2010 News Central, Items of Interest

Women's Limited Role in Politics Highlights Defective System
by Garret Fitzgerald
The Irish Times
September 11, 2010
 
Parties must address lack of significant female representation in parliament, writes GARRET FITZGERALD 
 

Garret Fitzgerald
 
THE RECENT announcement by two women TDs that they would withdraw from politics at the next election has led to renewed discussion of the very limited role that women play in Irish politics.
 
Between 1977 and 1992, the percentage of Dáil seats held by women increased at a snail’s pace from 5 per cent to 12 per cent. In the past 15 years, this “progress” has virtually halted – the number of women TDs increasing by only two, from 20 to 22. This was only partially compensated by a doubling in the number of women Senators from 5 to 11 – 18 per cent of the Seanad’s membership.
 
The first phase of this very slow process took place in 1981 and 1982. Since the end of the 1960s, a vibrant women’s movement had considerable success in raising awareness about the lack of female involvement in politics and policy-making. A number of the movement’s leaders had became prominent public figures, but there was reluctance on their part to get involved with politics.
 
Thus in the mid-1970s, during a Late Late Show dedicated to the women’s movement, their main spokeswoman, Mary Kenny, warned against engagement with party politics. The absurdity of this stance, when the only way change can be effected is through the political system, prompted me to drive at once to RTÉ and walk into the studio, to the fury of the 20 women there, who had been assured by Gay Byrne that they would have the programme to themselves. Understandably but quite unfairly, they assumed he was responsible for me turning up!
 
But the message resonated and several years later, when I became leader of Fine Gael, a number of the movement’s leaders accepted my offer to provide a vehicle for some of their members to enter the system.
 
In 1981, with the aid of an enthusiastically pro-feminist Fine Gael party organiser, Peter Prendergast, a dozen women were elected to the Oireachtas on the Fine Gael ticket, and within 18 months there were nine in the Dáil and five in the Seanad, as well as one in the cabinet, and another a junior minister.
 
In 1987, the foundation of the Progressive Democrats, between one-third and one-half of whose TDs were always women, further boosted the process, followed a decade later by Fianna Fáil, who since then have had a dozen women in their Oireachtas party.
 
In 2002, the Labour Party, which until then had never had more than three women in its parliamentary party, increased that figure to the point where seven of their Dáil party, or just one-third, have since been women. So, with 22 women TDs today, supplemented by 11 women Senators, there has been some progress. But it is desperately slow progress, which has effectively halted since 1992. This is partly because in its 2002 meltdown, Fine Gael lost about three-quarters of its women Oireachtas members, which had the effect of offsetting the increase in Labour’s female parliamentary party membership.
 
Why has the increase in women politicians been so slow?
 
Many other democracies overcome this problem through list systems, which enable their political parties to boost female membership by placing women candidates high on their lists.
 
But unless and until we reform our electoral system to introduce some element of a list system, this route to a gender-balanced parliament is not open to us.
 
Instead, if our parties wish to promote the role of women in politics, they have to push female candidates through constituency election conventions, or intervene to add their names to those selected at these meetings. This would often have to be done in the face of strenuous local resistance.
 
I know from experience how difficult this can be, and how much will depend on a combination of strong commitments to increase the number of women politicians in parliament and exceptional skill in defusing local opposition. It is striking that so little has been done to create conditions in Leinster House that would be more conducive to women politicians.
 
An obstacle used to be the “dual mandate”, which for many TDs involved dual membership of the Oireachtas and local councils. The removal of this dual role should have cleared the way for the Oireachtas to meet from Monday to Friday during normal working hours.
 
But five-eighths of Oireachtas members live beyond commuting distance to Dublin and prefer to confine parliamentary attendance to between 2.30pm on Tuesday and 5pm on Thursday. This enables them to work for re-election in their constituency from Friday to Monday. But this short stay in Dublin necessitates night sittings until 8.30pm on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
 
This does not suit many women, especially those with children. At present, almost three-fifths of all women Oireachtas members live within commuting distance of Leinster House but under one-third of their male counterparts do.
 
Thus, on this key issue, the interests of most female and male representatives diverge, and the disparity of almost five to one between their numbers makes it difficult to effect a change in the way the Oireachtas works. It is important to remove all obstacles to increased participation by women in the Oireachtas.
 
My experience of the influx of women to the Fine Gael party in 1981 and 1982 was entirely positive. They brought to their work new talents which greatly improved the quality of policy-making and legislation.
 
Our party system, lacking significant female input, is bound to be incomplete and defective. I hope a new impetus to tackling this issue can emerge in all our political parties.
 
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2010/0911/1224278621559.html

Women priests, Pope Benedict’s visit to Britain 
By Dennis Gruending
Pulpit and Politics
September 12, 2010 

When Pope Benedict XVI pays a visit to England and Scotland on September 16-19, poster advertisements taken out on London buses will say “Pope Benedict - Ordain Women Now!” Father Stephen Wang, the dean of studies at London’s main seminary for Catholic priests, published a semi-official defence against that request in a column that was carried by Catholic websites throughout Britain and on his own blog. The American television network CNN also interviewed Wang. He says that that Pope John Paul II declared in 1994, and Pope Benedict agrees, than the church has no authority to ordain women because Jesus chose 12 men - and no women - to be his apostles. That choice, Wang says, was deliberate and significant not just for that first period of history but also for every age. Men and women are equal in Christianity, but women cannot fulfill a basic function of the priesthood, “standing in the place of Jesus.”

Explanations such as these are unacceptable to Therese Koturbash. She is a young lawyer who is on leave from her job with Legal Aid Manitoba and she now finds herself living and working in London as the international coordinator forwomenpriests.org, one of the groups that will be active during the pope’s visit.

Patriarchal attitude in church

In an interview via email from London, Koturbash says, “Nowhere is it indicated in scripture that women were excluded by Jesus for special theological or liturgical reasons. This clinging to a pseudo argument shows only too clearly that it is not a matter of recognizing historical or scientific truth. Rather such a stance merely conceals the deeply patriarchal, anti-feminine attitude which pleads the authority of Jesus and God because (today) it would be inopportune to come out openly against the admission of women to ecclesiastical office. This patriarchal attitude prevents St. Paul’s message in Galatians — that in Christ there is no male nor female — from being taken seriously. In religion gender differences are entirely irrelevant.”   

 
 

Koturbash says she was raised as a devout Catholic at Kamsack in rural Saskatchewan and that in 2002 she was among thousands of young Catholics who attended World Youth Day in Toronto, an event presided over by Pope John Paul II. She says that the patriarchal church she saw on display in Toronto caused her to “fall into deep anguish” about the exclusion of women in the church. “As a devout and active Catholic,” she says, “it pained me to learn that according to Rome my sense about the place of women in the church meant that I was out of communion with the church.”

No to ordaining women


Pope John Paul had declared in 1994 that the church would never ordain women and he said the matter closed and not be to discussed further. In 2002, the Vatican moved with uncharacteristic haste to excommunicate the first seven women ordained by a group called Roman Catholic Womenpriests. The Vatican reaffirmed both the ban on women’s ordination in 2008 and the warning about excommunication, which is the harshest treatment that the church can convey. Those Catholics are denied access to both their church community and its sacramental life. The Vatican also announced in 2007 that any priest who tried to ordain a woman could be defrocked.

In July 2010, there was widespread consternation when Msgr. Charles J. Scicluna, a Vatican spokesperson, said that ordaining women as priests was a crime comparable to pedophilia. He made his comments at a news conference that announced revisions to the church laws making it easier to discipline priests who are sexual abusers. Mary E. Hunt, an American theologian, wrote about that comparison in a magazine called Religion Dispatches. “Mixing [these] two issues, even under the same legal umbrella, is a profoundly perverse proposition,” she says. Either these gentlemen are more ethically tone deaf than one can imagine, or they are sly beyond the dreams of foxes in an effort to redirect attention from the criminal behavior of clergy against children to their wrath over the ordination of women. Neither option is terribly appealing.”

Women in the church

But the question goes beyond ordination to a fundamentally perceived difference about the role of women in the church, a debate at one level perhaps about theology but at another about power and control. In January 2008, for example, the Vatican announced that it would undertake a “visitation” to investigate nearly 350 communities of women religious in the U. S. to examine everything from how they handle their money to how their leaders deal with sisters who dissent from Catholic dogma. A second, “doctrinal assessment” was established to look into the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) in the U.S. Both of these moves were interpreted as a signal of the Vatican’s unhappiness with the conduct of women religious in that country. The investigations stoked fears that nuns might be forbidden to continue much of their work in the community with the poor and dispossessed, and that the inquiry  might go beyond that into matters of where they choose to live and even how they dress. The leadership of the LCWR and many sisters understand this as an attempt by the male hierarchy to intimidate and control them.

Father Andrew Britz, former editor of the Catholic Prairie Messenger newspaper, has published a book this fall called Truth to Power, an edited collection of his editorials over 21 years. In one of those editorials, he wrote: “It is embarrassing to read what the great bishops and theologians of age after age in the church had to say about women . . . We live in a church which, through most of its history, has seen women as being inferior to men. Woman was viewed as the temptress: that justified men in seeking to dominate them-for their own good.”

It appears certain that Pope Benedict will hear from women in the church when he visits Britain in September.

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Dennis Gruending is an Ottawa-based author and consultant and a former Member of Parliament. He has worked as a print and television journalist and radio host and has written five well-received books. His book Great Canadian Speeches was a best seller and The Ottawa Citizen described it as “a history of Canada as seen from the podium.”

Dennis also served for four years as director of information for the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops in Ottawa before returning to book writing and entering politics.

As a Member of Parliament for the New Democratic Party, he served as the critic for international development and the environment.
 
