A conference in Rome has seen searching questions posed about unnecessary restrictions on women in the Catholic Church. The Pontifical “Antonianum” University and four embassies to the Holy See sponsored the conference held on Tuesday. It came after Pope Francis’s invitation to seek a “more widespread and incisive female presence” in the Church. According to Read more
He has infuriated hundreds of feminists in America, shared his faith by writing Easter editorials, and been called all manner of insults – but Garth George says he has loved sharing his views through his columns. Since the beginning of this year, that love started to disappear and his weekly columns in the Bay of Read more
A distinguished American feminist theologian says post-Vatican II renewal has not taken place in the Church’s hierarchy. Fordham University theologian Sr Elizabeth Johnson told an assembly of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious in Nashville that tension between the Vatican and women religious has historical, sociological and ecclesiastical roots. But a solution could be found, Read more
“THAT is totally untenable!” my friend yelled over the party music. “You can’t be a feminist and a Christian.” \ She was a staunch atheist, and spent the evening telling me, as many have done before, that Christianity is unavoidably and embarrassingly patriarchal. She urged me to throw off the shackles of my misogynistic faith. Read more
In the introduction to the Tenth Anniversary Edition of The Feminine Mystique, Betty Friedan wrote, “It’s frightening when you’re starting on a new road that no one has been on before. You don’t know how far it’s going to take you until you look back and realize how far, how very far you’ve gone.” Indeed. Read more
A father-son bonding session planned by a North Island primary school was cancelled after a single mother demanded to be included. Two “Band of Brothers” seminars were arranged by Matakana School to help fathers get more involved in their sons’ lives, and as a forum for dads to share their issues. One session was for Read more
In a recently published book on the Eucharist a New Zealand Mercy sister, Dr Kathleen Rushton, has provided an historical context for Pope Francis’ gesture of including women among those whose feet he washed on Holy Thursday. In a chapter entitled Rediscovering Forgotten Features: Scripture, Tradition and Whose Feet May Be Washed on Holy Thursday Night, Read more
Yahoo’s CEO Marissa Mayer caused a furore last year when she said that she didn’t have the ‘militant drive’ and the ‘chip on the shoulder’ that was required of the modern day feminist. It was a statement that seemed directly at odds with her circumstances: the 37-year-old is one of the most powerful women in Read more
Acceptance, a Sydney organisation of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Catholics, “have celebrated a weekly Mass continuously for most of the past 40 years”, notes Kristina Keneally in a recent address. She goes on to speak about how it is that she is a feminist and still a Catholic, and that while she finds in the Read more
The arguments the status of women in the Bible are curious. Some people say that the Bible was enlightened for its time, a crucial step in an evolution (some would say a revolution) of women’s status. Others say that males composed the Bible, that it was the product of patriarchal society, that it was the Read more