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Saturday, October 13, 2018

Cíngulo ensangrentado de Mons. Romero que llevará Francisco en la ceremonia by Olga Lucia Alvarez Benjumea ARCWP


El Papa Francisco llevará un cíngulo ensangrentado de Monseñor Romero durante la misa de canonización en la que el Beato salvadoreño será declarado Santo este domingo en la Plaza de San Pedro.
Se trata del cordón que Monseñor Romero llevaba para ceñir su alba el 24 de marzo de 1980 cuando fue asesinado.
Cada hora que transcurre aumenta nuestra alegría. Qué tan inagotable! Gracias Dios que tenemos un Papa más preocupado por la fidelidad al Evangelio que por conservar la tradición. 
La presencia de Francisco en Roma, sin duda fue lo que posibilitó de la canonización de nuestro gran Santo Romero de América.
En estos momentos, el corazón de millones de creyentes por todo el mundo laten al unísono. El Señor sigue estando grande con nosotros. Acostumbrados a caminar entre las tinieblas, una luz grande nos ha alumbrado: la de Romero de América.
Qué lindo que nos haya tocado vivir este momento! 
Gracias, Dios, por la vida de Mons. Romero!

ARCWP DE SURAMERICA.


Amy Jill Levine, "Who Is My Enemy?", Barbara Brown Taylor, Parable of the Good Muslim,


 Levine, A.J. (2017). Who Is My Enemy? https://youtu.be/rn_GpV5dbFc



Reid, B. E. (2000). Parables for Preachers – Year C. p.105.

Taylor, B. B. (2015).Parable of the Good Muslim.

A great deal of media sound bites have recently been spent on playing down the differences between Islam and Christianity. In the decades before, it was spent on recasting Jesus as a normative Jew. If that results in preventing another holocaust or another crusade, then good. But if we can only achieve this by domesticating other religions and making them more palatable to Christian tastes, then we should rather stop. Prof Barbara Brown Taylor points out that it is clear from the stories by Jesus and about Jesus, that correct beliefs were not important to him. In fact, that may be exactly what Jesus was trying to say: don’t use your differences as a convenient excuse not to act civil toward an ultimate ‘other,’ as Bolz-Weber puts it. In my experience, us Christians could learn from Muslims & Jews how this is done. AJ Levine says that the best way to recover the punch that the parable of the Good Samaritan had when Jesus told it the first time, is to move the narrative to the West Bank (where the ancient Kingdom of Samaria was) and make the man in the ditch, a modern-day Jew. After a rabbi and a member of the Israeli Knesset have ignored the man and passed him by, imagine a Muslim member of Hamas bending down to bind the man’s wounds and bathe him and make sure he is taken care of. Prof Barbara Brown Taylor says “anyone who loves this story has probably misunderstood it.” The good Samaritan “never was and never will be one of us. He was the enemy. He belonged to the other side." Barbara Brown Taylor is Professor of World Religions at Piedmont College. AJ Levine is a Jewish professor of New Testament studies at Vanderbilt University.

Lk 10 25-37 – Good Samaritan

Levine, A.J. (2014). Short Stories about Jesus. p.71-106.


Day 12 in Rome Youth speak up for women; Why are women not voting at the synod?; A "joke" that sucks the air out of the room


As most may have already learned, Pope Francis accepted the resignation of Cardinal Donald Wuerl yesterday.

We received the news just before the press briefing and, of course, there were many questions directed to the panelists, especially U.S. Bishop Robert Barron.

In Wuerl's resignation, there is a decided lack of triumphalism by those who have been most hurt by his actions or inactions.
Instead, there is a deep sense of sadness for the victims and for the great loss we have all felt in the fallout of this massive coverup. The ignorance -- some of it willful -- some not -- along with the outright bullying and coverup of some corrupt bishops and cardinals has come to roost in the heart of our church.