Dennis holds an Honours degree in English literature from the University of Saskatchewan and a Masters degree in journalism from Carleton University in Ottawa. You can contact him at dennis.gruending@sympatico.ca.   


http://dennisgruending.ca/pulpitandpolitics/2010/09/12/women-priests-pope-benedicts-visit-to-britain/#more-254  

 
 
 
 
THE SPIRITUAL JOURNEY

We are in a transitional time, a hopeful bridge-building generation.  Maybe every age is.  Most people born onto this planet have known that they are first and foremost the children of their parents and the parents of their children.  We hold hands tightly and gratefully across the generations, and know that we must finally let go.  That is the fate of all humans since the beginning of time.  It is humble, partial, a mere link in a universal chain of being.  For most folks it has been enough.
At the same time, however, we are tracings in a much larger history and a Mystery where only an Eternal God draws the final lines.  To say yes to this small but significant role might be the most important yes that we can utter—and the only yes that will finally make a difference.  All we finally need to know is that we inherently belong and are, in fact, connected to the Whole. 
 
Adapted from Richard Rohr's Radical Grace, Daily Meditations, p. 348, Day 360

Interesting social science research up to the minute updated statistics (interesting and current) about the Catholic Church from CARA, a not for profit research centre affiliated with Georgetown University in Washington: 
 
http://cara.georgetown.edu/CARAServices/requestedchurchstats.html
 
About CARA:
 
CARA is a national, non-profit, Georgetown University affiliated research center that conducts social scientific studies about the Catholic Church. Founded in 1964, CARA has three major dimensions to its mission:

• to increase the Church's self understanding
• to serve the applied research needs of Church decision-makers
• to advance scholarly research on religion, particularly Catholicism

CARA has more than 40 years of experience in quality social science research on the Catholic Church. We offer a range of research and consulting services for dioceses, parishes, religious communities and institutes, and other Catholic organizations. CARA’s longstanding policy is to let research findings stand on their own and never take an advocacy position or go into areas outside its social science competence. All CARA researchers have advanced degrees in relevant academic disciplines as well as pastoral experience. CARA researchers are active in the academic community publishing and presenting research about the Catholic Church.

Issues Outlined at Priests' Gathering
by Genevieve Carberry
The Irish Times
September 16, 2010
 
CHALLENGING THE role of women in the church and the treatment of priests falsely accused of abuse are among the objectives which were outlined at the inaugural meeting of the Association of Irish Priests yesterday.
 
Some 300 priests turned out for the meeting of the association which aims to provide a “voice” for clergy. Organisers had expected between 50 to 70 priests to attend the meeting at the parish centre in Portlaoise, Co Laois and had to change venue to accommodate the interest.
 

Some 300 priests turned out for the meeting of the Association of Irish Priests in Portlaoise yesterday.
Photograph: John Mc Elroy
 
The high turnout showed that the association had “touched a nerve” and that there was a “voice needed” by the Irish clergy, one of the founders, Fr Brendan Hoban, said. The association will be very proactive and will have spokesmen on issues that arise in the church and society, Fr Hoban said.
 
He outlined the aims and objectives which he said are based on the teachings of the second Vatican council. The role of women in the church is “in need of a change”, Fr Hoban said.
 
The organisation will campaign for the rights of priests who have been wrongly accused of child sexual abuse and have not been supported by their diocese and priests who have been left in “limbo situations” where their right to natural justice is denied, he said.
 
Other issues which the association will highlight are the involvement of lay people in the church and the opposition among priests to a new English translation of the Mass. It will also campaign for a church which is not governed by a clerical elite but recognised the equality of all members.
 
The association will be seeking discussions with Apostolic visitors from the Vatican that are due to visit Ireland.
 
The low morale among priests was also addressed. “Authority is diminishing, vocations are in freefall, practice is declining, the age level of priests is increasing all the time and priests find themselves under growing pressure,” Fr Hoban said.
 
“At the moment priests feel they have no voice and feel they are not understood.”
 
Clergy hopeful of real change 
 
MANY OF the clergy at yesterday’s inaugural meeting of the Association of Catholic Priests were hopeful of the change it could bring to the church.
 
Fr Abe Kennedy, a school chaplain in Portumna, Co Galway, wanted the association to address the anti-clergy feeling which he said was a huge block to the work of priests.
 
Chris Fox of the Mill Hill Missionaries in Dublin described clerical abuse as a “shadow” over all priests. He also hoped the organisation could tackle the lack of donations, take an honest look at celibacy and the involvement of lay people and women in the church.
 
Fr Bill Cosgrave of Ferns also hoped that the new organisation could advocate for the involvement of lay people and women.
 
Fr Pat O’Brien parish priest at Caherlistrane, Co Galway, hoped the organisation could bring the real challenges of society and the church into the open and deal with issues such as women’s ordination and celibacy. However, he was disappointed at the lack of younger priests at the meeting.
 
Owen O’Sullivan, a Capuchin in Gurranebraher, Cork, wanted to see structural change to make the church more “inclusive, participatory and accountable”, he said.
 
Getting back to helping the needy and the poor rather than being concerned with titles and authority was one of the main issues which struck Eamon Aylward, executive secretary of the Irish Missionary Union.
 
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2010/0916/1224278993367.html

Church Urged to Be More Accountable
by Pamela Duncan
The Irish Times
September 16, 2010
 
THE CATHOLIC Church in Ireland has some way to go before full transparency and accountability can be achieved in the safeguarding of children, the head of the church’s child safety watchdog has said.
 
Chief executive officer of the National Board for Safeguarding Children Ian Elliott said the “scriptural cycle” of confession, repentance and forgiveness was the basis for a new future, without which true healing would not occur.
“It is sad that even today and after so many painful lessons being learnt, this has not been accepted by all. There is still, in my view, some way to go before we fully achieve transparency and accountability with regard to the practice of safeguarding children within the church in Ireland today.”
 
He said while it was tempting to accuse the media of bias against the church “the reality of what they were reporting in many instances was shocking and needed to be exposed so that it could be dealt with.”
 
“Any objective observer looking at the struggles that have taken place within the Catholic Church in Ireland would be struck by the extent of the suffering and anger that has been brought to light. People were hurt that should not have been. When they had a right to expect compassion they met with indifference which further added to their hurt. Those responsible for causing the harm were not held accountable in every case. These are the ingredients of the problem.”
 
Speaking at the autumn launch of the Studies, a quarterly journal published by the Irish Jesuits, Mr Elliott said “the church in Ireland has not been transparent and accountable when struggling with the phenomenon of child abuse in the past . . .
 
“If it is to start afresh it has to become much more open and more willing to be held accountable for its actions.”
 
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2010/0916/1224278994002.html
 

 
 
 
 
MERGING CHRISTIANITY

Whatever “Emerging Christianity” is going to be, it will have to be much more practice-based than doctrine-based.  Where has this obsession with believing correct dogmas and doctrines gotten us?  Presently, the Roman church, and fundamentalists of all stripes, are right back into it.  It creates great dramas on both sides.  Maybe that is why God is humbling us at this time.  The obsession with being right and having the whole truth has not served the Gospel well at all, nor has it kept us humble and honest.
 
If you go to the four Gospels and read what Jesus actually taught, you will see that He talks much more about the “How” (practices which we ourselves must do) rather than the “What” (which just allow us to argue and try to be verbally right).
 
From Richard Rohr's Emerging Christianity: the conference recordings

Consecrated Virgins Seek to Serve Through Spirituality
ucannews.com
September 17, 2010
 
Dhaka: Members of two Catholic secular institutes who celebrate 25 years of their founding this year say they find life’s purpose in serving the poor and needy.
 
Believers of Christ (BC) and Friends of Word (FW) are two popular lay groups of Catholic women, known as “consecrated virgins,” who are dedicated to serving the Church.
 


Friends of Word community animator Dora D’Rozario (right) gives spiritual direction (file photo)
 
On Feb. 2, 1947, Pope Pius XII created a new form of consecrated life based on Gospel values and dedication, which led to the founding of BC and FW in Bangladesh.
 
“God has truly blessed and helped us to serve those in need. Apart from our different professions, we commit to three vows – obedience, poverty and celibacy,” said Sabita Gomes, 66, BC coordinator. The six members in her community are active in teaching, nursing and social work.
 
Rita Malakar, 36, a nurse in southeastern Chittagong and another BC member added, “I find pleasure and satisfaction in serving people.”
 
BC members also educate slum kids, run sewing activities for disadvantaged women, and offer free health care.
 
Margaret Rozario, 70, a Catholic housewife from Tejgaon recounted, “All my relatives live abroad and once I needed to go to hospital for eye surgery. One of the BC members took me there and stayed with me until I got cured.”
 
Akhter Hossain, 28, a Muslim vegetable seller and a former student of a BC-run school, said he learnt important values while studying there. “They were so amiable that I consider them dear to me,” he said.
 
Dora D’Rozario, 55, of the FW community said, “We find happiness in consecrated life. We try to realize the presence of God in everything do, everywhere we go.”
 
The nine-member FW community is composed of teachers and religious educators. They run a retreat center in Dhaka and provide spiritual guidance, along with writing and translating religious publications.
 
Shanti Carmel Rodriques, 65, an FW member and a former NGO worker narrated, “Before, I earned lots of money but experienced frustration. I discovered genuine joy in the spiritual life.”
 
Father Frank Quinlivan, head of the Holy Cross Fathers in Bangladesh and FW’s spiritual director enthused, “These women find pleasure in sharing the good news.”
 
