messy along the way. We will get there because the Holy Spirit is the renewing, vivifying principle for believers. Despair is not an option.  To understand how the Spirit moves among us I reviewed biblical texts found in in my well-thumbed copy of the now-deceased Rev. John L. McKenzie's book: Dictionary of the Bible (Bruce Publishing Company 1965).  These passages chronicle how our ancestors in faith experienced the work of the Spirit. I believe they shed light on the present moment. So here are a few helpful hints from our forebears. In the Hebrew Scriptures the Spirit is named Ruah, a grammatically feminine word that variously means, wind, breath or spirit. McKenzie tells us the spirit "is conceived as a divine dynamic entity" by which God accomplishes God's purposes. "Like the wind, neither its origin nor its course can be discovered." The Spirit is given to judges and to others with offices in Israel (Judges 3:10) and later poured on the whole people of Israel: "I will never again hide my face from them, when I pour out my spirit upon the House of Israel" (Ezekiel 39:29).  A true sign of the Spirit found in both the Hebrew and Christian scriptures is that S/he confers on  believers what is necessary to fulfill their mission and inspires them to deeds above and beyond what they can normally do. Samson, Gideon, David, Peter and Ananias accomplish unprecedented mighty deeds because of the Spirit (Judges 14; 1 Samuel 16:13ff; Acts 3, 4; 11:17). In Ezekiel, the Spirit of Yahweh brings dry bones to life: "Thus says the Lord God: 'Come from the four winds, O spirit, and breathe upon these slain that they may live' ... and the spirit came into them and they lived and stood on their feet, a vast multitude" (Ezekiel 37: 9-10). The Spirit is pervasive in the world: "Where can I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence?" (Psalm 139:7); and Israel is saved not by its own might and power, but by the Spirit of God (Zechariah 4:6). In the Christian Scriptures, Jesus invokes Isaiah as he inaugurates his mission: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor" (Luke 4:18). Through the power of the Spirit Jesus overcomes the power of evil and unveils the reign of God: "If it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons then the kingdom of God has come to you" (Mt 12:28). Further, he teaches that "people will be forgiven for every sin and blasphemy, but blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven" (Matthew 12:31). What is blasphemy against the Spirit?  Simply explained it means refusing to believe in the saving power of God. It is a denial of the very principle (God's power to save) by which sin is forgiven.  This is why, when it comes to reforming the Catholic Church, despair is not an option. It is tantamount to saying God is powerless to save God's own people. In John's gospel the Spirit is prominently featured as the Paraclete - the spirit of truth who dwells in believers to teach us all truth and to bear witness to Jesus: "This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him because he abides with you and he will be in you" (John 14: 17). This Spirit demonstrates the errors of the world and convicts the world of sin (John 16: 6-11).  I submit that this same Spirit is now convicting our clerical structures - and more than a few clerics and their lay sycophants - of error and sin, perhaps along the lines so beautifully explained in Fr. Dan Horan's timely NCR reflection about Holy Spirit atheism. How can Catholics bring about desperately needed reform?  I have three suggestions: Reflect - on the experience of our forebears in the texts above and consider what resonates with your own experience of the call of the Spirit to you today. Pray - perhaps using a prayer-poem I wrote in 2001 when news of clergy sex abuse first broke. Act-perhaps using a new resource, The Bridge Dialogues which is a joint effort of the Association of US Catholic Priests, Voice of the Faithful and FutureChurch. Through the power of the Spirit of God our dry decaying bones will rise again. hoenix poem and graphuc copy.jpg St. Joseph Sr. Christine Schenk, an NCR board member, served urban families for 18 years as a nurse midwife before co-founding FutureChurch, where she served for 23 years. Her recent book Crispina and Her Sisters: Women and Authority in Early Christianity(Fortress, 2017) was awarded first place in History by the Catholic Press Association. She holds master's degrees in nursing and theology.