Many critical reforms have been put at risk due to the decimated credibility of the leadership and thus, creating platforms where the opportunistic foes of Francis to beat their chests and their drums in the march for a smaller, purer church. Of course, their lens for viewing the crisis is conveniently, willfully rose-colored as they call out Pope Francis but forget how deeply Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict contributed to the problem.

So today, I sit grieving for the harm that has been done to so many victims; for the people who have rightly stepped down in the spirit responsible leadership; for the church that took too long to understand how corrupted it had become; and for the work of the Gospel which can more easily be called into question and undercut by its enemies because of that corruption.

There is no fist-bumping, no chest-thumping. . . just a sober and sad heart.

Youth speak up for women

As I reported over the past few days, Catholic auditors like Briana Santiago and Percival Holt suggested that the topic of women in the church has not been discussed. But it looks like there are young Catholics who are talking about it.


Silvia Teresa Retamales Morales of Chile said that when it comes to the role of women in the Church, “we always need more. For me, it’s a very important idea, and I always try to speak about that.” She believes the Church needs a structure that will allow women to have “more representation and more space to think and to speak. Without expliciting mentioning women's ordination, she said it is important to include women "in the institution as a whole, with a principal role in the institution in the same position as men."

Auimatagi Joseph Sapati Moeono-Kolio from Samoa, said that although the topic of women has surfaced in some of the four-minute speeches, “it needs to come up more.” Bishops can talk about the role of women, he said, but stressed that he and other participants are looking to young women in the room, religious and lay, to push the topic forward. Moeono-Kolio noted that when talking about women, specifically their roles in the Church, there are some who “try to conflate the language of empowering women in the Church with, ‘we want women priests.’”

Women inside the synod, Moeono-Kolio said, “will bring a lot more clarity and nuance to what they want in terms of what women’s roles are in the Church, and I think it’s good for our men here to stand in solidarity with them and to enable that conversation here as well, especially because the ones making the decisions are guys.” “I think the boys here need to step up a bit and go to bat for the sisters,” Moeono-Kolio said.

Crux also reported that at least one youth delegate from Germany also brought up women on the synod floor, calling on the Church to change its stance barring women from the priesthood. She did not actually name the person, but the only auditor from Germany is Thomas Andonie. There are also fraternal delegates such as Ms. Julia Braband and Rev. Dr. Chris Ferguson who may also be delivering those messages. 

So there is more to learn here.

A "joke" that sucks the air out of the room

At the press briefing, Sr. Mina Kwon from Korea, Bishop Robert Barron from the USA, and Archbishop Everardus Johannes de Jong of the Netherlands sat between Greg Burke and Paolo Ruffini and reviewed the synod happenings and took questions.

Sr. Mina gave a beautiful account of her work in Korea and the beauty of a Catholicism that, 200 years ago, was attractive precisely because women and men were seen as equals in a very traditional world where women were rated third class. Her voice and words were strong in her critique of the return of hierarchy, and her appeal for a return to those beginnings.

I just wanted to hug her.

South African journalist Sheila Pieres of Radio Veritas, asked the panelists, "You've spoken about this synod having the spirit of democracy, you've spoken about one the key concepts being the role of women in the church, and I see we have Sister [Mina Kwon] here, who is one of the eight women in this synod, and she is not allowed to vote. How can it be a democratic environment if women are not even allowed to vote?

Archbishop Johannes de Jong answered first. He said, "the presence of women is so clear" that so many voices are being heard comparing it to his home where they have relationships with all kind of women and where women speak up. He joked, "my three sisters tell me what I should do" saying they are very adamant and "very vocal about the issues in the church that they don't believe."

"We listen to women, I think."

"But it is not so much about having power and steering roles, because there, women and men are different."

Then the archbishop began a descent -- an airplane getting ready to crash.

To illustrate how women and men are different, he told a "joke." Prefacing it with, "Maybe you won't like it, I'm sorry," he rolled on.

"We say that man is the head (as he holds his head with his hands) of the family, but the woman is the neck (as he places his hands around his neck)." Using his hands to turn his head from side to side, he than said, "And they turn the head where we [men] go."

