The People Speak Out

Local voices connecting globally

This is important: to get to know people, listen, expand the circle of ideas. The world is crisscrossed by roads that come closer together and move apart, but the important thing is that they lead towards the Good.  (Pope Francis)

Canon Law 212 calls upon the laity to speak up:

2 - The Christian faithful are free to make known to the pastors of the Church their needs, especially spiritual ones, and their desires.

§3. - According to the knowledge, competence, and prestige which they possess, they have the right and even at times the duty to manifest to the sacred pastors their opinion on matters which pertain to the good of the Church and to make their opinion known to the rest of the Christian faithful, without prejudice to the integrity of faith and morals, with reverence toward their pastors, and attentive to common advantage and the dignity of persons.

Women in the Church articles

 

I was born and raised a Catholic and attended Catholic school for 12 years. While there was much that I deeply loved about the church, I left in my early twenties when I could no longer tolerate the church’s patronizing attitude toward women. To deny the voice, vocation, and leadership gifts of half of those made in God’s image went against everything I understood and loved about the ministry of Jesus. The pivotal role of Mary Magdalene in the life of Jesus and his ministry is something the leadership in the church has conveniently forgotten and tried endlessly to dismiss. The denial of artificial contraception, the obsession with sin over mercy, and the cynical use of the communion rail to punish and exclude rather than welcome and heal has kept me from the church for over 30 years. There are so many in the church I admire deeply and I read their wisdom every day of my life…Thomas Merton, Thomas Berry, Richard Rohr and Joan Chittister to name only a few. I have a Catholic heart and hope one day to find my way to an alternative Catholic community to share my spiritual gifts and assuage my deep spiritual loneliness. Until that day I remain in exile…with a legion of others.

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