The pastor of Bangladesh’s largest Catholic parish, Father Gabriel Corraya of Tejgaon echoed his views, saying, “Consecrated virgins have served the Church in many ways. I think the Church needs more people like them.”
 
http://www.ucanews.com/2010/09/17/consecrated-virgins-seek-to-serve-through-spirituality/

Dear all, 
 
Yesterday, CWO (UKs Catholic Women's Ordination, an activist organisation),  WATCH (their Anglican counterparts), New Wine ( a British support group for Catholic women called to priesthood) and several Team members from womenpriests.org celebrated a 'walk of witness' as they journeyed to meet Pope Benedict at Lambeth Palace (hom of Archbishop of Canterbury.)  The event was fantastic.  A link that includes photos of the event is here: Pope Benedict and women called to priesthood at Lambeth Palace  If the page loads properly, you should see:

• either a slide show OR a main picture with forward and reverse buttons on either side.  If the slide show is not working, use those buttons to flip through the show.
• a set of 'mug shots' at the side.  You can click on any of them to see the full size photo.

I am trying to figure out how we can capture some of the photos either for free or at low cost.
 
Congratulations to all who participated!
 
sending love and blessings,
 
Sophie

 
 TRUE RELIGION IS NOT EXCLUSIVIST

 
Global Elder Mary Robinson 

Watch Video of Global Elder Mary Robinson: Catholicism and tradition subjugate women to 'second class' status    

  
Mary Robinson speaks out against the religious framing of harmful traditional practices that subjugate women. She argues that Catholicism and tradition subjugate women to 'second class' status.  

From: theeldersorg 


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See our new thread devoted to the work of The Global Elders challenging the world's faith communities about traditional practices that hurt women:  The Global Elders: Challenging Traditional Faith Practices That Hurt Women

Members of womenpriests.org and Catholic Women's Ordination go out to meet  Pope Benedict 
London, September 17, 2010   
Photographs by Jackie Clackson 
  
 
  
Getting ready to say 'hello!' 


See all pictures, click here: 

• Women's Ordination Groups Meet Pope Benedict
• Pope Benedict and Women Called To Priesthood at Lambeth Palace

THE REIGN OF GOD

Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Feast of St. Matthew

The reign of God has much more to do with right relationship than with being privately right.  It has much more to do with being connected than with being personally correct.  Can you feel the total difference between these two?
 
The reign of God is not about a world without pain or mystery but simply a world where we would be in good contact with all things, where we would be connected and in communion with what Mary Oliver calls “the daily presentations.”  Then all the world is your temple and church.
 
This is living in the big, full, and final picture—and we can begin to do it now!
 
“Why do you reject the weightier matters of the law: justice, mercy, and good faith, while offering your pious sacrifices in the temple?  You strain out gnats while you swallow camels!” (Matthew 23:23b, 24b).
 
Adapted from Richard Rohr's Jesus’ Plan for a New World, p. 11

 
Starter Prayer:
Thy Kingdom come,
Thy will be done.
 

If you are inspired by Richard's Daily Meditations,
please consider receiving Radical Grace, the publication of the CAC
-- now available in both online and hardcopy formats!

 
 
 
 
Dear friends,

An interesting article came across my desk today.  Though not about women and the Church, it raises some interesting angles about traditional roles for women.  Because these kinds of article frequently come up, I am starting a dedicated thread to make space for discussion about this in a focused way.   Though our first article deals with American politics, it raises some interesting questions about implications for our faith community.
 
Join us in discussion and/or reflection.  Reach the article by clicking here: Secular Feminism.
 
with love and blessings,
 
~Sophie~

Italian police seize $30M from Vatican in probe 
By NICOLE WINFIELD  
Associated Press Writer 
September 21, 2010 

VATICAN CITY (AP) -- Italian authorities seized euro  23 million ($30.18 million) from a Vatican bank account Tuesday and said they have begun investigating top officials of the Vatican bank in connection with a money laundering probe. 

The Vatican said it was "perplexed and surprised" by the investigation.

 
AP Photo/Angelo Carconi 

Italian financial police seized the money as a precaution and prosecutors placed the Vatican bank's director general and its chairman under investigation for alleged mistakes linked to violations of Italy's anti-laundering laws, news reports said.  


. . .  Sigh. Read complete article, click here: The Vatican 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
On this day  September 22 in 1830 - US National Negro Convention plans abolitionist action

Sophie


Women's Limited Role in Politics Highlights Defective System
by Garret Fitzgerald
The Irish Times
September 11, 2010
 
Parties must address lack of significant female representation in parliament, writes GARRET FITZGERALD 
 

Garret Fitzgerald
 
THE RECENT announcement by two women TDs that they would withdraw from politics at the next election has led to renewed discussion of the very limited role that women play in Irish politics.
 
Between 1977 and 1992, the percentage of Dáil seats held by women increased at a snail’s pace from 5 per cent to 12 per cent. In the past 15 years, this “progress” has virtually halted – the number of women TDs increasing by only two, from 20 to 22. This was only partially compensated by a doubling in the number of women Senators from 5 to 11 – 18 per cent of the Seanad’s membership.
 
The first phase of this very slow process took place in 1981 and 1982. Since the end of the 1960s, a vibrant women’s movement had considerable success in raising awareness about the lack of female involvement in politics and policy-making. A number of the movement’s leaders had became prominent public figures, but there was reluctance on their part to get involved with politics.
 
Thus in the mid-1970s, during a Late Late Show dedicated to the women’s movement, their main spokeswoman, Mary Kenny, warned against engagement with party politics. The absurdity of this stance, when the only way change can be effected is through the political system, prompted me to drive at once to RTÉ and walk into the studio, to the fury of the 20 women there, who had been assured by Gay Byrne that they would have the programme to themselves. Understandably but quite unfairly, they assumed he was responsible for me turning up!
 
But the message resonated and several years later, when I became leader of Fine Gael, a number of the movement’s leaders accepted my offer to provide a vehicle for some of their members to enter the system.
 
In 1981, with the aid of an enthusiastically pro-feminist Fine Gael party organiser, Peter Prendergast, a dozen women were elected to the Oireachtas on the Fine Gael ticket, and within 18 months there were nine in the Dáil and five in the Seanad, as well as one in the cabinet, and another a junior minister.
 
In 1987, the foundation of the Progressive Democrats, between one-third and one-half of whose TDs were always women, further boosted the process, followed a decade later by Fianna Fáil, who since then have had a dozen women in their Oireachtas party.
 
In 2002, the Labour Party, which until then had never had more than three women in its parliamentary party, increased that figure to the point where seven of their Dáil party, or just one-third, have since been women. So, with 22 women TDs today, supplemented by 11 women Senators, there has been some progress. But it is desperately slow progress, which has effectively halted since 1992. This is partly because in its 2002 meltdown, Fine Gael lost about three-quarters of its women Oireachtas members, which had the effect of offsetting the increase in Labour’s female parliamentary party membership.
 
Why has the increase in women politicians been so slow?
 
Many other democracies overcome this problem through list systems, which enable their political parties to boost female membership by placing women candidates high on their lists.
 
But unless and until we reform our electoral system to introduce some element of a list system, this route to a gender-balanced parliament is not open to us.
 
Instead, if our parties wish to promote the role of women in politics, they have to push female candidates through constituency election conventions, or intervene to add their names to those selected at these meetings. This would often have to be done in the face of strenuous local resistance.
 
I know from experience how difficult this can be, and how much will depend on a combination of strong commitments to increase the number of women politicians in parliament and exceptional skill in defusing local opposition. It is striking that so little has been done to create conditions in Leinster House that would be more conducive to women politicians.
 
An obstacle used to be the “dual mandate”, which for many TDs involved dual membership of the Oireachtas and local councils. The removal of this dual role should have cleared the way for the Oireachtas to meet from Monday to Friday during normal working hours.
 
But five-eighths of Oireachtas members live beyond commuting distance to Dublin and prefer to confine parliamentary attendance to between 2.30pm on Tuesday and 5pm on Thursday. This enables them to work for re-election in their constituency from Friday to Monday. But this short stay in Dublin necessitates night sittings until 8.30pm on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
 
This does not suit many women, especially those with children. At present, almost three-fifths of all women Oireachtas members live within commuting distance of Leinster House but under one-third of their male counterparts do.
 
Thus, on this key issue, the interests of most female and male representatives diverge, and the disparity of almost five to one between their numbers makes it difficult to effect a change in the way the Oireachtas works. It is important to remove all obstacles to increased participation by women in the Oireachtas.
 
My experience of the influx of women to the Fine Gael party in 1981 and 1982 was entirely positive. They brought to their work new talents which greatly improved the quality of policy-making and legislation.
 
Our party system, lacking significant female input, is bound to be incomplete and defective. I hope a new impetus to tackling this issue can emerge in all our political parties.
 
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2010/0911/1224278621559.html

why don't more men realize this?  our priesthood in the catholic church is incomplete and defective. too bad there are so many defending the tinpot dicatorship in the vatican.  hard to understand why.

Empty Pews Might Make the Powers That Be Think Again
by Jennifer Sleeman
The Irish Times
September 21, 2010
 
RITE & REASON: I DID not have a Catholic childhood and I have been amazed, talking to Irish friends, at how their early experience of religion was one of fear: fear of God and fear of the church. There were rules, and you broke them at your peril.
 

Jennifer Sleeman
 
 
Maybe I was lucky.
 
 
I embraced Catholicism in my 20s. My husband was Catholic and I saw he got great comfort from it. Then I met a wonderful priest who gave me instruction and received me into the church.
 
 
I lived happily with my decision. However, with the horrifying sexual abuse revelations, cracks began to appear for me, and I started wondering and talking to other people about the church in the reality of the 21st century.
 