His attempt at comedy bombed. No one laughed. Indeed, there was a sense that the air had been sucked out of the room as attitudes of sexism surfaced and exploded on a synod stage.

He continued, "If you think about voting, its about who is in charge. And of course, the cardinals vote for the pope. But this is an advisory synod, that tells that Pope what we might be thinking."

Full stop: This is not just an advisory, rubber stamping synod as in previous papacies, but the final document will likely become part of the ordinary magisterium.

The archbishop offered evidence of how well women were heard at the local level, at the pre-synod and at the synod. "And I don't think as long as I have been here that we don't take what women say seriously," said the archbishop.

"But Jesus chose apostles who are male. And if you have a synod, this is a bishops' synod, we have to listen to women, but there are no women bishops or cardinals. So, we have to live with that," he finished.

Bishop Robert Barron agreed that it was a synod of bishops, and went on to articulate all the ways women do exert their influence at the synod.

His remarks are a good reminder that women auditors do have a much more influential voice now that Francis changed the synod process using small groups to flesh out various issues.

Still, at this point, both men seemed to be unaware of the fact that non-ordained men were also voting at the synod.

As a young woman, when a man in my world made a sexist joke, I was expected to laugh along.

Well, I don't laugh anymore and I call people on the carpet when a "joke" demeans women.

So I admit, that after the "head of the family" demonstration by the Dutch archbishop, I really wanted to get another question in.

Let's say it was the tiger in me.

I directed my question to the whole panel.

I want to go back to the voting question. One of the things that came out yesterday - the German bishops and Cardinal Marx offered a very very strong statement about the need to bring women, and especially young women into positions of real authority and governance within church. This is not opposed to what Pope Francis has been saying for a very long time. 

So, I am thinking about this synod.

In 2015 one non-ordained male religious superior voted. This year, two non-ordained male religious superiors are voting.
Now it seems to me, that it is so logical that women religious superiors should also vote.

If ordination is not so much a barrier now with non-ordained members voting, why are women religious superior not voting alongside their brothers as equals?
By the way, I loved what you wrote Sr. Mina about equality in Korea. It read like a Gospel account. 

So, I ask you, why would we not be able to create a structure were women are voting alongside their male counterparts?

Women religious are the largest group of pioneers we have in the church reaching out to people on the margins. Surely they ought to have a vote in these bodies that make pastoral decisions about youth and family.

It seems logical to me and I would like your impression.

Greg Burke joked that my question was long and could only really be answered by Cardinal Baldisseri inviting me to come back with the shortened form for him.
Then Archbishop Johannes de Jong answered, "I think you are right. Women's voices should be heardand taken into account in the final document."

Then he made an amazing suggestion, "But nothing is against women organizing themselves and saying, 'Pope, here is what we think.'"

He went on to say that the bishops were trying to do what they could to listen to women, but he could not help what Jesus had done in choosing only men to be apostles.

"There is something to the church that apostles are males," he reminded us.

Then he changed direction and decided to get personal -- in what became the "are you just an angry woman?" question - a tactic that is employed against women who speak up all the time.

"We should discern here too, what is the question behind your question? There is something behind your question that I would like to address."

Acknowledging that this was not the time and place for that, he went on, "Is it the feeling that you feel excluded and that women are excluded in general from the decision making processes of the church?"

"I would like to clarify why you feel so much (reaching for a word).....feeling...like the church is the male castle that you want to conquer it, or whatever...or is it the case that the real issues of women are not being addressed?"

"Please tell, tell me what issues that we don't address. Please make it known."

Referencing 30,000 women who signed the letter to Pope Francis about clergy sex abuse coverup, he said, "Let women speak up. Don't be suffocated. Please stand up for your important cases."

And of course, this is not a forum where follow up responses and questions are entertained, so having heard his invitation, I went up immediately after and he gave me his phone number so that we could meet and have a dialogue.

I have since made an invitation so that we can have an exchange of ideas.