National Catholic Reporter Editorial: US bishops need to confront US president on inhumane treatment of immigrants

Jun 26, 2019
https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/editorial-us-bishops-need-confront-us-president-inhumane-treatment-immigrants

Last week, our national bully-in-chief threatened to deport millions and leave behind children who would apparently have to fend for themselves. Fear ran through immigrant communities and those who have come to rely on them for their work and service to parishes and schools.

Meanwhile, visitors to migrant detention camps on the border noted appalling conditions, where children were left to sleep on concrete floors, without blankets, toothbrushes or soap, and where the stench of unchanged diapers pervaded the air.

Speaking for the bishops, Bishop Joe Vásquez, of Austin, Texas, chair of the Committee on Migration, issued a statement which began, "We recognize the right of nations to control their borders in a just and proportionate manner."Writer Michael Scott Moore tweeted that even when he was a captive of Somali pirates, he was offered showers and a toothbrush. In other words, Somali pirates offered more humanity than the U.S. government does for migrant children.

President Donald Trump later delayed his massive deportation threat, with Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials noting that many of the plans had already been leaked (of course they did not mention their chief, the prime leaker who sees threatening such actions as political gold with his base of voters).

But June 22, into this swirl of infamy a statement was issued to represent the U.S. bishops, who know well that those threatened are the most youthful and vulnerable slice of their flock.

Did they send a rousing message? Urge their priests and parishioners to organize civil disobedience to protect families? Ask, in the spirit of St. Ósscar Romero, for ICE officers to refuse to participate? Maybe sponsor a national collection to distribute fresh toothbrushes and diapers? Shout out, "Enough already"?

Not so. They took the milquetoast, "on the one hand this, on the other hand that," approach. In the midst of the crisis, they took pains not to offend those public officials, particularly the president, who have instigated this national disgrace.

Hint: In journalism, it's the lede that signifies what's most important. Vásquez chose to bury what needs to be addressed at this time.

The statement said that "broad enforcement actions instigate panic in our communities and will not serve as an effective deterrent to irregular migration." It added, "we should focus on the root causes in Central America that have compelled so many to leave their homes in search of safety and reform our immigration system with a view toward justice and the common good. We stand ready to work with the Administration and Congress to achieve those objectives." It concluded with an offer of prayers for everyone involved.

It was a statement few could object to. And that is the problem. The statement was so small and matter-of-fact that it was understandably ignored in most quarters.

Next time, in moments of national crisis such as this, the U.S. bishops should take the example of their boss.

Pope Francis has raised the specter of racism in the anti-migrant policies pursued around the world. He has equated the church's respect for migrants with concern for the unborn.

Perhaps the body of bishops could listen to the more prophetic of their fellows, particularly those on the border who confront this crisis every day.

"I feel that as a [bishops'] conference, we must express ourselves more strongly when it comes to the dignity of immigrants, to say that they are not criminals, that they are vulnerable families," Bishop Daniel Flores of Brownsville, Texas, told Catholic News Service June 12. As a faith community, said Flores, Catholics are called "to defend the migrant as a human being, to not cast the person aside as someone who doesn't matter and is a problem."

Support for the dignity of migrants can only begin once the bishops as a group stop hedging their language and openly confront the inhumane immigration policies flowing from this administration. Next time the president attempts to use migrant children and parents as political pawns in some grand, sick electoral scheme, they should fearlessly confront the bully-in-chief. That is, if they are to take their position as faith leaders seriously.

All This Joy - Beautiful Song by John Denver

All This Joy

All this joy,
all this sorrow,
All this promise.
all this pain,
such is life,
such is being,
such is spirt, 
such is love.

City of joy...

World of joy...

Sister Joan Chittister Rejected from Speaking at Catholic Education Conference in Melbourne Australia

Sister Joan Chittister, 83, says she was informed by email telling her not to come as Archbishop Peter Comensoli of Melbourne had not endorsed the invitation

La Croix International staff 
Australia

June 25, 2019

https://international.la-croix.com/news/famous-american-nun-rejected-from-speaking-at-conference-in-australia/10397#

A well-known American nun, feminist and scholar has been rejected from speaking at a Catholic education conference in Melbourne apparently at the behest of the local archbishop.