. . . Read complete article, click here: The 2010 Irish Times Debate

Women’s Ordination Worldwide (WOW)
Press Release
WOW in Solidarity with Irish Call for Justice for Women in the Catholic Church
 
 
  
 
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
 
Contact:

US Contact: Erin Saiz Hanna, WOW Leadership Circle
                      e: ehanna@womensordination.org
                      t: + (202) 675-1006
UK Contact: Therese Koturbash, WOW Leadership Circle
                      e: koturbash@btconnect.com
                      t: +44(-0)1923 779 446
 
WOW in Solidarity with Irish Call for Justice for Women in the Catholic Church
 
Women’s Ordination Worldwide (WOW) stands in solidarity with Catholic women in Ireland who call for  a widespread boycott of Mass on Sunday, September 26, 2010. 
 
Jennifer Sleeman, an active Catholic from Cork  initiated this movement when she urged women of Ireland to send a message to the Vatican that “women are tired of being treated as second-class citizens in the Church.”  This call, which began with one woman’s voice,  is now spreading beyond the shores of Ireland as women around the world link arms together for  the boycott.
 
In solidarity, WOW  supports Sleeman’s call for justice for women in the Catholic Church.  Recognizing the many different ways of bearing witness to the institutional sin of sexism that marginalizes women in the Church, WOW encourages  people of Catholic faith to organize one of the following options for their parishes on September 26, 2010: 

• At collection time: Instead of making a donation to your parish, place a note in the collection basket that expresses support for women’s ordination.
• Bear silent witness: Wear a green arm band to Mass.
• Boycott Mass:  Grieving the Church’s sin of sexism, participate in a prayerful fast from mass.  Gather together in one of the many other meaningful ways in which the Eucharist can be celebrated. 

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
 
WOW’s aims and objectives are to:

• Coordinate, advise and represent the women's ordination movement worldwide.
• Bring together different national and international organisations working towards the ordination of women in all Christian churches.
• Facilitate, through regular international conferences, a public, global forum to raise awareness about the issue of women's ordination within the Roman Catholic Church and to encourage broad-based discussion.
• Support women's equality in religions.
• Free the Church from the sin of sexism and heal divisions between men and women, female and male clergy, and female and male laity.
• Foster the awareness and the development of vocations in women to renewed ordained ministry.

 
Women's Ordination Worldwide (WOW) was founded in 1996 at the First European Women's Synod in Gmunden, Austria. It is an ecumenical network of national and international groups whose primary mission at this time is the admission of Roman Catholic women to all ordained ministries. WOW is founded on the principle of equality and therefore opposes any discrimination. 'There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus'. (Galatians 3.28). WOW affirms the God-given diversity of humanity and is committed to providing a model of collaborative, non-hierarchical leadership.

 
 
 
 
Dear all,
 
I recommend to you Women's Ordination Conference's (USA) 35th anniversary video.  Besides being a moving and beautiful tribute, you'll see a few familiar faces from womenpriests.org! 
  
Women's Ordination Conference 35th Anniversary 
 
with love,
 
~Sophie~

womenpriests.org celebrates birthday of our Founder and now Academic Advisor, Dr. John Wijngaards
 

Dr. John Wijngaards
 
Join us in prayer and celebration as we mark the birthday of our website founder, Dr. John Wijngaards  on Monday, September 26, 2010 (the actual day is September 30, 2010.)
 
 
 
 
Happy birthday!!! We wish you many happy years!!!
 
with love and blessings,
 
The Team at womenpriests.org

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Today September 23 is the feast of St. Thecla -- Equal to the Apostles!

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
For more about Thecla, an early woman Apostle, see here: The Women Apostles, The Women Disciples

Women Can Be Priests: Five Reasons Why: Reason No. 3: Both Women and Men Were Apostles  
 
The Vatican claims that the ban against women priests is justified by the example of Jesus (when you don't have solid reasons, blame someone else?). The argument goes:  

• Jesus Christ did not call any woman to be part of the twelve apostles. Inter Insigniores § 9 - 12
• In this way Jesus established a permanent norm for the future Church: Jesus simply did not want women to be priests! Ordinatio Sacerdotalis

Does this line of reasoning make sense?
 

The Resurrection - He Qi 
  
Jesus lived a short life -- 33 years.  Of those years, only 3 were spent in active ministry.  Given this short span of time, is it valid to argue that something he did not do [ie, choose a woman to be among the Twelve] is enough to show evidence of an intention to establish  a permanent norm against women for all time?
 
Most scriptural interpretation the Vatican has relied on until today has been done by men.  It is well known that since women have entered the academy, scriptural research recovering the lost stories of women has been happening by leaps and bounds.  Not only this, we also know that the interpretations we have traditionally relied on were done by men whose were looking through glass lenses coloured by the cultural norms of their times.   The stories and the multiple roles of women were never at the forefront of their minds. 
 
Some important questions then for reflection include:

• what is an Apostle?
• were the Twelve the only Apostles Jesus appointed?
• is there evidence that women were Apostles? (hint, one of them has a name that begins with Mary M.)

Carol Ann Morrow of americancatholic.org sorts some of this out for us when she writes about the Apostleship of Mary Magdalene.
 

• WITNESS:  “If the women had not stood by and witnessed the death of Jesus on the cross, then followed his body, accompanied it to the tomb, returned on the first day of the week in the morning to anoint again and found the tomb empty, then announced to the disciples their experience of the risen Lord,” Elizabeth Johnson* suggests that “we wouldn’t know what happened! They [the women, with Mary Magdalene always in their number] are the thread of continuity through the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus.”

 

• DISCIPLE: “Mary Magdalene is a founding mother of the Church,” says Johnson. “She ministered to Jesus during his own ministry, sharing things with him, and was one of his followers in Galilee. She was a faithful disciple during the last hours of his life.”

 

• PARTNER: This more accurate assessment of Mary Magdalene’s role in the Easter mystery can support and strengthen women in the Church today. Professor Johnson feels that it can inspire everyone. “Those men who are desirous of partnership with women in the Church also find this a joyous rediscovery. Partnership is a different view of the beginning of our history as a Church, which then gives a different view of what our future could be as well.”

 

• EVANGELIST: Elizabeth Johnson describes the Acts of the Apostles as Volume II of Luke’s work, telling the history of the early Church. It is Acts 1:14 that she cites: “All these devoted themselves with one accord to prayer, together with some women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.”

What did they proclaim? Mary Magdalene was sent forth from the tomb with the message, “Jesus is risen.” Paul writes, “And if Christ has not been raised, then empty [too] is our preaching; empty, too, your faith” (1 Cor 15:14). That is the Gospel truth, first heard from the lips of a woman, a woman named Mary Magdalene. Throughout the Church year, it is Mary’s message that we are challenged to proclaim with as much boldness and integrity as she did.
 
With this in mind, can we confidently say that Jesus excluded women?
 
At the word apostle, many of us quite naturally think of 'the Twelve' -- the twelve men we've traditionally been taught about. Yet sacred scripture tells us there were other apostles.

• Though St. Paul was not one of the Twelve, he refers to himself as an Apostle.
• When St. Paul tells us about his friends Junia --a woman-- and Andronicus, he describes them as 'outstanding' apostles.
• Though many in the Western Church do not know, the Eastern Catholic Church has since the beginning of Christianity faithfully revered many women as apostles.  Mary Magdalene, the Apostle to the Apostles, is just one of them. 

 
What do you think? Are you convinced that Jesus intended to set a permanent norm excluding women?
 
For more, see these articles found in our virtual library:

• Elisabeth Carroll: Women in Ministry
• Barbara Reid, OP: The Other Apostles

www.womenpriests.org
 
Contact:
 
Therese Koturbash, International Coordinator
womenpriests.org
111a High Street
Rickmansworth, Herts. 
WD3 1AN   UK
t: +44(-0)1923 779 446
e: koturbash@btconnect.com
 
Become a member of www.womenpriests.org 
Sign up for our Newsletter.
Donate to support our work.
 
'A custom without truth is merely ancient error.'
~St. Cyprian of Carthage~

Lutheran World Federation welcomes head of UN women's agency
by Peter Kenny
ekklesia
September 23, 2010
 
The Lutheran World Federation has congratulated former Chilean president Michelle Bachelet on her appointment as head of the new United Nations agency, UN Women, saying it gives gender equality a high profile.
 

Michelle Bachelet, Head of new UN Agency, UN Women
 
The UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, named Bachelet to the post on 14 September 2010. She was the first female president of Chile, and she is well known for her commitment to the pursuit of gender justice.
 
Read complete article, click here: Women from Around the World

Dear friends,
 
The following story is about Madre Maria Vittoria Longhitano, the first Catholic woman to be ordained in Italy. Because our Church won't have her, she was ordained in the Old Catholic Church.  When Women's Ordination Worldwide (WOW) was in Rome in June, 2010 Maria invited us to be part of a mass she was celebrating in Rome's Anglican Church.  Photos of that event are found in our womenpriests.org Facebook photo albums.
 
The mass with Maria was extraordinary!  Someday when I am in my nursing home rocking chair, I'll count it among top life events!  The photo featured in the article was taken during our mass with her.
 
with love and blessings,


~Sophie~
 
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
 
Woman in Priestly Garb Sounds a Great Echo in Italy 
By ELISABETTA POVOLEDO
The New York Times
September 23, 2010
 
MILAN — While other little girls in her hometown of Nissoria, Sicily, were dressing up and playing house, Maria Vittoria Longhitano would pretend to say Mass, dispensing cookies and chips to her toys for communion. Sometimes, she would even baptize her dolls. 



As a child, she prayed to St. Rita — much venerated in Sicily — asking for her intervention to become a priest.
But the Roman Catholic Church has no place for women among its clerical ranks, as the Vatican stated forcefully over the summer when it decreed that the attempt to ordain female priests is to be considered one of the most serious crimes against church law.



Maria Vittoria Longhitano celebrated Mass in June. 