More to come!
Why are there no LBGT Catholics in the synod hall?

Frank DeBernardo is my colleague from New Ways Ministry, but I also think of him as my super smart and big hearted brother. He finally arrived in Rome and immediately started asking critical questions of the bishops regarding the lack of LGBT Catholics in the synod hall.

Directing his question to Bishop Robert Barron, Frank asked that given the way youth perceive the Church as being negative towards LGBT people, and given that he [Barron] has stressed the need for love and inclusion, did he think it would have been good to extend that message of inclusion to the synod itself by inviting Catholic youth who are LGBT to be among the young people participating in the synod discussions.

As Frank reports, Bishop Barron responded by saying that he would reaffirm his 2017 message that “The church’s first move in regard to everybody,” including gay and lesbian people “is to reach out and say just that, ‘You’re a beloved child of God.’ ”
However, he then added to his 2017 message by stating, “Having said that, the church also calls people to conversion. So, Jesus calls but then he always moves people to fullness of life. And so, the church also has a set of moral demands to everybody and it calls them to conversion.”

He further elaborated:

“My hesitation is that inclusion is more of a secular term. I’d use the word love. The church reaches out in love, and love is willing the good of the other. Sometimes that means calling people to a change of life. So I think that’s where the church’s attitude is situated is including both those moments, of course outreach and love, but acceptance and inclusion doesn’t mean we don’t call to conversion.”

As I sat there watching Bishop Barron call LGBT people to "conversion", that well honed sense of protectiveness rose up again (seems to be getting a work out here) as I thought of all the people who have suffered at the hand of bishops and other Catholics who, may have learned to say some of the right things such as, "you are a beloved child of God", but who don't really believe it in their hearts, and still smugly judge LGBT people as sinners to be converted. 

Oh, the mama/sista gene in me just rises up...

Contraception - the source of all evil

The reporter from Lifesite news asked a question, prefacing it by recognizing Paul VI as a great prophet who knew the evils that would enter the world with contraception, including narcissism, pornography, human trafficking, and "many of these issues could not be possible if there were not widespread contraception."  

It was interesting to watch Bishop Barron smile and shake his head in what appeared to be agreement as she asked if the silence at the synod on these matters was "reflective of the silence of the last decades" and if there would be discussion about the "truth" of the downfalls of contraception.

Bishop Barron agreed that Paul VI had made such predictions and that they had a new resonance today. He suggested that with the canonization of Paul VI, it is a moment to dial up the conversation about Humanae Vitae and that the synod should be discussing it.

I have to admit, I do enjoy this crazy Catholic family of mine especially when they find the root of all evil in the act of contraception.

For another take on today's events, read Heidi Schlump's accounting the National Catholic Reporter.

Deborah Rose-Milavec
Reporting from Rome

Friday, October 12, 2018

"Petition urges women's votes at synod, but Dutch bishop disagrees" by Heidi Schlumpf, NCR, My Response- Stop blaming Jesus, Treat Women as Spiritual Equals or Lose All Credibility

https://www.ncronline.org/news/vatican/petition-urges-womens-votes-synod-dutch-bishop-disagrees

My Response: Of course women should vote at this Synod. It is fair and just. Seriously, this is a Synod on discerning vocations, what young woman is going to discern a religious vocation when her voice and vote is not even represented at the Synod? Talking about a credibility gap. 

This is a chasm and it is insulting to the people  of God!

This Dutch bishop suggests a "Constitutive Council"  for women since they are not equal members of the Church run by bishops. Then, most insulting of all, he blames the centuries old misogyny on Jesus who chose 12 apostles.  In Romans 16:7 Paul praises Andronicas and Junia as prominent apostles who were his mentors. So there were more than 12 apostles and Junia was a woman apostle. The early Church Fathers called Mary of Magdala, the "apostle to the apostles."