Benedictine Sister Joan Chittister, 83, is in possession of an email telling her not to come as Archbishop Peter Comensoli of Melbourne had not endorsed the invitation.

Apparently, leaders of the Church in Australia, where roughly one in five children are educated by Catholic schools, don't like her ideas of empowering women and laypeople, reports The New York Times.

"It is pathetic," Sister Joan said in an interview from Erie, Pa., where she has lived and worked with the poor. "These teachers for the next generation of thinkers are being denied the right to pursue ideas," The New York Times quoted her as saying.

"I see it as a lot bigger than one conference… I see it as an attitude of mind that is dangerous to the church."

Jim Miles, acting executive director of Catholic Education Melbourne — one of the groups organizing the National Catholic Education Commission's annual conference where Sister Joan was expected to speak in September 2020 characterized the dispute as a communications failure.

He says no one had yet been formally invited to address the gathering.

"It is regrettable that Sister Joan Chittister may have been given the impression that she was invited to speak at the conference," he said. "The conference organizing committee is working to ensure that this type of miscommunication does not occur again," he said.

However, Sister Joan said that she had clearly been invited and that she later received an apologetic email rescinding the invitation.

"I am very saddened to say that while our organizing committee strongly supported the inclusion of Sister Joan as a speaker at the conference, the Archbishop of Melbourne has failed to endorse her inclusion," the email said.

The Archdiocese of Melbourne is yet to comment.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports that many Catholic scholars were not surprised by the dispute as "Comensoli is a conservative moral theologian" who previously served as an auxiliary bishop in Sydney under the now incarcerated Cardinal George Pell when he was the archbishop there.

"His views generally reflect the widening divide between the church's leadership and many everyday Catholics," The Sydney Morning Herald said.

Why Catholic bishops need a year of abstinence on preaching about sexuality

Religion News Service

Opinion June 25, 2019
https://religionnews.com/2019/06/25/a-modest-proposal-for-catholic-bishops-to-take-a-year-off-from-preaching-about-sexuality/

(RNS) — If Catholic bishops hope to reclaim their moral credibility after revelations about covering up clergy sexual abuse, the hierarchy might start by sending a simple but potent message: Church leaders should take a year of abstinence from preaching about sex and gender.

It might seem obvious that a church facing a crisis of legitimacy caused by clergy raping children would show more humility when claiming to hold ultimate truths about human sexuality.

Instead, in the past month alone, a Rhode Island bishop tweeted that Catholics shouldn’t attend gay pride events because they are “especially harmful for children”; a Vatican office issued a document that described transgender people as “provocative” in trying to “annihilate the concept of nature”; and a Catholic high school in Indianapolis that refused to fire a teacher married to a same-sex partner was told by the Archdiocese of Indianapolis that it can no longer call itself Catholic.

There is an unmistakable hubris displayed when some in the church are determined to make sexuality the lynchpin of Catholic identity at a time when bishops have failed to convince their flock that they are prepared to police predators in their own parishes.

This isn’t simply a matter of the church’s image, however. When the Catholic Church describes sexual intimacy between gay people as “intrinsically disordered,” it fails to take into account how this degrading language contributes to higher rates of suicide among LGBTQ people; when it condemns even civil recognition of same-sex unions that don’t impede the church’s ability to define marriage sacramentally, bishops appear indifferent to the roadblocks committed couples without marriage licenses face in hospitals and other settings.Even before abuse scandals exploded into public consciousness more than a decade ago, many Catholics were tuning out the all-male hierarchy’s teachings on sexuality. Surveys show the vast majority of Catholics use birth control and nearly 70 percent now support same-sex marriage.

Unless church leaders are content to drive away a generation of young people, these positions are self-inflicted wounds. Millennial Catholics understandably ask why centuries of Catholic teaching on human dignity and justice don’t apply fully to their LGBTQ friends, family members and teachers. Those who are raised Catholic are more likely than those raised in any other religion to cite negative religious treatment of gay and lesbian people as the primary reason they leave, according to the Public Religion Research Institute.

