COMMENDING PHOEBEThe discussion of female deacons should not forestall a much-needed discussion about promoting laywomen, and laymen, to leadership roles with real decision-making authority.
CATHOLIC WOMEN; GRACIOUS TO A FAULTWhat do women want from the Church? That’s a good and important question. And an international gathering of women this past Tuesday at the Vatican could have been a place to find some honest answers.
TAKE THESE GIFTSThe numbers show advancement in leadership—but not enough. Much more can and should be done to ensure that women have meaningful leadership roles in the church today.
UNEXPECTED WOMENA new series of essays from U.S. Catholic Magazine highlights the voices of daring, persistent, stubborn, and defiant Catholic women.
WHAT WOMEN WANTIt’s fair to say that no one in the hierarchy has publicly asked such a question of women, who make up more than half of the church’s baptized members.
WOMEN & THE DIACONATEThe Catholic Church now has a stronger theology of women deacons than it did during the time of Paul VI, but the political conditions for such a development are now less auspicious.
THE BRONX IS BURNINGNot with arson or violence, but with the love of God and the prayers of his faithful ones. What women religious can teach us about the Church.
WOMEN AND THE DIACONATEJesus knew all too well that the testimony of women would have been received as “nonsense”, but he chose them all the same for a primordial task of witness in the Church and to enlighten the apostles themselves.
WHICH CATHOLIC WOMEN INSPIRE YOU?Inspirational Catholic women are everywhere. Just look around for women to follow. When asked to define what it means to be an inspirational Catholic woman, readers commonly mentioned living the gospel, working for peace and justice, and leading through action.
HOW LAYWOMEN CHANGED THE CHURCH AFTER VATICAN IICatholic women changed, and they changed themselves, even if the church may not have noticed this. Women undertook these conversations when they weren’t supposed to, when they were supposed to let the church tell them who they were.
THE ROLE OF WOMEN IN THE CHURCH[Despite] women being appointed to important roles in the Roman Curia and in dioceses around the world... there are still many obstacles to overcoming the Church’s disparity in leadership.
HERE BEGINS THE REVOLUTION?The Vatican's admittance that the teaching on women's ordination is not a consistently held belief among Catholics reveals a spirit of openness and accountability to the people of God.
THE SYNOD, THE POPE AND THE ORDINATION OF WOMENAllowing women only in management and not in ministry ignores church history. The church is dangerously close to losing even more members when it seems to state that women cannot image Christ. That is not a good stance for the Vatican.
IS THERE ROOM IN THE TENT?As the Church prepares for the next phase of the Synod on Synodality, one of the most pressing issues is the relationship between women and the Church, combined with the problem of clericalism.
ARE CHURCH LEADERS REALLY LISTENING TO WOMEN?After the Synod on Synodality, women in the church are still asking to be heard. Whether or not the ongoing synod will be a step toward greater representation of women in the life of the church remains to be seen.
9 CHRISTIAN WOMEN SHAPING THE CHURCH IN 2024Peacemakers, academics, preachers, bakers, community leaders, podcasters, psychologists, and theologians — yet they are all connected by their Christian faith and vision of a more just world.
CAN YOU BE A FEMINIST AND A CATHOLIC?While feminism has moved to address today’s discourse on gender, sexism, racism and diversity, the church “moved more slowly and stands at odds with the social conversation.
A WOMAN CALLED TO MINISTRY ASKS: WHY NOT ME? Writer Carolyn Ancell will be 80 years old in June. Since she was a young child, she says, she felt called to be an ordained minister. But where? After searching with the Methodists, Presbyterians and Lutherans — she found herself surprisingly drawn to the Catholic Church.
MARY AND ELIZABETH: IN PRAISE OF MOTHERSAt the end of May we celebrate that wonderful, yet understated Feast of the Visitation when we see two mothers-to-be – Mary and Elizabeth – singing and dancing and embracing one another.
GROWING INTO MOTHERHOODMotherhood doesn’t always fit into tidy containers — it is, after all, a participation in the life-giving work of an infinite God.
(A SYMPOSIUM ON) WOMEN AND THE PRIESTHOODWhile the question of women’s ordination to the diaconate is under consideration at the synod, the Church has definitively rejected their ordination to the priesthood.
DON’T MAKE MARY THE FEMININE FACE OF GODMary’s unique historical role as the mother of Jesus — so central for the entire story of salvation — does not remove her from the circle of faith-filled ones. She is not an archetype, nor an ideal, nor a feminine dimension of anything. She is her own person with her own life to live.
WOMEN FOR ALL SEASONS Women are everywhere in the Bible. Truly, the Bible could not work without the women who populate its pages.
THE FEMININE GENIUS AND CATHOLIC HISTORYit is long past time we Catholics realize that we have a lot more of our own history in general to learn — and... to communicate more effectively about it to our young and to a world that badly needs the wisdom of Catholic experience together with the other treasures pouring forth from our Church’s heart.
PAPABILE WOMENAmid calls for a more inclusive Church, women religious and reform advocates find themselves detained outside the Vatican, raising fresh questions about the Church’s openness to the voices of its female faithful.