  The full equality of women in the Church and world is the voice of God in our time. It is a grave injustice to refuse to allow religious women to vote in this Synod, when male religious are permitted to vote. Half of the Church is excluded and it is certainly not Jesus' fault! If this sexist view continues to be espoused by the hierarchy, the next generation will continue to abandon Catholicism because of its sinful misogyny and exploitation of women as second class citizens in their own house. Bridget Mary Meehan ARCWP, https://arcwp.org

Trump, aides pressure Saudi prince over missing journalist, See Protestors Calling for Answers, Janice Sevre Duszynska ARCWP- Speaks Out

https://m.france24.com/en/20181010-trump-aides-pressure-saudi-prince-over-missing-journalist

Janice Sevre Duszynska ARCWP with mic calling answers about missing journalist KhashoggiWASHINGTON (AFP) - 

 It's a picture of Sisters Ardeth Platte and Carol Gilbert from Dorothy Day CW in Wash., D.C with me and others. We were in front of the Saudi Arabian Embassy in D.C. yesterday and there were media from all over. In the photo we are singing "Peace, Salem, Shalom" at the end of the witness..in the same way we began it.. Then we read some of Jamal Khashoggi's writings from The Washington Post. He was concerned about what was happening to the soul of Saudi Arabia. 
US President Donald Trump demanded answers Wednesday over the disappearance of respected Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi as his top lieutenants pressured Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman over the fate of the Washington Post writer.


The Five-Year-Old Who Was Detained at the Border and Persuaded to Sign Away Her Rights by Sarah Stillman, The New Yorker

My Response: As a nation of immigrants, we must stand for justice, compassion and human rights. This is who we are. This is a call for action, to change our  inhumane treatment of little children who are asylum seekers.  Bridget Mary Meehan ARCWP, https://arcwp.org
https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-five-year-old-who-was-detained-at-the-border-and-convinced-to-sign-away-her-rights

By Sarah Stillman

October 11, 2018




Helen, a five-year-old from Honduras, was detained after the Trump Administration announced that it would halt the separation of immigrant families.Photograph Courtesy LUPE

Helen—a smart, cheerful five-year-old girl—is an asylum seeker from Honduras. This summer, when a social worker asked her to identify her strengths, Helen shared her pride in “her ability to learn fast and express her feelings and concerns.” She also recounted her favorite activities (“playing with her dolls”), her usual bedtime (“8 p.m.”), and her professional aspirations (“to be a veterinarian”).

In July, Helen fled Honduras with her grandmother, Noehmi, and several other relatives; gangs had threatened Noehmi’s teen-age son, Christian, and the family no longer felt safe. Helen’s mother, Jeny, had migrated to Texas four years earlier, and Noehmi planned to seek legal refuge there. With Noehmi’s help, Helen travelled thousands of miles, sometimes on foot, and frequently fell behind the group. While crossing the Rio Grande in the journey’s final stretch, Helen slipped from their raft and risked drowning. Her grandmother grabbed her hand and cried, “Hang on, Helen!” When the family reached the scrubland of southern Texas, U.S. Border Patrol agents apprehended them and moved them through a series of detention centers. A month earlier, the Trump Administration had announced, amid public outcry over its systemic separation of migrant families at the border, that it would halt the practice. But, at a packed processing hub, Christian was taken from Noehmi and placed in a cage with toddlers. Noehmi remained in a cold holding cell, clutching Helen. Soon, she recalled, a plainclothes official arrived and informed her that she and Helen would be separated. “No!” Noehmi cried. “The girl is under my care! Please!”

Noehmi said that the official told her, “Don’t make things too difficult,” and pulled Helen from her arms. “The girl will stay here,” he said, “and you’ll be deported.” Helen cried as he escorted her from the room and out of sight. Noehmi remembers the authorities explaining that Helen’s mother would be able to retrieve her, soon, from wherever they were taking her.

Later that day, Noehmi and Christian were reunited. The adults in the family were fitted with electronic ankle bracelets and all were released, pending court dates. They left the detention center and rushed to Jeny’s house, in McAllen, hoping to find Helen there. When they didn’t, Noehmi began to shake, struggling to explain the situation. “Immigration took your daughter,” she told Jeny.