A document on gender identity released earlier this month from the Vatican’s congregation for Catholic education, titled “Male and Female He Created Them,” underscores why we need a break from lofty church pronouncements on these issues. The document is right in its call for respectful dialogue with LGBTQ people, but the work itself fails to reflect that ideal.

The authors clearly didn’t spend time with transgender Catholics. There was no apparent effort to engage with modern science or contemporary medical insights about gender development. It feels as if it was written in a bunker sealed off from the world in 1950.

Ray Dever, a Catholic deacon who has a transgender daughter and who ministers to Catholics with transgender family members, called the document “totally divorced from the lived reality of transgender people.”

Dever added, “I think that anyone with first-hand experience with gender identity issues will confirm that for an authentically transgender person, being transgender is not a choice, and it is certainly not driven by any gender theory or ideology.”

While abstract Vatican musings on sex and gender are unhelpful, the church faces a more urgent crisis in the making in the firing of LGBTQ employees at Catholic schools. In a rare display of defiance, Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory School in Indianapolis clashed with Archbishop Charles Thompson, who wanted the independently operated school to terminate an employee who is civilly married to a person of the same sex. The school refused, and the archbishop now says the school can no longer call itself Catholic. Brebeuf Jesuit’s supervisory body, the Midwest Province of Jesuits, said the decision will be appealed through a church process all the way to the Vatican if necessary.

“We felt we could not in conscience dismiss him from employment,” the Rev. William Verbryke, president of Brebeuf, told the Jesuit publication America magazine earlier this week, explaining that the teacher in question does not teach religion and is not a campus minister.

After the Jesuit school’s decision became national news, another Indiana Catholic high school announced it was complying with the archdiocese and dismissing a teacher in a same-sex marriage. Administrators at Cathedral High School called it “an agonizing decision” and wrote a letter to the school community. “In today’s climate we know that being Catholic can be challenging and we hope that this action does not dishearten you, and most especially, dishearten Cathedral’s young people.”

In recent years, more than 70 LGBTQ church employees and Catholic school teachers have been fired or lost their jobs in employment disputes. Heterosexual Catholics who don’t follow church teaching that prohibits birth control or living together before marriage, for example, are not disciplined the same way by Catholic institutions. The scrutiny targeting gay employees alone is discriminatory and disproportionate.

Efforts to narrow Catholic identity to a “pelvic theology” hyperfocused on human sexuality raise questions about what Christians should be known for as we seek to live the gospel. Are Catholic employees at schools and other Catholic institutions evaluated for how often they visit the imprisoned, care for the sick, treat the environment, confront inequality? All of these moral issues are central to papal encyclicals, centuries of Catholic social teachings and the ministry of Jesus.

“We cannot insist only on issues related to abortion, gay marriage and the use of contraceptive methods,” Pope Francis said in one of his first interviews after his election. “The church’s pastoral ministry cannot be obsessed with the transmission of a disjointed multitude of doctrines to be imposed insistently. We have to find a new balance; otherwise even the moral edifice of the Church is likely to fall like a house of cards.”

A year of abstinence for church leaders preaching about sex would demonstrate a symbolic posture of humility that could substantively show those of us still left in the pews that the hierarchy isn’t completely clueless to the stark reality of the present moment.

During their silence on sex and gender, Vatican and local Catholic leaders should get out of their comfort zones and conduct listening sessions with married, divorced, gay, straight and transgender people. They should step away from the microphone and take notes. There would be disagreement, but the simple act of flipping the script — priests and bishops quietly in the back instead of holding forth up front — might help clergy recognize there is a wisdom in lived reality and truth not found solely in dusty church documents.

Taking risks and sitting with discomfort is part of a healthy faith. It’s time for our bishops to lead by taking a step back.

(John Gehring is Catholic program director at Faith in Public Life and author of “The Francis Effect: A Radical Pope’s Challenge to the American Catholic Church.” The views in this commentary do not necessarily represent those of Religion News Service.)