Ms. Longhitano’s spiritual journey eventually led her to the Old Catholic Church, a denomination that split from the Roman Catholic Church in the 19th century, mostly over the issue of papal infallibility. She studied theology at the University of Catania. 

On May 22 — coincidentally, the feast day of St. Rita — Ms. Longhitano, 35, was ordained a priest in a ceremony in an Anglican church in Rome. She is now known as Mother Vittoria, and is preparing to lead a congregation in Sabbioneta, Lombardy (though last month she celebrated her first Mass in Sicily, where she was on vacation).

There are fewer than 300 practicing Old Catholics in Italy, according to Fritz-René Müller, the Switzerland-based bishop who ordained her. But for Italians unaccustomed to seeing women in priestly garb, Mother Vittoria’s ordination “had a great echo; it was a small earthquake,” he said. 

It reverberated especially loudly against a backdrop of mounting dissatisfaction — even in this traditionally Roman Catholic country — with what many perceive as the Vatican’s inadequate response to the global pedophilia scandal sweeping the clergy. Widely covered by the Italian news media, her ordination seemed to present another instance of a changing society at odds with the Vatican and its worldview. 

“It was a strong signal, a way of opening the way,” said Mother Vittoria. “Rome is the center of Christianity; I think I gave a sense of hope to sister Catholics.” 

Perhaps, but her Roman Catholic sisters will have to bide their time. 

In July, the Vatican made revisions to internal laws to include the attempted ordination of women among its “more grave delicts,” or offenses, making it comparable to heresy, apostasy and pedophilia. Since 2008, the ordination of women has carried the penalty of excommunication, both for the woman and the person trying to ordain her. 

Equating ordination of women with a crime like pedophilia drew howls of outrage from many Catholics. 

“Perhaps those who crafted the document are on to something,” two professors at Seattle University — Fran Ferder, a Franciscan nun and clinical psychologist, and John Heagle, a priest, psychotherapist and canon lawyer — wrote last month in The National Catholic Reporter. “The refusal to allow women into the inner sanctum of ecclesial power may well be related to clergy sexual abuse, and to the Vatican’s impotence in addressing this crime in a truly pastoral way. Is the attempted ordination of women a crime, or is the real crime the refusal to allow it?” 

Erin Saiz Hanna, executive director of the Washington-based Women’s Ordination Conference, argued that placing the ordination of female priests in the rank of “highest crime” suggested that the Vatican was on the defensive “because our movement is growing.” She said that about 100 women had become Roman Catholic priests since a group of seven women were ordained in 2002 in a ceremony on the Danube River in Austria — though they are clearly not recognized by the church. 

At the time the document was issued, Archbishop Donald Wuerl of Washington, the chairman of the Committee on Doctrine of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, said, “Women offer unique insight, creative abilities and unstinting generosity at the very heart of the Catholic Church.” 

But, he added, “the Catholic Church through its long and constant teaching holds that ordination has been, from the beginning, reserved to men, a fact which cannot be changed despite changing times.” 

Mother Vittoria said that she was actually optimistic about the effects of the recent Vatican pronouncement, and that she believed that the ban on priests could ultimately open the road to having female deacons, who are also not currently allowed in the Roman Catholic Church. “The world is changing, and I see that there’s growing support for women,” she said. 

Vatican observers were more doubtful. In fact, the closing of Vatican ranks to women may be leading more people to the open doors of the Old Catholic Church, Bishop Müller said. 



“People are coming to us, I think because we are a free Catholic church, and are not dependent on the Vatican’s centralism,” he said. The Italian and Swiss churches are part of the Union of Utrecht, a federation of Old Catholic churches that are in full communion with the Anglican Church. The clergy can marry and have children. 

That is not to say that the Old Catholic Church did not have its own growing pains about admitting women to the clergy. The first woman was ordained in Switzerland, for instance, in 2000 after “years of debate,” he said, and some Old Catholic dioceses — Poland, for one — still do not accept the ordination of women. “Polish women don’t want to, but maybe they will in a few years,” he said. Currently women make up about 10 percent of the clergy in Union of Utrecht in Switzerland and in Germany, he said. 

Because Italy is predominantly Roman Catholic, it has also gone practically unnoticed that Italian women have taken on central roles in some Protestant faiths. Pastor Maria Bonafede is the moderator of the Waldensian Church; Alessandra Trotta was elected president of the Methodist Church in Italy last year, and Anna Maffei is the president of the Christian Evangelical Baptist Union of Italy. 

Even Mother Vittoria has a predecessor in the Old Catholic Church — Mother Teodora Tosatti, who was ordained in 2006 in a ceremony in Bonn, Germany. 

The document issued over the summer by the Vatican made it clear that excommunication was in store for anyone involved in the ordination of a woman. 

“We were excommunicated in 2008, but we rejected it,” said Bridget Mary Meehan, a spokeswoman for the Roman Catholic Womenpriests organization, who was ordained a priest in 2006 without Vatican consent. “What matters is that we follow our conscience.” 

http://www.nytimes.com/20...rope/24milan.html?_r=2

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
See photos of the mass celebrated by Madre Maria in Rome this past June where her guests were Delegates of Women's Ordination Worldwide.  (They were in the city for a vigil for women's ordination at St. Peter's Square.)
 
At present, the photos are in our Facebook Album.  We'll be setting up a gallery onsite here!

The Push to Ordain Women Priests Gains Ground
by Dawn Reiss/Chicago
Time Magazine
September 25, 2010

Alta Jacko is the mother of eight children. She is also an ordained priest in the Roman Catholic Church. Jacko, 81, who earned her master's degree in pastoral studies from Loyola University, a Jesuit Catholic school, says that being a priest is what she was called to do.  

 

Alta Jacko's (third from left) ordination to be a deaconate on Nov. 1, 2008. She would later be ordained as a priest in 2009.

Officially, of course, the Catholic Church's canon law 1024 says that only baptized men can receive holy orders. But there is a movement against the no-women rule, one that began eight years ago when a cluster of renegade male clerics (including a European bishop whose identity the female priests won't reveal in order not to risk his excommunication) ordained the first women. Now, in Jacko's hometown of Chicago, three women have entered into the priesthood.

Like many priests, Jacko trained in various parishes before becoming ordained. Unlike many other priests, however, she was not always easily received by her elders. In spring 2009, Jacko approached Father Bob Bossie who preaches at St. Harold's Catholic Community in Uptown for help. "She asked me if I would mentor her," recalls Bossie, a member of the Chicago's Priests of the Sacred Heart who was ordained in 1975. Bossie acknowledges that the concept of females in the priesthood is difficult for him. He says he literally shudders at the thought, saying that when the image of women in robes once flashed in his mind, it "left me cold."

And yet Bossie helped Jacko anyway. He wanted to help a friend. While Jacko was training to become a deacon, a mandatory step prior to priesthood, it was Bossie who taught her how to say the liturgy. "I did it because she asked me, because she's very thoughtful," Bossie says. "When someone you like and respect asks you, you try to do it."

Bossie is speaking out publicly for the first time, even though he knows he could lose his job as a priest, his pension and his home. And even though he disagrees, intellectually, with women being in the priesthood, he says his feelings tend to be more complicated than that. "I'm not going out of my way to support it," Bossie says. "I don't think that's sexist. I am a priest, and this is breaking down the hieratical priesthood.... But if people ask me for help, I feel compelled to help, out of respect and love. If God called me, why wouldn't God call a woman?"

It is a question that more and more members of the flock are asking. Many have begun to challenge publicly the Church's stance, especially after the Vatican decreed in July that ordaining female priests was a "grave" crime, on par with pedophilia. What's more, Biblical passages refer to women clergy, including a female apostle named Junia in Romans 16:7. On Sunday, Sept. 26, thousands of Catholics around the world plan to protest, either by boycotting Mass or by showing up wearing green armbands that say "Ordain Women."

"Women are tired of being treated as second-class citizens in the Church," says Irish Catholic Jennifer Sleeman, who turns 81 Sunday and is helping to champion the "Sunday Without Women" demonstration organized by Women's Ordination Worldwide (WOW).

"We are disobeying an unjust law," says Barbara Zeman, 62, Chicago's first ordained Catholic female priest, who serves as a hospital chaplain at Northwestern Memorial Hospital; she will protest Sunday at St. Nicholas Catholic Church in Evanston, Ill. "Many male priests have told me to go for it, and that they can't wait until the Church changes its attitude.... It's a movement whose time has come."

The WOW movement was also showcased in the recently released documentary Pink Smoke over the Vatican, which aired Sept. 18 at Chicago's Irish American Heritage Center for an audience of hundreds of Catholics, ordained and lay. The filmmaker, Jules Hart, said she had originally turned down doing the documentary — "I'm not even Catholic," she says — but reconsidered after hearing the ordeals of several female Catholic priests, including Jacko.

Jacko, who was featured in the film, was present at the Chicago screening. After the film concluded, she recounted to a reporter her experience of becoming a priest. A portly balding man walking past, paused and told her: "If you don't have any rights, I don't have any rights."

But when asked his name, the man refused to give it, stating that he could lose his job in the Catholic Church if he were publicly attributed. It is the same reason that so many men of the cloth who help women into the priesthood do so only in hiding.

A pastoral associate in northside Chicago, who has also asked for his name to be withheld, has had a hand in elevating two of Chicago's three women priests. He taught Jacko how to break the bread and bless the cup for Mass. They practiced at the altar in the pastor's church in secret, while it was empty, Jacko says. He taught her how to say reconciliation and say a homily, and answered her endless questions. "I was talking to him about spiritual things," says Jacko. "I would bounce questions off him."

