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Prayer Service in Celebration of Sister Antona Ebo

Written on November 3, 2020. Posted in Women Witnesses for Racial Justice.

On All Saints Day, November 1, 2020, FutureChurch opened its Celebrating Women Witnesses for Racial Justice project with a prayer service inspired by the life and witness of civil rights icon, Sr. Antona Ebo, who marched for voting rights, desegregated her congregations, and worked for racial justice until her death in 2017.

Music:
Gather Your People. Text and Music © 1991, Bob Hurd. Published by OCP Publications. All Rights Reserved. Used with permission under ONE LICENSE #A-737115.
I’m Gonna Do What the Spirit Says Do. Text and music African American Spiritual.
We Are Marching/Siyahamba. Text and Music Traditional South African. © 1991, Peace of Music Publishing AB, Admin by Walton Music Corp., A division of GIA Publications, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Used with permission under ONE LICENSE #A-737115.

Thank you to:
Prayer Leader: Sr. Nicole Trahan
Readers: Danielle Harrison, Leslye Colvin, Sr. Chris Schenk, Joan Sattler, Respondent: Karen Gargamelli McCreight Musician: Jim Carr

Fr. Bryan Massingale Accepts the 2020 Louis Trivison Award

Written on October 27, 2020. Posted in Fall Event.

Introduced by Deborah Rose-Milavec, Fr. Bryan Massingale accepts our 2020 Fr. Louis J. Trivison Award and offers a powerful presentation on racial justice in society and church.

A leader in the field of theological ethics and preeminent voice for racial justice in the American Church, Bryan N. Massingale is the James and Nancy Buckman Professor of Theological and Social Ethics, as well as the Senior Ethics Fellow in Fordham’s Center for Ethics Education.

He is a past Convener of the Black Catholic Theological Symposium and a former president of the Catholic Theological Society of America. Massingale strives to be a scholar-activist through serving faith-based groups advancing justice in society. He has served as a consultant to the United States Catholic Conference of Bishops, providing theological assistance on issues such as criminal justice, capital punishment, environmental justice, and affirmative action. He has also been a consultant to the National Black Catholic Congress, Catholic Charities USA, the Catholic Health Association, Catholic Relief Services, the Leadership Conference of Religious Women, the Conference of Major Superiors of Men, the National Catholic AIDS Network, and the antiracism teams of Call to Action and Pax Christi USA. He is an active participant in a network of Catholic thought leaders striving for fuller inclusion of LGBT persons in society and the faith community. He is the author of Racial Justice and the Catholic Church.

2020 Keynote Presentation by Cecilia Gonzalez-Andrieu

Written on October 27, 2020. Posted in Fall Event.

Dr. Cecilia González-Andrieu, Ph.D. presents a frank look at what the debris and fissures of our present moment reveal about what we must do differently as Church in the world and for the world.

An internationally sought-after speaker and scholar, Cecilia González-Andrieu is Professor of Theology and Theological Aesthetics at Loyola Marymount University, where she also works on multiple initiatives to serve the Latinx community, especially undocumented students and workers. As a scholar-activist González-Andrieu speaks and marches with those who thirst for the liberative power of theological thought and is a contributing writer for America Magazine and a member of the board of directors of the Ignatian Solidarity Network. Bringing together her scholarship, teaching, and service she has dedicated herself to educating and empowering young Catholics to embody a “faith that does justice.” She received her Ph.D. in Art & Religion and Systematic Theology from the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, and is also a double alumna of LMU. A respected lecturer on issues of political theology, theological aesthetics, and Latino theology González-Andrieu was just named the GTU’s 2020 Alumna of the Year. She is the author of the acclaimed book Bridge to Wonder: Art as a Gospel of Beauty, co-editor of Teaching Global Theologies: Power and Praxis, and a contributor to many other books and international journals, including Go Into the Streets: The Welcoming Church of Pope Francis and the forthcoming Miradas a todo color: Teologías feministas contextuales ibero-americanas.

Read Dr. González-Andrieu’s feature article for America Magazine which is based on this presentation.