Vatican’s ‘Dumbed Down Version of an Old Argument’ on Gender Can’t Stop Changes in Catholicism

REWIRE NEWS
https://rewire.news/religion-dispatches/2019/06/25/vaticans-dumbed-down-version-of-an-old-argument-on-gender-cant-stop-changes-in-catholicism/

Jun 25, 2019, 10:59am Mary Hunt

The past two popes insist, against mounting evidence, that the gender binary, male and female, is given in nature and blessed by God. God, a male after all, created them Male and Female. The Genesis account inconveniently leaves out the detail about the blue and pink blankets and onesies.

Just in time for Pride, the Vatican Congregation for Catholic Education released its statement, dated February 2, “‘Male and Female He Created Them’: Toward a Path of Dialogue on the Question of Gender Theory in Education.” Timing is everything. The document, which adds nothing new to the decades-old conversation on gender, has gotten far more ink than is customary for reports emanating from such obscure corners of Rome.

My best guess is that this restatement of the Roman Catholic Church’s rejection of a half century of development on human anthropology is simply a trial balloon. The real thing is allegedly forthcoming from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, a weightier venue that will try one more time to present a bulwark against evolving understandings of gender, sex, and how good people live their lives.

University of Chicago legal scholar Mary Anne Case lays out the contours of the Vatican’s long and increasingly damaging campaign in a well-researched, complex, and convincing article, “Trans Formations in the Vatican’s War on ‘Gender Ideology’”.

She explores “…the Vatican’s decades-long, worldwide, multifront war on what it has come to call ‘gender ideology’ from its very recent incarnation in Donald Trump’s United States back through its origins in the last century, highlighting the central role that concerns about transgender rights have always played for the two popes who have most directly shaped the contours of this war, Benedict XVI and Francis.”

Professor Case concludes:

“The history… reveals a complicated interchange between the constellation of liberatory movements castigated by the Vatican as ‘gender ideology’ and the constellation of reactionary movements the Vatican and other religious conservatives developed to counter them. Motivated by legal developments in Germany and at the United Nations and by the theoretical work of feminists in Germany and in the United States to conjure up an opposition more coherent and formidable than any he actually faced, Ratzinger was the first to declare war on ‘gender.’ Francis provided powerful tactics and strategies for this war, with his rhetoric of anticolonialism and his combination of warm receptivity to individuals with continuing opposition to their rights. Most recently, opposition to gender ideology has united conservative Catholics with persons of other faiths around the world with whom they agree on little other than the need to fight ‘gender ideology.’”

Simply put, the little piece from the Congregation for Catholic Education is a deeply dumbed down version of an old argument. Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger and later Pope Francis insist, against mounting evidence, that the gender binary, male and female, is given in nature and blessed by God. God, a male after all, created them Male and Female. The Genesis account inconveniently leaves out the detail about the blue and pink blankets and onesies. Biblical scholars are simply ignored. These two popes are still persuaded that a baby born with a penis is a male and a baby born with a vagina is a female despite overwhelming proof of the complexities of human life that in justice no longer admit of such simplicities. Benedict constructed the arguments; Francis delivers them with a smile. Social and biological data to the wind.

The Vatican would leave decisions about intersex people to medical professionals to make. The intersex community has registered strong protest: “We are profoundly troubled by the reproduction of pathologizing language to refer to our bodies, and the reaffirmation of medical authority over them… The idea that forced and coercive medical interventions are necessary to build a healthy identity has never been supported by scientific evidence.” Intersex-led and allied networks “call for dialogue that recognizes our existence, that affirms our right to determine what happens to our bodies, our right to know the truth about our medical treatments, and that ends stigmatization and human rights violations.” The Vatican document does none of the above.

What it does do is signal a new and potentially more dangerous stage in a longstanding cultural debate. The Vatican’s position against same-sex love needs no rehearsing. But in a pernicious way, all of that seems to fade a bit in this document which focuses pointedly on transgender and intersex people. The argument is rooted in the same general opposition to anything but bright pink and dark blue taken together to form a couple. This time there is a nascent awareness that the categories no longer apply across the board.

