Living Gospel Inclusivity and Empowerment Now- https://bridgetmarys.blogspot.com/2025/10/rev-dr-bridget-mary-meehan-arcwp-chat.html
Mary Mother of Jesus Inclusive Catholic Community at March for our Lives to advocate that the US Senate ban assault rifles and pass gun safety laws to protect everyone Demonstrators gathered in Sarasota, Florida today including MMOJ members Joan Pesce, Dotty Shugrue ARCWP, Lee Breyer and Bridget Mary Meehan
Lullabye (Cris Williamson) (BMI)
Like a ship in the harbor; Like a mother and child;
Like a light in the darkness I’ll hold you awhile
We’ll rock on the water; I’ll cradle you deep
and hold you while angels sing you to sleep
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| From left: Terence McKiernan, co-founder and president of BishopAccountability.org; Margery Eagan, co-host of 89.7 WGBH’s midday program Boston Public Radio; and Anne Barrett Doyle, codirector of BishopAccountability.org, speak during a panel discussion at a June 4 conference in Quincy, Massachusetts, which was titled, "Pivot to the Future: Marking 20 Years of Confronting Clergy Sex Abuse." (NCR/Brian Fraga) |
"Anne Barrett Doyle, co-director of BishopAccountability.org, told survivors during a panel discussion that "the church hierarchy lied and lied and lied." She said that the United States bishops and the Vatican have failed to implement meaningful reforms. She referred to the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People — the norms the U.S. bishops adopted in June 2002 on responding to clergy sex abuse cases — as a nonbinding "public relations document..."
"What we've seen" from Vos Estis, Doyle said, "is a process that is totally controlled by the hierarchy, especially the Vatican." She noted that under Vos Estis, Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York oversaw an investigation into his "good friend," Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio of Brooklyn, that resulted in DiMarzio being exonerated last year of decades-old sexual abuse allegations.
"It is the very essence of clericalism," Doyle said. "It is completely nontransparent. We don't know which bishops are being investigated or when they are sanctioned. And we don't know why they are sanctioned."
Today is Pentecost. The familiar story in Acts 2:1-11 offers a constructive way to look at the baneful Babel story. The dissimilar groups that gathered in Jerusalem for the Feast of Tabernacles1 [1] understood the words of the disciples in their own languages. To stress this point, the author Luke went to great length to list all the different ethnicities present.
Theologian Greg Carey wrote: “The pleasure of visualizing this diverse crowd hearing the gospel reinforces the power of the miracle.” Comparing the Pentecost story to Babel, Carey added, “Language no longer poses a barrier. The gospel reverses the misfortune of Babel … it names, respects, and embraces diversity”
Pentecost is a story for our time. The reality is this: we are all linked with different voices from all across the planet. The Internet gives impetus to the notion of globalization where economies, ideas, politics and cultures converge. No one religion or nation can be parochial, nationalistic or dominant in this human ecosystem.
To survive in this age we have to find ways to reach out to all of God’s creatures, to listen to one another, to elevate the unique gifts and identities of all people who wish to live in ways that are interconnected with the environment and other human beings.
The psalmist (104:1, 24, 29-31, 34) begged God: “Send out your spirit to renew the face of the earth!” Some linguists suggest that “advocate” would be a more appropriate word than “spirit.” Advocate, used in one of today’s gospels (John 14:15-16, 23b-26) is both a noun and a verb.
Philosopher and theologian John Kavanaugh wrote that this Advocate is not found in one place, one group or one person. It does not reside only in laws, sanctuaries, hierarchies, sacraments, scriptures, or people who are rich or poor, powerful or weak. 2 [2]
The Spirit of Pentecost advances new hope for all oppressed peoples whose voices are most always misunderstood or not heard — people of color, women, children, the LGBTQIA+ community, transgendered persons, refugees and immigrants. This holy Spirit broke language barriers, blew down walls of division and opened up doors of justice.
As advocates we do not work alone. We advocate for justice by relying on each other’s gifts and strengths. (1 Corinthians 12:3b-7, 12-13) Our task is to peacefully synch a diverse human race with the borderless divinely infused cosmic enterprise where there is no geo-theological heaven or hell.
Here and now, a boundary-less cyberspace offers us endless possibilities for communicating with others to spread goodness and not evil. Some call it working to bring about the kindom of God on earth.
In commenting on the work of American contemplative Beatrice Bruteau, scientific theologian Ilia Delio wrote: “Bruteau describes a ‘grid of wholistic consciousness’ whereby the world is seen as a pattern of inter-independence, complementarity, cooperation, friendship, and creative joy.” 3 [3] Achieving such harmony may appear as an elusive goal but given the evils that confront us it is urgent that we advocate blessings for all.
This ever evolving Advocate is not a “spirit of slavery.” (Romans 8:8-17) It will continue to growl and grow inside everyone of us until at last all are transformed, liberated from whatever holds us back from becoming all we can be, from doing all we can do. We can choose to ignore the Advocate but we cannot avoid its incomparable presence. Where, actually, is that Advocate? It is already deep inside our beings waiting to burst forth.
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1 The Feast of Tabernacles - Sukkot — is a celebration of God’s provision for the Israelites all through their wanderings in the wilderness and during harvest time. Today, Jews understand it as a time to renew their covenant with God.
2 Kavanaugh, John. The Word Engaged: Meditations on the Sunday Scriptures (Maryknoll: Orbis Books) 1997. 72-74.
3 Beatrice Bruteau, “The Whole World: A Convergence Perspective,” The Grand Option, 39-52 in Ilia Delio, The Hours of the Universe: Reflection on God, Science and the Human Journey. (Maryknoll NY: Orbis, 2021) 99.