He also helped train Janine Denomme, another of the city's female priests, who died of cancer in May 2009. He sang at Denomme's priesthood ordination earlier that spring, and stepped in again to assist her funeral at the First United Methodist Church in Evanston, Ill. The services could not be held in her own church because the Catholic Church did not officially recognize her priesthood, which resulted in her excommunication — something the pastoral associate says still upsets parishioners. "I was determined to be as public as I could. I supported her priesthood," he says. "You are just ignoring a gift when you bury it in the sand and pretend it doesn't exist. We shouldn't just be satisfied with the status quo. The Holy Spirit has sent the priests that we need, but our hierarchy is refusing to recognize them."

And yet in public, the pastoral associate does not dare to break ranks. The day after Jacko was ordained — on Oct. 10, 2009, at the Ebenezer Lutheran Church by the female Catholic Bishop Joan Houk (a male priest would be excommunicated for ordaining a woman) — the pastor met her for coffee. He informed Jacko that now that she was a priest, she could no longer be a lector of the readings or distribute communion in her Catholic church.


"He broke the bad news to me," Jacko said. "We were so close and it was hard to take. He had walked every step of the way with me."

A week later, on the Sunday after her ordination, Jacko sat in the front pew of her Catholic church wearing her collar. "I wasn't going to [wear it], but all of my friends said, 'How are we going to know you are woman priest, if you don't wear your collar?'" Jacko says. "I thought it made sense."

Jacko says the congregation showed her respect and congratulated her. But then she received an email from the pastor, on behalf of the church, telling Jacko that she was "welcome in the church but not with my collar," says Jacko who is now saying Mass on a rotating basis at at St. Harold's Catholic Community. "I know it was hard for him to do. He had to make a choice, and he chose to tell me that instead of standing by me."

But Jacko adds, "There are a lot of Catholic priests who are helping the women priests. You'd be surprised." 
http://www.time.com/time/...0,8599,2021519,00.html

Oregon Archbishop John G. Vlazny: Catholic Church won't change position on women's ordination
by Nancy Haught
The Oregonian
September 24, 2010

Archbishop John G. Vlazny, leader of Western Oregon's 400,000 Catholics, doesn't see the Catholic Church changing its position on women's ordination.  

"Even if I were elected pope tomorrow -- I don't think I could change it," he said in a telephone interview Tuesday. "I feel badly that people are hurt over the issue."  


The Most Rev. John G. Vlazny/Brent Wojahn, The Oregonian 

In the Catholic Church, ordination is a sacrament, Vlazny said. "A priest is a sign of Jesus. Can a woman be a sign of Jesus? Of course she can -- in baptism," he said -- but not as a priest. Vlazny rejects arguments that early in church history, women were ordained. The evidence "is not valid," he said. 

"My own feeling is that we still have to deal with the true empowerment of the laity," he said, referring to men and women who serve the church without being ordained. "We priests are still learning how to be what we're called on to be and not be everything we were in the past. We're all very uneven on that. Some priests are very good at it. Some priests are lousy at it."  

In 1994, Pope John Paul II issued an apostolic letter on priestly ordination. "I declare that the church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that this judgment is to be definitively held by all the church's faithful," he wrote. Since then, Catholic clergy have been discouraged from discussing the topic.  

Vlazny said that when Catholics complain that women are not valued in the church, he wants to respond: "Come to my pastoral center. You'll find lots of women at work." He contrasted this with the disparity he sees among men and women who fly first class.  

"Men have the jobs that get them upgraded to first class," Vlazny said. "We're not any worse than the culture -- except for ordination." 

http://www.oregonlive.com...shop_john_g_vlazn.html

Sidebar:  I'll make a point of sending Archbishop Vlazny a packet of information. 

We've Had Enough: Portland Catholic Women to Skip Mass Over Treatment of Women
by Nancy Haught
The Oregonian
September 24, 2010


In August, Jennifer Sleeman, 81, urged Catholic women to boycott this Sunday's Mass in protest of their treatment by the church. Half a world a way, a handful of Portland women responded.  "We had been talking amongst ourselves about how to be a woman and be a Catholic, dealing with that angst," says Sarah Granger,  34,  who is active in St. Andrew Parish in Northeast Portland. "Her call struck a chord with us. We needed to do something, to say, 'We've had enough.'" But she and other women from St. Andrew's envisioned a "prayerful, positive public witness," not a protest or a boycott.  Sleeman -- who is from Ireland and the mother of a monk -- said at the time that her call was inspired by a Vatican statement in July that seemed to equate the ordination of women with pedophilia. "One Spirit -- One Call"will unfold at 9:30 a.m.  Sunday  in the South Park Blocks in downtown Portland. The 90-minute  program calls for prayers, a gospel reflection, and a litany of women saints. Organizers say they hope participants will attend Mass on Saturday night or stay downtown for a special noon Mass at the Downtown Chapel. 

"This is not a boycott of the Eucharist," Granger says. "It's an opportunity for women to tell their stories, for our voices to be heard."  Organizers wrote to the archbishop of Portland, the Most Rev. John G. Vlazny,  and told him of their plans. He says he is resigned that "One Spirit -- One Call" would go on.  "I'm not happy about it," he says. "Whenever people are disturbed, it's a good idea to get together and pray. But my job is one that tries to promote the unity of the church, to encourage the church in our evangelization."  He says he has good relationships with women in the church. "I've tried my best to treat people with fairness." He understands that the women behind the Portland event have a list of grievances, but he thinks "ordination is at the bottom of it all."  "I have no authority to change that." The Catholic Church does not ordain women to the priesthood. "No other bishop, not even the pope can change that," Vlazny says. 



Faith Cathcart, The Oregonian

With a ribbon flying from a sacred dance in the foreground, Mary Lou Stewart raises the Bible as she rehearses her reading and reflection for Sundays public witness in the South Park Blocks. Organizers of "One Spirit -- One Call" say they hope hundreds of people will gather to call attention what they see as women's inequality in the Catholic Church.  
Organizers of "One Spirit -- One Call" say women's ordination is only one concern on a longer list. Women, they say, do not help determine policy within the Catholic Church and are not allowed to serve as deacons, even though they may be as educated and as experienced as many priests. Women fill a number of secondary roles in parishes, they say, completing many pastoral duties but they are not allowed to preach publicly. The fact that the Vatican is investigating communities of nuns and sisters in the United States is another sore point. Church leaders say the goal of the investigation is to assess how religious orders are fulfilling their stated missions. But critics suspect the point is to determine whether women are following church teachings.  "The images of God and the language we use in liturgy are big issues for me," says Katie Hainley, 31, a member of St. Vincent de Paul Parish, also known as the Downtown Chapel. "Our church tradition holds that God is neither male nor female, but God is usually portrayed from a masculine perspective."  

Marylee King  agrees. "The crux of it is injustice and inequality," says the 64-year-old member of Resurrection Parish in Tualatin. A lifelong Catholic, she has been a Eucharistic minister, a sacristan and taught in religious education programs. "Women are discounted. The hierarchy continuously passes over women. The rest of the world has moved on."  Hainley and King say they have no intentions to leave the Catholic Church. Neither does Gayle Bache,  62,  a member of St. Andrew's.  "I love this church," she says. "The tradition of the church gives me great comfort. But the church is missing out on the gifts of incredibly talented women. This is a prayerful public witness. We know that to act out of anger doesn't work."  

Mary Lou Stewart, 62, another St. Andrew's parishioner, will speak on Martha and Mary at "One Spirit -- One Call." In the biblical story, Martha complains to Jesus that she's working while her sister, Mary, sits at his feet and listens to him teach. Jesus tells Martha that Mary has "chosen the better part" and adds that it "will not be taken away from her."  

"We are supposed to be disciples," Stewart said. "Ordinarily, I like to stay in the background, but there is a terrible responsibility that goes with discipleship, to speak up in the face of injustice."  

Organizers believe this is the right time to encourage public dialogue, to reassert the spirit of Vatican II, a 1960s  council that proposed many changes in the church. Monsignor  Charles Lienert,  pastor of St. Andrew's and a supporter of "One Spirit -- One Call," says "at least 50 years of grass root activity" led to the "wonderful renovations" of the second Vatican council.  

"Changes in the church have always taken a long time and a lot of voices," he says. "I've been a priest for 40-some years," he said, "and it's apparent to me the pain that women in the church feel many times -- being excluded from different things, not being able to have a real voice in what the church teaches, not being able to participate in all the activities of the church. There is a real reason for their pain." 

http://www.oregonlive.com...gh_portland_catho.html

Sophie


"I have no authority to change that." The Catholic Church does not ordain women to the priesthood. "No other bishop, not even the pope can change that," Vlazny says. 

It’s always the same. They blame their sins on God.
 
God wants to exclude women from the priesthood.
God wants women to be subordinate to men.
God wants a man to have multiple wives.
God wants slavery.
 
Ever notice how what these men claim God wants just happens to benefit them and give them special status and privilege over women.
When will people open their eyes and see the truth.
 
Subordination of women is not what God wants. It is what man wants.

St Therese of Lisieux
Doctor of the Church
Called to Be a Priest!
 
I sense in myself the vocation
of Warrior, Priest, Apostle,
Doctor, and Martyr.

In the heart of the Church,
my Mother,
I will be love.

—St. Thérèse

Dear friends,

Today, October 1 is the feast of St. Therese.
 
Becoming more well known is the fact that she discerned in herself a call to priesthood.   Her priestly calling preoccupied her to the end of her life.  She wrote about it, spoke boldly about it and believed that she would be a good preacher...mentioning sometimes that she would be even better than some priests that she heard!
 

Saint Therese of Lisieux

Well known lecturer, writer and preacher from Stockholm, Sweden, Catherine Broome, points out that when in 1997 Pope John Paul II proclaimed Therese a Doctor of the Church (only the third woman in Christian history to be honoured this way) through  words and deeds and guided by the Holy Spirit,  the Pope confirmed that Therese was sent by God to help our Church interpret the signs of the times and come ‘closer to the will of God.’ 