There is a certain desperation in the tone and content of the Catholic Education piece. It suggests an admission that efforts to stop same-sex love have failed miserably, starting with the majority-gay male clergy. What’s a few lesbian, gay, and bi people after all, the institutional church seems to be saying; at least they know the players without a score card. The real game changer is that claims that sex/gender are fixed, defined, and limited pale before the reality of changing, fluid, varied sex/gender as the human norm. Eeeeeks—what to do about male-only priests, mom and dad-only families, and laws that result from Catholic influence on private matters? That swishing sound is a Roman Catholic house of cards falling in on itself. Left standing are all queer Catholics and allies who will struggle as hard for trans and intersex rights as we have for LGB ones.

The three suggestions the Education folks use in the document to frame their repetition of the long-touted message—Listen, Reason, Propose—are the very dynamics they violate. There is no evidence of listening to the voices of trans and intersex people, much less to their families and educators. There is less evidence of reasoning that would include citing studies, weighing arguments, sketching out the history. The only proposal is for educational programs that begin with Genesis as if it were literally true with a movie to prove it.

Meanwhile, back in the real world, Sister Mary Berchmans, VHM, of Georgetown Visitation Preparatory School in Washington, DC, made her message clear when faced with publishing news of the nuptials of lesbian alumnae in the school’s alum magazine. She wrote, “As I have prayed over this contradiction, I keep returning to this choice: we can focus on Church teaching on gay marriage or we can focus on Church teaching on the Gospel commandment of love. We know from history—including very recent history—that the Church, in its humanity, makes mistakes. Yet, through the grace of God and the power of the Holy Spirit, it learns and grows. And so, we choose the Gospel commandment of love.” Thus spake an octogenarian nun who has been religiously professed for sixty-seven years. Overwhelmingly positive reaction to her, despite a few nay-sayers, shows that the face of Catholicism is changing rapidly. Local diocesan officials expressed disappointment at not being consulted, but they acquiesced.

Likewise, leaders of the Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory School in Indianapolis, Indiana, recently rejected that Archdiocese’s demand that they fire a longtime teacher who is civilly married to a person of the same sex. The Archdiocese responded by declaring that Brebeuf is no longer considered by them to be a Catholic school. Good luck with that as few people will mistake the clearly Catholic brand for a Jewish yeshiva, a Lutheran academy, or a public school. Once again, the face of Catholicism is changing, and once again in favor of inclusion and justice.

This is what the Vatican Congregation for Catholic Education is powerless to stop. I doubt the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith will have much more luck. Happy Pride in Catholic changes.

R

Jan Phillips Retreat at St. Joseph’s Provincial House in Latham, NY – June 23, 2019

Here are Jan’s words from her Facebook page about the retreat. The Sunday morning ritual is printed below.

“The retreat at St. Joseph's Provincial House was sacramental from beginning to end. Sharing from the soul, tears falling as truth is revealed anew, the good news being there is nothing to seek for we ARE what we have been looking for. What we are looking for is WHO is looking, as Francis of Assisi put it.

So great to sleep in same bedrooms as we did in Novitiate, to eat in same dining room, prayer in the same take-your-breath-away chapel.

While the sisters prayed in the chapel upstairs, we were busy in the basement birthing a new future--redefining faith, redefining mystic, prophet, priest---claiming our superpowers, drawing them, feeling them, breathing from the lungs of our sacred selves.

We co-created and concelebrated the sacrament of Holy Gratitude and Deep Communion and the creativity employed was an extravaganza of imagination. We made holy the water, blessed the oil, read from our own sacred texts, listened to the words of Old Turtle, gave thanks to the Earth, the universe and the seven directions, spoke to each other about the newness rising up, wrote our commitments and proclaimed them publicly, gave bread to each other that one of us baked that morning, then anointed each other with holy water and holy chrism.