Doris Wagner Reisinger Accepts the 2020 Christine Schenk Award

Written on October 27, 2020. Posted in Fall Event.

Introduced by Sr. Christine Schenk, Doris Wagner Reisinger accepts the Sr. Christine Schenk Award for Young Catholic Leaders and offers remarks regarding the sexual abuse crisis in the Church.

An advocate for victim-survivors of sexual abuse, Doris (Wagner) Reisinger is a scholar, philosopher, theologian, author, and former nun.

Reisinger currently serves as a research assistant in the Department of Catholic Theology at Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany and is a professor at Jesuit’s University Sankt Georgen. She is currently serving as a fellow on the Gender, Sex, and Power: Towards a History of Clergy Sex Abuse in the U.S. Catholic Church project at Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism at the University of Notre Dame. While a nun, she was sexually assaulted by an Austrian priest who was an official at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Reisinger left her order in 2011 and finished her theology studies in 2014. That same year, she published her autobiography, which recounts her experiences as a victim-survivor of sexual assault within the Roman Catholic Church. In 2018, she made international headlines when she spoke of her experiences at the Voices of Faith Conference in Rome, prompting the resignation of her abuser.

Remembering Fr. Louis Trivison

Written on October 27, 2020. Posted in Fall Event.

FutureChurch Co-founder and founding executive director, Sr. Christine Schenk, invites FutureChurch founding members to remember and reflect on the life and contribution of FutureChurch Co-founder Fr. Louis Trivison.

Women Erased: #NunsToo with Tara Tuttle

Written on October 8, 2020. Posted in Women Erased, Women In Church Leadership.

The sexual exploitation/abuse of women religious by Catholic priests was first reported by Sr. Maureen O’Donoghue in her 1994 report to the Vatican — a report that remained largely overlooked until 2001. This practice of “erasing” the experience and reality of Catholic women remains today. Professor Tara M. Tuttle probes the manner in which media outlets submerged the experiences and realities of Catholic women, both lay and consecrated, as they sought to affirm their own biases regarding the connection between clergy sexual abuse and homosexuality. That motif, along with inordinate deference for prelate and priest abusers, corrupted the truth and propped up the abuser’s narrative where women’s credibility was questioned and their efforts to access justice were routinely discounted or despised. Thus, women, accused of treachery against the Church for going public, suffered, too often, in silence.

Professor Tara M. Tuttle is the Assistant Dean of Diversity and Inclusion and a Senior Lecturer in the Lewis Honors College. She has a Ph.D. in Humanities with an emphasis in 20th century American culture, a graduate certificate in Women’s and Gender Studies from the University of Louisville, and an MA in Humanities from Indiana State University.

Women Erased: Talking Truth About Sacraments with Susan Ross, Ph.D.

Written on September 23, 2020. Posted in Women Erased, Women In Church Leadership.

Women have always been at the heart of the sacraments and the sacramental life of the Catholic Church. In the real world where Catholics participate in the Eucharist and the Eucharistic life of the parish/community, women are the backbone. But their ministry is, too often, erased — unrecognized, and undervalued in that they do not receive the same official sanction as male ministers – yielding both sacramental grace and authority for their ministry. Dr. Susan A. Ross, argues that when it comes to the sacraments, the requirements of Catholic social justice have not applied, a disjuncture that severely limits the transformative power of the Eucharist and our common sacramental life. Yet, she also calls attention to what is changing – mapping the opportunities for transformation and emerging realities that are currently redefining our common sacramental life.

Women Erased: Restoring the Memory of Black Catholic Women with Anita Baird, DHM

Written on August 22, 2020. Posted in Women Erased, Women In Church Leadership.

Black Catholic Women have been instrumental in shaping the life and faith of the Church, yet, our collective memory of their work, courage, challenge, generosity, and faith is too often made “invisible” in our Catholic education, Catholic liturgy, and Catholic art. Sr. Anita Baird, a native of Chicago, IL, and a member of the Religious Congregation of the Society of the Daughters of the Heart of Mary shares the stories of some of the Black Catholic Women who challenged the Church, challenged their communities, and brought enormous change to this country as they stood against racism and for a more just Catholic Church and world.