Broome explores the saint's vocation in an article called The Priestly Vocation of Therese of the Child Jesus.  In it, Broome looks at:

• women Doctors as spiritual authorities
• highlights of some of their writings
• the vocational callings of our three women Doctors of the Church -- Teresa of Avila, Catherine of Siena and Therese of Lisieux
• and she explores how both Catherine and Therese strongly and clearly expressed their callings to be priests.

Women's Ordination News from Poland:

A Team Member from Poland shares news about a women's ordination poll conducted by one of her country's biggest newspapers -- gazeta.wyborcza.pl. Alicja shares the results with translation in brackets. 

Czy kościół powinien wyświęcać kobiety na księzy? (Should the Church ordain women?)

* 62% (yes) Tak. Powinien też zniesć celibat księży (53) (Yes. It should also to cancel the rule of celibacy for priests)

* 22% (no) Nie (19) (No)

* 13% (I don't care.) Nie interesuje mnie to (11) (I don't care)

* 2%  (Yes.) Tak, ale nie powinien znosić celibatu (2) (Yes, but celibacy should remain)

* Liczba oddanych głosów: 85 (Number of votes)


http://wyborcza.pl/1,9616...sze.html#ixzz11DpQ3OOY

Benedict in Britain - a reflection by Professor Tina Beattie, Director of the Digby Stuart Research Centre 


 

"Certainly, if I am obliged to bring religion into after-dinner toasts (which indeed does not seem quite the thing), I shall drink to the Pope, if you please - still, to conscience first, and to the Pope afterwards." (Cardinal Newman, Letter to the Duke of Norfolk).

The visit of Pope Benedict XVI to Britain, and the beatification of Cardinal Newman, are significant events in British Catholic life. However, the papal visit is also surrounded by controversy. It has stirred up a latent anti-Catholicism in the British press, with some vitriolic and ill-informed pieces by well-known journalists and commentators. Here, for example, is a piece by Julie Burchill from The Independent: Do visits from ex-Hitler Youth Members make me uneasy? Is the Pope Catholic? The New Humanist invited a number of people to record what they would say if they were invited to address Benedict XVI during his visit, including Conor Gearty QC and myself as Catholic contributors. Claire Rayner wrote in her contribution, "In all my years as a campaigner I have never felt such animus against any individual as I do against this creature. His views are so disgusting, so repellent and so hugely damaging to the rest of us, that the only thing to do is to get rid of him." 

It would be understandable if Catholics closed ranks when public figures display such hatred towards the spiritual leader of more than one billion people around the world, and undoubtedly many will argue that it is imperative to present a united front. Yet docile subservience and blind conformity are not the hallmarks of a living and united Church, and the present model of unquestioning obedience to the Pope which is being advocated by some Catholics is a modern phenomenon. It finds little support in past tradition, when the papacy had a less immediate influence on the daily life of the Church, and a less central role in the formation of Catholic identity.  


. . . Read complete article, click here: Our Duty to Raise Loyal Questions

You have proved your case quite well below as to why women cannot be priests..
well done!

1. Women were considered less than men in every respect: physically, intellectually and emotionally. 
Since it was believed that only the male sperm ‘contains’ the future child, women were looked upon as incomplete human beings.
In short, women were considered inferior.

2. Since Eve caused humankind’s fall from grace, every woman was thought to carry the curse of her sin.
Women were marked as sinful creatures.

3. People thought that menstruation makes you impure. 
As unclean creatures, women were kept far from the altar and sacred services.

Guest


You have proved your case quite well below as to why women cannot be priests..
well done!

1. Women were considered less than men in every respect: physically, intellectually and emotionally. 
Since it was believed that only the male sperm ‘contains’ the future child, women were looked upon as incomplete human beings.
In short, women were considered inferior.

2. Since Eve caused humankind’s fall from grace, every woman was thought to carry the curse of her sin.
Women were marked as sinful creatures.

3. People thought that menstruation makes you impure. 
As unclean creatures, women were kept far from the altar and sacred services.

Men still believe women are inferior, except now they use the word “different”.
 
Women are too different from the nature of God to be a priest.
 
It is appalling.

German Catholics Apply New Priest Selection Procedures After Abuse Failings
Ecumenical News International
October 4, 2010
 
Admitting past failures in dealing with cases of sexual abuse by clergy against young people, Germany's Roman Catholic bishops have announced stricter procedures for selecting new priests - writes Anli Serfontein.
 
At its annual autumn meeting in the central German town of Fulda towards the end of September 2010, the German Bishops' Conference discussed how to prevent sexual abuse of minors in the future. The bishops agreed a new framework that would be introduced into all their institutions.
 
Earlier, the bishops had apologised for the abuse that had taken place within Catholic Church institutions, and announced that the matter of compensation for victims is to be discussed with government officials.
 

Archbishop Robert Zollitsch
 
"We know that we failed," Archbishop Robert Zollitsch, chairperson of the bishops' conference, told the meeting of 67 diocesan and auxiliary bishops from the 27 German dioceses during the opening ceremony on 20 September. Then, in a statement, Zollitsch said that, as part of the new prevention programme, the bishops had decided to put a special emphasis on the training and selection of priests.
 
"One of the most important criteria for serving as a priest is the development of a stable personal identity. Therefore, as part of a process of prevention before they are accepted, we must pinpoint necessary therapeutic steps for potential candidates, who may have deficits in their personality development or have mental problems. Eventually, we may have to resolutely reject candidates who are not suitable," Zollitsch told journalists.
 
When the bishops last met in February, they appointed Bishop Stephan Ackermann of Trier to head an investigation into sexual abuse in the Catholic Church in Germany. In April, Ackermann set up a hotline for victims, and in November he will discuss the implementation of the new guidelines with the principals of German seminaries, and with psychologists.
Ackermann said that by implementing the new guidelines, the church wanted to achieve a lasting system of prevention.
 
"Our goal is to sensitise and educate all people working in church institutions to recognise signs of sexual abuse, and to react appropriately. These guidelines should help to prevent sexual abuse. This [abuse] also includes sexual violence by minors among themselves, of which I am again informed of with great concern," said Ackermann.
 
The new framework for the prevention of sexual abuse includes a code of behaviour, a stricter selection of employees, quality management, internal and external church channels to report sexual abuse, and specialised training courses to recognise abuse.
 
On the issue of payouts to victims, which their support groups have demanded, Zollitsch said that Ackermann would put forward a proposal during his discussions with the German government. Still, Zollitsch indicated that a demand for 80,000 euros for each victim would be unrealistic, as it would adversely affect other Catholic institutions that had already suffered severe cut backs.
 
[With acknowledgements to ENI. Ecumenical News International is jointly sponsored by the World Council of Churches, the Lutheran World Federation, the World Communion of Reformed Churches and the Conference of European Churches.]
 
 
http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/13249

Living our theology with Merton’s feminine image of God

By John Dear SJ
The National Catholic Reporter
Oct 05, 2010
 
My friend Fr. Bill called me a few months ago with great excitement.
 
“I just finished reading the best book ever about Thomas Merton,” he said. Then my friend Fr. Pat came to visit from Ireland and, one of the first things he said was, “I just finished the best book ever written about Thomas Merton.”
 
While having breakfast with my friend Trappist Br. Patrick Hart -- who was Merton’s secretary -- at the Abbey of Gethsemani in Kentucky recently I asked him about the book. He didn’t miss a beat. “The best book ever written about Thomas Merton,” Hart said.
 
The book? Sophia: The Hidden Christ of Thomas Merton [3] by Christopher Pramuk.
 
An assistant professor of theology at Xavier University in Cincinnati, Pramuk has broken new ground with this scholarly masterpiece. The book explores Merton’s life and writings through his discovery of Holy Wisdom as a path -- in a time of “unspeakable violence” -- into the mystery of God, and thus the mystery of being human.
 
Merton scholar Larry Cunningham says the book is “far and away the most sophisticated theological study ever done on the writings of Thomas Merton.”
 
Pramuk has jumped to the head of the pack and become one of our premiere theologians.
 
 
I’ve been reading Merton seriously for thirty years, but after reading this I think I understand him for the first time. Over the course of his monastic life, Merton discovered Sophia -- the Wisdom of God as Christ. It helped Merton turn toward the world beyond the monastery and led him toward Sophia/Christ.
 
St. John named Christ as the Logos (masculine), the Word; St. Paul named Christ as Sophia (feminine), Holy Wisdom. Pramuk proposes that we too -- individually and as a church -- can reclaim the divine feminine, Sophia, the Wisdom of God. And like Merton, we can be transformed anew into Christ and be able to help one another to fullness of life, hope and peace.
 
Some say we become the image of God we worship. Sophia, of course, is one name for the divine feminine, featured in famous passages such as Proverbs 8:25-31. But for centuries the institutional church has ignored the feminine dimension of God in and among us and cultivated a judgmental, violent, male image of God.
 
In our hunger for that feminine dimension Catholics looked to Mary even though she is not divine. Merton’s hunger for the feminine in God and in his own life may be symbolic of the Western church’s hunger for the divine feminine, the wisdom of God.
Many have written on Wisdom literature and theology, but Pramuk’s use of Thomas Merton as our teacher and exemplary practitioner shows us what “living with wisdom” looks like and how transformative it can become.
 
Pramuk names Merton as a theologian who bridges East and West. And he brings Merton’s mystical-prophetic vision into dialogue with contemporary Christology, Russian sophiology and Buddhist Zen practice -- as well as John Henry Newman and Abraham Joshua Heschel.
 