I go from city to city making sacraments with people, but this one was so special, in that place where I learned so much and lost so much. Unbelievable, the depth of wonder and awe...Nothing but gratitude circling around me like a hawk aloft on holy winds.”

Sacramental Ritual of Holy Gratitude and Deep Communion

Dressing the Table

Members of the group brought items to the center table while the group listened to the song: Ancient Mother by Robert Gass

https://youtu.be/6rYw8C8GhlY.

Blessing of the Water 

Jan led us in blessing the water that would be used later in the ceremony when we shared our commitment for spiritual growth. Each person passed the bowl of water and blessed it. While the bowl was passed we listened to the song: Wash Your Spirit Clean by Walela 

https://youtu.be/4FYDa00ubng.

Four Elements: Air, Earth, Water and Fire

Suzanne, Leslie and Judith led us in a gratitude prayer for the four elements of the earth.

Sabbath Bride

Leslie prayed the following prayer:

Come my Beloved

To meet the Bride

Observe and remember

Come let us welcome

The Sabbath,

The holy day of rest

The source of blessing

Shake off the dust,

Don your glorious garments

Arise

For your light has come

Awake, awake and utter a song

Rejoice as a bridegroom rejoices

Over his bride

Come my Beloved,

Come in peace

With songs of gladness

Come O bride of the divine

For the complete prayer
https://www.chabad.org/multimedia/media_cdo/aid/265789/jewish/Lcha-Dodi.htm

For more information about the Sabbath Bride: https://www.chabad.org/library/howto/wizard_cdo/aid/257760/jewish/3-Welcome-the-Bride.htm

Calling in Ancestors

Jan invited us to call our ancestors to join us in this sacred circle as we sang the song written by Jan: Come Be Around Us.

https://youtu.be/7SR5k0UC9Vg 

Opening Sacred Space

Patty and Judy led us in this beautiful prayer that can be found at this website: https://www.qoya.love/opening-sacred-space

First Reading: Barb read a passage from Old Turtle – Book 2

Why are we here? What is the purpose of life? How do we find happiness? Once again, Old Turtle's wise answers offer readers of all ages inspiration, solace, and the most important gift of all -- hope.

Song between the reading: Gabriel’s Obo by Ennio Morricone

https://youtu.be/5Gvrp20_WXM

Second Reading

Jan began with a reading: A Donkey at the Gates of Heaven and followed it with a reading from her book: There are Burning Bushes Everywhere: Poems and Prayers of a Rebel Mystic

https://www.thesunmagazine.org/issues/496/the-donkey-at-the-gates-of-the-kingdom-of-heaven

Song after reading: All This Joy by John Denver

https://youtu.be/hZ2RHPddSWU

The following link is a video of John Denver singing this moving song:

https://youtu.be/X8j-LlY1dNE

Qi Gong 

Leslie led us in a Qi Gong movement of praise.

Gratitude 

Jan walked our sacred circle in gratitude for each of us and our time together. 

As she walked the circle we listened to the song: I am So Blessed by Karen Drucker

https://youtu.be/2SHaEjFtP2g

Sharing the Change 

Jan invited each of us to speak aloud the commitment we made to ourselves during this weekend as she sprinkled us with the water and the words: “You can do this sister.” Mary Theresa anointed each person’s hands with frankincense oil and the words: “It is in your hands, you are prophet and mystic.” 

Bread, blessed and broken: Suzanne came with a loaf of fresh-baked bread. We concluded this beautiful ritual by blessing the bread and sharing it with the words, “You are a spark of the Divine.

Mary Theresa’s comment: This amazing ritual came together the morning of the ritual. Retreat members brought parts of the ritual and the group never saw the parts until we prayed it.  As Jan said, “I go from city to city making sacraments with people, but this one was so special, in that place where I learned so much and lost so much. Unbelievable, the depth of wonder and awe...Nothing but gratitude circling around me like a hawk aloft on holy winds.”

Thank you, Jan. Thank you dear companions on the journey!