“But where did they take her?” Jeny asked.

“I don’t know,” Noehmi replied.

The next day, authorities—likely from the Office of Refugee Resettlement (O.R.R.)—called to say that they were holding Helen at a shelter near Houston; according to Noehmi, they wouldn’t say exactly where. Noehmi and Jeny panicked. Unable to breathe amid her distress, Noehmi checked herself into a local hospital, where doctors gave her medication to calm her down. “I thought we would never see her again,” Noehmi said. She couldn’t square her family’s fate with the TV news, which insisted that the government had stopped separating migrant families.

Day 11 in Rome The Belgians push for married priests; I survived the last synod; Namibian, German bishops take a stand for women; Petitions, petitions, everywhere! by Deborah Rose-Milavec, Future Church

This week, synod participants are talking about vocations. And yesterday, we received a nice surprise from the Belgian bishops.

The Belgians push for married priests

On October 10, Belgian Auxiliary Bishop Jean Kockerols, spoke to the synod assembly on behalf of the Belgian conference of bishops suggesting that young married men would become priests if they were asked. 

Bishop Kockerols, a representative for the Catholic Church in the European Union, wants to see both celibate and married vocations equally valued. He also wants the Church to see that a call to one vocation does not preclude the other.

He commented that young people who felt a vocational call to marriage would also answer, "Here I am" if the church were to call them to priestly ministry as well.

I survived the last synod

Archbishop Bruno Forte, of Chieti-Vasto, Italy who serves as a member of the synod's ordinary council and who was elected by synod members to help draft the final synod document, a role met with suspicion by those who do not trust Pope Francis, started his remarks today with a line that could have been on a t-shirt.

"I survived the last synod."

Chuckles could be heard from those who remember the old guard fury with what was perceived to be his 'Francis bias' at the 2014 & 2015 family synods.

The man has a pastoral heart. Who could fault him for that?

Unfortunately, a smallish, but vocal group who believe that he, like Francis, is just too soft on sin. And they see plenty of sin.

The archbishop made a couple of important observations about the synod.
First, he spoke as "a man, a believer, and a pastor," he wants a church that "really believes in and loves young people."

He remarked on the presence of young people with their generosity and enthusiasm, but also their fatigue with a church that does not see them as protagonists in their own future.

Archbishop Forte suggested there are two kinds of plagues bearing down on young people. First, is war and poverty. And the second is loneliness.

The archbishop knows the church "doesn't have ready made answers" but can offer accompaniment, companionship, mentorship and intergenerational collegiality along the way.

After the presentations, Archbishop Forte received a pointed question from conservative National Catholic Register on the promotion of chastity and Humanae Vitae with young adults attending the synod.

I was amazed to watch director of the Vatican Press office, Greg Burke, go out of his way to intervene on behalf of the Register reporter. 

Archbishop Forte, who had answered the Register's question by saying there had been little to no talk about chastity nor Humanae Vitae thus far, was redirected by Burke to respond further to the Humanae Vitae part of the question. 

A telling moment, the veil of objectivity slipped a bit with this very unusual intervention on the director's part.

I was touched and inspired by the love on display today by Bishop Lazzaro You Heung-sik,of Daejeon, Korea. I tried to capture his animated spirit on camera, but this picture falls short.

His utter, child like joy was contagious as he spoke of his relationship to youth, to other bishops, to the two Chinese bishops who were able to come to the synod for the first time, and to Pope Francis.

I was moved to tears as he made real for me the hope he feels for his country -- to avoid a deadly conflict with North Korea and to move toward greater cooperation.
He was genuinely hopeful.

And his love for his people just came beaming in -- streams of sunlight and life -- in a world I only know through the darkened, distorted, and narrow lens of U.S. politics and media coverage.

Today, I met the people of Korea through one luminescent heart.

What a gift to be in the same room!