Pramuk suggests that the Hagia Sophia, which captured Merton’s imagination and opened new doors to God for him, might do the same for us and lead us to a new understanding of God, ourselves, and healing peace. With the nightmarish problems in the church this is just what we need.
 
“Theology is a lifelong conversation with wonder and mystery,” Pramuk says off-handedly in his acknowledgements. “To be ‘bitten by Merton’ is to be initiated into a world of revelation, heightened expectation, and presence.”
 
Pramuk then leads us into a fascinating conversation.
 
“The primary aim of this book is to draw out the features of Merton’s mature Christology, especially its fruition in his view of Christ as Wisdom of God, the unknown and unseen Sophia, in whom the cosmos is created and sustained,” Pramuk writes.
 
Merton’s attention to religious experience was to more than doctrinal formulas. It was to divine presence and light more than revealed names, to personal transformation or awakening to the “true self” more than conceptual frameworks such as “salvation.”
 
This attention facilitated Merton’s uncanny ability to connect deeply with persons of enormously varied backgrounds -- he had that rare gift for allowing “the mystery of faith to be named and heard in a great many places where it is not usually named and heard.”
 
Pramurk suggests:
 
with Merton’s life as witness, that the remembrance of Sophia holds significant promise for invigorating (I do not say “centering”) Christological and Trinitarian discourse in response to these increasingly fractured, technological, industrialized, and militarized times. Bound up closely with the biblical doctrine of creation and the patristic doctrines of incarnation, divinization and grace, a Wisdom or Sophia-inspired Christology offers a compelling narrative and metaphysical framework for making old things new again in theological discourse, for reimagining God’s vital presence in the natural world, and for reaffirming in boldest dogmatic terms the transcendent dignity of human persons everywhere.   With this Christology, Pramuk seeks to do what the poet Merton did: lead others “into the realm of mercy, communion and presence.”
 
“Sophia, the theological eros that animated Merton’s religious imagination, might be capable of infusing new vitality into ours,” Pramuk asserts. “Her voice might awaken in the lives of ordinary Christians, ways both ancient and new, of bringing to birth the love and mercy of Christ in a stricken world.”
 
This book traces the emergence of Sophia in Merton’s life and writings as a love and a presence that breaks through into the world -- a living symbol and name through which he encountered the living God and with which he chose, at his poetic and prophetic best, to structure theological discourse.
 
The book responds to the question of Merton’s mature Christology by advancing the following thesis: it was Sophia -- the “unknown and unseen Christ” within all things -- who both centered and in many respects catalyzed Merton’s theological imagination in a period of tremendous social, political, and religious fragmentation.
 
Drawing intuitively from sources in the Judeo-Christian tradition as well as from non-Christian sources, and inspired especially by the Sophia tradition of Russian Orthodoxy, the Wisdom tradition became Merton’s most vivid means of expressing “a living experience of unity in Christ which far transcends all conceptual formulations.”
 
Chapter one reviews Merton’s awakening to Sophia as it weaved through the last decade of his life and how it shaped his mystical -- or sapiential -- approach to theology. Chapter two studies the pivotal role of the imagination in religious epistemology and theological method in light of Merton, Newman and Heschel -- arguing for “a poetic dimension” in theology.
 
Chapter three explores Merton’s prophetic and global content, his turning to the world and to the Word of God -- to understand his religious imagination and to probe his basic confidence in and fluency with the sacramental power of language. Merton’s awakening to Sophia in his desire to remember and name God anew is the other side to his revolutionary awakening to the world beyond the monastery. This is an original insight which explains the explosion of peacemaking in the last decade of Merton’s life.
 
Merton chose the path of solidarity with a world in crisis, his prophecy taking the form of ruthlessly naming the present through the practice of language. Like Heschel -- in whom mysticism, poetics, and prophecy were also one -- Merton’s mature voice is both ‘prophetic’ and ‘apologetic,’ serving ‘not the justification of a fixed system’ but the interruption of fixed systems -- not least theological ones -- in order ‘to convert our minds and hearts to God-centered consciousness.
 
Against the radical commodification of nature, sex, and human beings everywhere, Merton interjects the gentle voice of Sophia: “at once my own being, my own nature, and the Gift of my Creator’s Thought and Art within me.” And a lament: “We do not hear the soft voice, the gentle voice, the merciful and feminine. We do not see the Child who is prisoner in all the people.”
 
“It is significant that Merton directs our gaze not to some nameless presence or hidden God-beyond-God,” Pramuk asserts, “but to Christ the Wisdom of God, whose light transfigures all creation with love and resurrection hope, and whose presence shines in the face of every human being.”
 
Chapter four chronicles the dawn of wisdom in Merton’s theological consciousness, through Merton’s essays on Suzuki, Herakleitos, Maximus, and Boris Pasternak.
 
“From the much-discussed epiphany at Fourth and Walnut in March of 1958 to his climactic pilgrimage in Asia, Sophia emerges as a kind of unifying presence and theological wellspring in Merton’s life, both centering and catalyzing his outreach to others in friendship, dialogue and peacemaking,” Pramuk writes in the chapter.
 
Chapter five analyzes the culmination of Merton’s Christology in his 1962 prose poem masterpiece “Hagia Sophia”, which celebrates divine wisdom as the feminine manifestation of God.
 
Pramuk calls the peom “a classic of modern Christian mysticism” not only for its bold rendering of the Catholic sacramental imagination, but also its “rare and wondrously realized marriage of Eastern and Western spirituality.”
 
Pramuk traces Merton’s growing awareness of Sophia as God; as the feminine child playing before God at all times and in the world; and as “unfathomable mercy, made manifest in the world by means of the incarnation, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.”
 
Merton’s famous paean to “My Sister Wisdom” begins:
 
There is in all visible things an invisible fecundity, a dimmed light, a meek namelessness, a hidden wholeness. This mysterious Unity and Integrity is Wisdom, the Mother of all, Natura naturans. There is in all things an inexhaustible sweetness and purity, a silence that is a fount of action and joy. It rises up in wordless gentleness and flows out to me from the unseen roots of all created being…   “Against a century of unspeakable violence and dehumamization, Hagia Sophia is Merton’s consummate hymn to the theological dignity of humankind and of all creation,” Pramuk writes. “It is a hymn to peace.”
 
The concluding chapter takes up questions Merton was not able to address.
 
Why did Sophia attract new attention during the last century? Why Sophia -- and not simply a vigorous renewal of the more familiar terms of Christological or Trinitarian discourse?
 
Might Sophia be grasped against this fractured horizon as a kind of apocalyptic figure? Pramuk answers that sophiology represents a distinctive response to both the profound challenges of modernity and a century of unspeakable violence, breaking open and potentially revitalizing theology and spirituality in four areas:

1. Christology;
2. Trinity or cosmic theology;
3. Earth (or environmental theology); and
4. Eros and the feminine in God (sexuality, feminist theology).

He adds that sophiology could lead to a new “apocalyptic theology,” “a theology of crisis” -- a bold attempt to retrieve the biblical vision of manifold creation and the diverse human community as essentially one, bound together in the life story of God from the beginning of time.
 
“Christ/Sophia is the presence of God breaking into history now,” Pramuk writes, “calling human persons to a decisive break from the past, and renewing in the world, through human hearts and hands, a ‘sense of community with things in the work of salvation.’”
 
Pramuk concludes that the sophiological tradition implies a way of life -- a commitment to prayer, community, simplicity, solitude, artistic and vocation creativity, and asceticism -- all tested means in the Christian tradition for cultivating a wider love in relation to the world. It’s what monastic spirituality calls purity of heart, poverty of spirit -- what Merton called “the prayerful ground of sanity, of peace.”
 
Sophia is more than a metaphor for the universal presence of God, a kind of anonymous Christology in a feminine key. It is also a kind of real symbol and revealed name for what Orthodox theology calls “divinization” -- meaning the fullness of participation in the life of God.
 
Pramuk offers, in his own words, “not just Wisdom Christology, but a daring cosmology and theological anthropology, a vision of all things caught up in the life story of God from the beginning.”
 
Were Merton alive Pramuk concludes he would recommend the way of wisdom as “the way forward.”
 
“What we must really do,” Merton told his brother monks at Gethsemani toward the end of his life, “is live our theology.” Pramuk concludes: “To the degree we desire to live in peace with others and in sustainable harmony with ‘Mother Earth,’ we, too, will have to ‘live our theology,’ and all such living begins with prayer.”
 
Thomas Merton called Sophia “the great stabilizer for peace,” which means for me, the wisdom and way of nonviolence. He taught that “living with wisdom” is a life of peace, a life in Christ.
 
I’ve been amazed by the book and have been studying it all summer. While much of it sails over me, I’m excited and heartened by this new understanding of Merton’s awakening to Sophia -- the hidden Christ, the Wisdom of God, who permeates all of life, who liberates us into the fullness of life. I hope that -- like Thomas Merton -- we too can awake to Sophia and discover anew the Wisdom of God within us and among us for the transformation and healing of our lives, our broken church, and the warring world.
 
*****
 
This week, John will receive the “William Sloan Coffin Award” from Peace Action in New York City and will lead a retreat at the Adrian Dominican Center in Michigan. John's latest book, Daniel Berrigan: Essential Writings (Orbis), along with other recent books, A Persistent Peace and Put Down Your Sword, as well as Patricia Normile's John Dear On Peace, are available from www.amazon.com [4]. To contribute to Catholic Relief Services' "Fr. John Dear Haiti Fund," go to: [link=http://donate.crs.org/goto/fatherjohn%3C/a%3E%3C/font%3E]http://donate.crs.org/got...ohn%3C/a%3E%3C/font%3E[/link] [5]. For further information, see: www.johndear.org [6].
 
http://ncronline.org/blogs/road-peace/living-our-theology-merton%E2%80%99s-feminine-image-god