Author: Russ Petrus

Become like children and reclaim our connection with wisdom

Written on May 26, 2021. Posted in In the News.

Excerpt:

In a recent webinar for FutureChurch, Sr. Sandra Schneiders described religious life as a “highly specific way to structure, organize and express one’s relationship with Ultimate Reality,” a life that is a “total, irrevocable, self-donation to God,” … a “single-minded search for God.”

We know from Scripture that the God we seek is the God longing to be found, and that we have an innate capacity for genuine and direct experience of God, often called mystical. For some who have experienced spiritual and sexual abuse, whether religious or lay, the light of this capacity for deep connection to wisdom dwelling within seems an impossible dream. For them, mystical experiences are only for special people, not us ordinary or wounded ones. However, theologian Karl Rahner refutes this in a collection of lectures in Theological Investigations, 1961-92. He said it is time to move mysticism from the margins to the heart of being Christian. Thus, any and all wounded Christians are included.

Listening to and telling the stories of Latino Catholics

Written on May 24, 2021. Posted in In the News.

Excerpt:

Latinos are not just the future of the U.S. Catholic Church, they are the present and they have been a significant part of its history, according to Natalia Imperatori-Lee, professor of religious studies at Manhattan College, who gave a virtual talk on “The Critical Role of Latina Women in Leading the U.S. Catholic Church Today” May 18 as part of FutureChurch‘s “Women Erased” series.

Latinos are not a monolithic group, and they are not all immigrants. Some Spanish-speaking Catholics have lived in what is now the United States for twice as long as the nation has existed, Imperatori-Lee said, citing the work of historian and theologian Timothy Matovina of the University of Notre Dame.

“If we want to honor the dignity of the whole people of God, it’s important that we tell their stories and listen to the stories they tell,” Imperatori-Lee said. “A well-told story makes their experience count.”

Women Erased: The Latinx Future of the Church with Natalia Imperatori-Lee, Ph.D.

Written on May 19, 2021. Posted in Women Erased, Women In Church Leadership.

Professor Natalia Imperatori-Lee explores how dominant narratives about Catholicism in the United States often render the stories of its significant and growing Latinx membership, especially that of Latina women invisible or irrelevant. Few U.S. Catholics understand that Latinx/Hispanic Catholics encompass both the oldest Catholic inhabitants of this land and its newest arrivals. Through the literary and artist works of Latina women like Rosario Ferré and Yolanda López, as well as the popular faith practices such as the devotion to Guadalupe, Imperatori-Lee illustrates how the sensus fidelium subverts institutional notions of holiness and offers a more truthful, complicated, but wholistic understanding of the intuitions and holiness of the laity, in general, and women in particular.

Natalia Imperatori-Lee is Professor of Religious Studies at Manhattan College in the Bronx, NY, where she also coordinates the Catholic Studies program. She is the author of Cuéntame: Narrative in the Ecclesial Present (Orbis Books, 2018). Her work has appeared in Theological Studies and The Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion. A Cuban-American native of Miami, Florida, Imperatori-Lee has served on the Board of Directors of the Catholic Theological Society of America and the Academy of Catholic Hispanic Theologians of the US. She lives in the Bronx with her spouse and two sons.

Prayer Service in Celebration of Anna “Madre” Bates

Written on May 12, 2021. Posted in Women In Church Leadership, Women Witnesses for Racial Justice.

FutureChurch celebrates the life and witness of Anna Madre Bates with this prayer service for Mother’s Day. We celebrate the motherhood of Anna Bates, founder of Our Lady of Victory Parish in Detroit, MI and lament our Church’s failure to “mother” all her children, particularly Black Catholics. Our prayer is led by Vickey McBride with witnesses from Shirley Slaughter Harris and Dr. Kimberly Lymore.

Music printed and streamed with permission under ONE LICENSE #A-737115.

The far-flung sisters of Global Sisters Report form instant connection

Written on April 23, 2021. Posted in In the News.

