As a Catholic author, speaker, and blogger working from my suburban home, I often marvel at the unique vantage point I have to share my voice in service to the Church I love.
My laptop, a strong wifi connection, and a patient husband combine to enable me to engage in serving my Church between loads of laundry and trips to the market.
This “geeky” living out of my life’s vocation began for me as a hobby.
I wanted to better know my Catholic faith and to more lovingly and effectively share it with my children.
Fifteen years ago, I was happily married to a non-Catholic and was seeking answers to raise our two sons in the faith.
My online search to find other moms facing our family’s challenges rendered few results back then.
Instead of taking a class at my parish, I purchased a domain name and a few of those “For Dummies” web design books and launched a website.
In creating CatholicMom.com, I did not intend to send the message that I was an expert, or even a very holy woman.
Rather, what motivated me was a deeply held desire to connect with other women like myself, women who loved God and wanted to share that love with others.
The years since my early venture into the Catholic blogosphere have blessed us with my husband’s conversion and have formed me in my faith in ways that continually amaze me.
Through the prism of newfound relationships with holy Catholic women literally around the world, I now have tangible evidence of what Saint Pope John Paul II truly meant when he gave us his theological teachings on the feminine genius.
For me, the words of Mulieris Dignatatem have been echoed and lived out in real-life friendships with my coworkers in that vineyard popularly called the Catholic blogosphere.
In an age when many discount the role of women in the Church, I hold an opposite perspective, one edified by personal relationships.
Indeed, Pope Francis recently addressed the International Theological Commission on “The Role of Women in Theology” stating, “Female theologians are able to take up certain unexplored aspects of the unfathomable mystery of Christ.”
His observations mirror my own experience online, where I have a front row perspective to witness women of varying ages and vocations who have devoted their lives to the New Evangelization.
While few of them would perhaps call themselves theologians they have engaged me in a more profound consideration of gospel truths.
To better understand what lies at the heart of women’s successful foray into the New Evangelization, it helps to consider the motivation for those who find themselves ministering online. Continue reading
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