The last to speak was auditor Percival Holt, who is the National Youth President, ICYM of Conference of Catholic Bishops of India [C.C.B.I.]. When asked what would come out of the synod, he was careful to note the need for the synod dynamics and discussions to play out until the end.

After the panel, I approached Mr. Holt to ask what he thought about the effectiveness of the Gender Policy of the Catholic Church of India. I also asked what discussions were taking place in terms of women's roles in church, society, and in the synod.

He said he knew about the policy and felt it had had a good effect in bringing more women into ministry and leadership at the local level. According to Mr. Holt, women were faring much better now.

In responding to my question about discussions about women's roles in the church inside the synod, he said that there had been none. He followed by saying he did not believe that gender was not much of a problem in the Church today, and therefore was not being discussed.

That was an enlightening exchange for me. And I found myself wishing that Voices of Faith panelist, Gaya Gajiwalacould have been part of this synod. Her experience would have served as a good reality check for everyone at the synod.

Among Prefect Paolo Ruffini's various line items from his report was the fact that 14 prelates offered interventions that day, including Cardinal Kevin Farrell and Cardinal Vincent Nichols. That could be useful information as we move forward.

Namibian, German bishops pushes for fuller participation by women

Some years ago, when I worked for Catherine of Siena College, I flew to Namibia to promote women and gender studies courses there. I still recall the beauty of the countryside as my plane made its landing with fields and fields of blue-violet wildflowers everywhere. It was breathtaking.

So I was especially joyful to know that another kind of beauty exists in the efforts of a Namibian bishop attending the synod.

Bishop Willem Christiaans of Keetmanshoop, Namibia, one of the youngest Synod bishops, expressed the urgent need to have more women in places of authority in the Church. With gender issues at the forefront in his country, he recognizes the deficit of women's leadership and decision making in the church.

“Women need to play a vital role in all spheres of leadership, and they are not being recognized in many spheres, also in the life of the Church,” he told Linda Bordoni of Vatican News.

Bishop Christiaans knows women and youth need opportunities to lead and shape the future of the Church, but beyond words, he promises action.

“As the bishop of the diocese this is something I am going to push for: I am going to work with the priests in all the parishes of my diocese to make sure women and young people can play their roles: this is important”.

In another part of the world, the German bishops, let by Cardinal Reinhold Marx, are speaking with greater urgency and authority on the need to build a church where women are full and equal partners at every level.


The Instrumentum laboris criticizes: “The rage of young people in the face of rampant corruption, growing structural inequality, contempt for human dignity, human rights violations, discrimination against women [also in the Church] and minorities, organized violence, and injustice does not seem to be  taken into due account, if we look at the responses given by the BC [Bishops‘ Conferences].” (IL 128) 

It then builds to a crescendo:

If, as the Instrumentum laboris demands, the Church wants to support the dignity of women (cf. No. 158), then it is not sufficient to repeat the corresponding official doctrinal texts. We must face up to the often uncomfortable and impatient questions of young people about equal rights for women also in the Church. 

We can no longer simply stay out of the discourses of the present and have to learn a new culture of conflict in order to get involved argumentatively and in a guiding way in the social debates on central basic questions of humanity, such as sexuality, the roles of women and men and the formation of human relationships. And for the sake of our own credibility, we must involve women at all levels of the Church, from the parish to the levels of the diocese, the Bishops' Conference and also in the Vatican itself considerably more in leadership tasks. We really ought to wish this and implement it!

The impression that the Church, when it comes to power, is ultimately a male Church must be overcome in the universal Church and also here in the Vatican. Otherwise the young women will not find any real opportunity for formation with us. 

It is high time!

And to that, the People of God say, "AMEN!"

Petitions, petitions, everywhere

As most of you know, Kate McElwee and about thirty of us across organizations and regions of the world, protested at the gates of they synod on the first day calling for women to vote at the Synod.

Many of the women and men were surrounded as police in bullet proof vests bullied Kate and this bunch of praying and chanting women and men.