Excerpt:

Earlier this week, I was reviewing a webinar on women religious by Sr. Sandra Schneiders of the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. The presentation was part of a FutureChurch series called “Women Erased.”

She said when she prepared to address the topic, she was a little puzzled at the idea of erasure when it came to women religious. Ignored? Denigrated? Abused? Maybe. But erased?

I laughed when she described how we had even survived recent attempts of a patriarchal church to “domesticate” us. Religious life continues to produce stellar women who excel in their chosen fields of the arts, education, health care, politics and theology — not exactly the faceless, nameless “good sisters” of yesteryear — and who are less dependent on numbers than on competence and call.

Acknowledging declining numbers and increasing age in some parts of the world, she marveled at how younger members entering in small numbers don’t seem focused on ministry, property, dress or survival, but on how to engage with like-minded others in what they are giving themselves to: becoming religious women.

We must restore the powerful witness of women leaders to the Catholic lectionary

Written on April 16, 2021. Posted in In the News.

Excerpt:

My ears perked up last week when I learned that Pope Francis had authorized a “visitation” at the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments following the recent retirement of that office’s prefect, Cardinal Robert Sarah.

I couldn’t agree more with Jesuit Fr. Tom Reese’s opinion that this office “has done little to support badly needed liturgical reform.”

But it is not for want of trying on the part of reform-minded Catholics.

In 2008 a two-year campaign supported by nearly 20,000 Catholics worldwide asked the Synod of Bishops on the Word of God to restore biblical women leaders to lectionary texts from which their witness had been diminished or deleted. Full disclosure: I helped spearhead this campaign and was in Rome during the synod, albeit watching around the edges.

Black Lives Matter and the Catholic Church with Olga Segura

Written on April 9, 2021. Posted in Justice In the Church, Women In Church Leadership, Women Witnesses for Racial Justice.

Join Olga Marina Segura joins FutureChurch to discuss her book, Birth of A Movement: Black Lives Matter and the Catholic Church, Her presentation offers insights into the founding of the Black Lives Matter movement, the church’s involvement with slavery, and the Catholic Church’s response to the recent deaths of Trayvon Martin, George Floyd, and Breonna Taylor.

Olga Marina Segura is a freelance writer and the opinion editor at National Catholic Reporter. She is the author of Birth of A Movement: Black Lives Matter and the Catholic Church, which will be published on February 17, 2021. You can pre-order here. Previously, she was an associate editor at America Media, where she wrote and solicited articles on race and culture. She is a co-founder and former co-host of the podcast, “Jesuitical.” Her writing has appeared in The Guardian, Latino Rebels, Shondaland, Sojourners, Refinery29, and The Revealer. Prior to working at America Media, Olga was an intern at the Permanent Mission of the Dominican Republic to the United Nations. She graduated from Fordham University with a Bachelor of Arts in English and a Bachelor of Arts in Italian Language and Literature. She speaks Italian and Spanish fluently and was born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

Visit https://www.orbisbooks.com/birth-of-a-movement-black-lives-matter-and-the-catholic-church.html to purchase “Birth of a Movement.”

Elise Dubravec Introduces Stations of the Cross

Stations of the Cross: Black Catholic Women Bear Witness

Written on April 2, 2021. Posted in Women In Church Leadership, Women Witnesses for Racial Justice.

FutureChurch marks Good Friday with a special presentation of the Stations of the Cross, following Jesus’ passion and the Black Catholic women who bore that cross in pursuit of racial justice in the Church and society. As a sign of our commitment to learn, grow, and take up the work of anti-racism and our intention to be an example to other potential allies in the pursuit of racial justice, FutureChurch deliberatly chose to have white voices share these important stories.

Art of Janet McKenzie and Chloe Marie Becker used with permission. Visit:

www.janetmckenzie.com (Stations)
www.chloemariebecker.com (Portaits)

Music displayed and streamed under ONE LICENSE #A-737115.