The reading today by Audre Lorde. Perhaps it seemed a bit unusual that on such a happy and blessed occasion as today that I bring up the subject of anger. But, I cannot pretend to feel something else. This calling to the priesthood has been bittersweet. The more I have learned about the early church, and the more I have learned about Jesus’s ministry, the angrier I became realizing how far Christianity has strayed.
While taking the People’s Catholic Seminary classes for ordination, I have also been working on a 76 credit hour Master’s of Divinity with another Christian Seminary as part of my requirements for military chaplaincy. So for the past two years, there have been many days when I am enraged by what I am learning. The People's Catholic Seminary classes were teaching me the knowledge that had been lost or changed over time by the hierarchical church. And, my general Christian Seminary often teaches and preaches half-truths, exclusivity, and distortions of the gospel of Jesus, which further enraged me.
When I came across Audre Lorde’s speech, I immediately connected with the words...especially the ones that mention an “arsenal of anger.” I have acquired a very large arsenal of anger. I can even visualize this space. It’s like a small underground, bunker-type room. A dark place where I have ruminated on the centuries of men who have kept their feet on the necks of my sisters…suffocating, oppressing, stifling progress, halting the spread of the Gospel.
However, thanks to the Upper Room Community here, my family, and God's presence, I have begun to learn what to do with that arsenal of anger. So the first reading allows me to acknowledge my anger as part of what brought me here. The second reading defines love. And, the gospel brings them both together.
For me, this miracle of Jesus turning water into wine represents the transformation needed of me today as I give my vows to this calling. In the story, feeding the wedding guests water was going to be an embarrassment and an early end to the celebration. In this same vein, as a priest, I cannot feed people with my anger. It would be an embarrassment to this community and my family, and it would end my effectiveness before I have even begun.
I must transform my anger into love in the same way that the water was turned into wine. Marrianne Williamson wrote that, “Angry people cannot create a more peaceful planet. But, the unhealthiest thing to do with anger is to deny you have it. Always seek less turbulent skies. Hurt. Fly above it. Betrayal. Fly above it. Anger. Fly above it. You are the one flying the plane.”
In the miracle story, I found it comforting that Jesus didn’t make wine out of thin air. He needed the water in order to make the wine. I too know that I needed this anger in order for the Holy One to turn it into love. As Audre Lorde wrote…”it is to be used to fashion a better world.” Today marks that official day where I will vow to turn my arsenal of anger, that danky basement room into a beautiful wine cellar instead….filled with the choicest and most decadent wine you’ve ever tasted. Wine that represents unconditional love and sacrifice. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”
I hope to represent our Upper Room Community and ARCWP well, and I hope to make my family proud. Ultimately though, I must obey God and not men, so please be patient with me and pray for my discernment that I know the difference between the water and the wine.
Bridget Mary:
It is with great joy that we gather today to ordain Katie Anne Nimcheski a priest in the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests in Albany New York!
Katie describes her call to live gospel equality in these words:
“Women are the largest group of oppressed people in the world and have been for far too long. Violence against women continues to be a major issue due to the fact that many institutions and countries around the world continue to treat women as property. These atrocities towards my gender will not cease until every corner of the globe treats women as equals, made in God’s image. We are a universal church with an immense amount of power; therefore, we have massive influence on many lives and could use that power to elevate women around the world. Ultimately, I have come here to dismantle the systemic sexism of the Roman Catholic hierarchy by preaching the inclusive gospel of Jesus.”
Mary Ann Matthys, who was ordained a deacon yesterday, wants to “co-create a world where everyone has an equal seat at the table and all are included.”
Twenty years ago on June 29, 2002, seven courageous women boarded a boat on the Danube River in Passau, Germany and were ordained priests.
These women stood in the prophetic tradition of holy obedience to Spirit’s call to change an unjust law that discriminates against women. They began a global movement that altered two millennia of Catholic teaching prohibiting women’s ordination.
In 2022, the original seven have grown to almost 300 in 13 countries and 34 states.
Researchers are now studying the impact of, what I call, our “holy shakeup” on the institutional Roman Catholic Church.
In a recent academic study, entitled “Choreographing the Dance of Dissent: Roman Catholic Womenpriests’ Claims to Authority published on April 12, 2022, authors Christina Gringeri from the University of Utah and Alexandra Himonas from Georgetown University examine the ways women priests and bishops are changing the institutional Church.
After interviewing over 100 priests, deacons and bishops in our movement, they reach this stunning assessment:
“In their ministries, the women priests are effectively altering the daily practices and teachings of Roman Catholicism. Women priests…claim their authority from within doctrine and scripture while being both insiders and outsiders. Women- priest led communities become spaces where the dominant model of gathering, teaching and sharing of the Roman Catholic Church is reimagined into places of greater equality and inclusion; they are communities of humans who dare to engage an exodus from the institutional church in order to forge new ways of being and gathering, not unlike the Israelites leaving Egypt behind.” (p. 12)
Like Miriam and the Exodus women, women priests are leading the way as we dismantle a male clerical domination domination model in every area of Church teaching and ministry.
in his new book The Truth at the Heart of the Lie, James Carroll describes his disillusionment as a Catholic. He challenges the ways the Church has institutionalized its power and control through an all -male hierarchy. He believes that reform-minded Catholics can change the culture from within by embracing anti-clerical and misogynist resistance in a spirit of love.
Here we are gathered ready to take another step in our dissident dance on the inside edge of the Roman Catholic Church!
We rejoice that Spirit energy is moving within us, and working through us, lighting a blazing fire of love and gender equality -for all in our Church and world as we ordain Katie today.