Male power is too often asserted by force, and the power of a patriarchal church and the forces that protect that power were made all too real that day.

Still, "She persists." And, not only persists, but thrives! Decidedly, we are #stayinginbutspeakingout!

In that Spirit, the work for women's equality rolls on.


We are asking everyone to sign and share the petition, which will be hand delivered to as many prelates as possible beginning October 18, 2018.

Here is the petition language - please sign and share!

Two religious brothers but no religious sisters are voting members of the current Synod on youth. We urge bishops, cardinals, the Synod of Bishops leadership, and the Pope to make a path for women religious superiors to work and vote as equals alongside their brothers in Christ at meetings of the Synod of Bishops.

Why is this important?

The XV Ordinary Synod of Bishops on Young People, the Faith and Vocational Discernment brings together bishops, auditors and experts from around the world to collaborate and discuss the urgent needs of the Church for three weeks in Rome (October 3 – 28, 2018).

Voting on the final documents at these meetings was reserved for ordained men until 2015, when one religious brother (a non-ordained man) was given permission to vote.
This year, that number has doubled. Two non-ordained male religious superiors have permission to vote on the documents that, if approved by Pope Francis, could become ordinary magisterial teaching.

This is an encouraging opening. Representation from non-clerics adds diversity to one of the institution’s primary decision making bodies and helps the Church move closer to the essence of Pope Francis’ Apostolic Constitution Episcopalis Communio which aims to more directly involve the People of God.

While we welcome voting for non-ordained male religious, it does not go far enough.
If male religious superiors who are not ordained can vote, then women religious superiors who are also not ordained should vote. With no ontological/doctrinal barrier, the only barrier is the biological sex of the religious superior.

In St. John Paul II’s Letter to Women (1995), he made clear the “urgent need to achieve real equality in every area…” He also stated, “This is a matter of justice but also of necessity. Women will increasingly play a part in the solution of the serious problems of the future…”

We believe this is especially true of Synods. Women are part of the solution to the serious problems facing the Church.

Thus we urge all of you bishops, cardinals and other ordained and non-ordained members who have the authority to vote in this Synod to make a path for women religious superiors to work and vote as equals alongside you -- sisters and brothers -- in Christ.

Leaders in serving the world’s most marginalized communities, women religious largely outnumber male religious and could bring underrepresented experiences of accompaniment, leadership, and pastoral care to the Synod. In 2016, there were 659,445 religious sisters worldwide and 52,625 religious brothers (CARA).

As Pope Francis calls for “a more incisive female presence” in the Church while calling the Synod “a suitable instrument to give voice to the entire People of God…“ (EC 25), we urge you to bring women into meaningful decision-making in every body of the Church, including the Synod.

Since the beginning of the Synod on youth, women from many backgrounds and countries have spoken up in support of voting rights of religious sisters at the Synod. We may have differing opinions on many of issues but one thing unites us: We believe that our Church can overcome the current crisis only if women have a voice and a vote.

How it will be delivered

We will hand deliver the petition to bishops, cardinals, and all voting members attending the Synod in Rome, as well as to Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, the Secretary General of the Synod of Bishops beginning October 18, 2018.

Partners in the Initiative:

Catholic Women Speak
Donne per la Chiesa
FutureChurch
New Ways Ministry
RAPPORT
Voices of Faith
We Are Church International
Women's Ordination Conference
Women's Ordination Worldwide


Another petition from la Conférence des baptisé-e-s (CCBF) calls on Pope Francis to bring women and men into governing bodies as co-equals. The world is speaking in an ever greater #MeToo, #CatholicToo moment.

If you are interested in reading another article, here is a good one.


This is a lovely article from America Magazine, but I wish the writer had interviewed some of the women she referenced in the article -- especially those who took risks and faced police bullying so that women could vote in the synod.

In all things, together, we do and we shall persist!

#VotesForCatholicWomen #StayingInAndSpeakingOut

Deborah Rose-Milavec
Reporting from Rome