National Catholic Reporter’sBrian Fraga joins FutureCurch to speak on the web of “dark money” flowing from conservative and right wing sources to Catholic organizations in the United States. Several of these same donors have also funneled money to far-right groups that the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League have described as white nationalist organizations. Some of those recipients worked to spread false information about election fraud and were involved in planning demonstrations that preceded the Jan. 6, 2021, assault at the United States Capitol.
Brian Fraga is a staff reporter at National Catholic Reporter. He covers news pertaining to the Catholic Church in the United States. He was previously a contributing editor at Our Sunday Visitor and has written for a variety of Catholic publications over the last decade. Brian was also a reporter for daily newspapers in Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York and New Mexico.
Sr. Maureen Sullivan, OP joins FutureChurch for another engaging four-week series exploring Vatican II documents as the foundation for the 2023 Synod. As we get more familiar with the documents of Vatican II and engage in the synod process, we make the Second Vatican Council a greater reality today.
Dr. Maureen Sullivan is a Dominican Sister of Hope from New York and Professor Emerita of Theology at St. Anselm College in New Hampshire. She received her master of arts in Theology from Manhattan College in the Bronx and her PhD in Theology from Fordham University, also in the Bronx. The Second Vatican Council, along with its impact on our Church, is at the center of her theological research. She has written two books on this topic: 101 Questions and Answers on Vatican II (2002) and The Road to Vatican II: Key Changes in Theology (2007), both published by Paulist Press.
Session One: Vatican II and Synodality
In this first session, Sr. Maureen provides a foundation, exploring Vatican II and synodality. Ongoing sessions will explore a number of Vatican II documents in depth and come to understand how Vatican II serves as the foundation for the upcoming Synod on Communion, Participation, and Mission.
In this second session, Sr. Maureen discusses the Second Vatican Council’s Declaration on Religious Liberty – Dignitatis Humanae – and how it lays a foundation for the Synod on Synodality.
In this third session, Sr. Maureen discusses the Second Vatican Council’s Declaration on Divine Revelation – Dei Verbum – and how our understanding of Scripture and Tradition bolster a synodal vision of Church.
In this fourth and final presentation, Sr. Maureen discusses the legacy of Vatican II as an unfolding reality that the Synod on Synodality continues today.
FutureChurch hosted a special screening of THE FORBIDDEN CALL, a documentary short by AnaMichele Morejon. We were joined by AnaMichele and Diane Whalen, the film’s subject, for conversation and questions and answers following the screening. Because THE FORBIDDEN CALL is still in the festival circuit, we are unable to present the film itself. This recording, however, captures the conversation that follows.
Diane Whalen experienced a call to priesthood when she was very young and answered that call in whatever ways were available to her in parish ministries, as a Jesuit Volunteer, social worker, and spiritual director. She completed a BA in Religious studies, Masters in Social Work, MA in Ministry and D.Min in Spiritual Direction and continues her work of spiritual direction. She and her husband, Bill have been happily married for 45 years and have two adult daughters. Diane loves people and finds great joy serving Holy Wisdom Inclusive Catholic Community in Olympia, WA. Visit https://www.holywisdomicc.org to learn more.
AnaMichele Morejon is a filmmaker from South Florida who is fascinated by stories of people who challenge the norm. A deep curiosity about the world motivates her creative work, which explores themes at the intersection of identity, belief, and modern culture. A recent graduate of Loyola Marymount University, AnaMichele currently executes online engagement strategy as an Assistant Producer for PatchWorks Films. Visit www.anamichele.com for more information about AnaMichele and her work.
Professor Shaily Patel joins FutureChurch for this “Women Erased” series presentation. After sharing her thoughts on the ethical considerations that historians must take into account, Professor Patel offers 3 case studies for models of female leadership in the early Church.
Shaily Patel is assistant professor of early christianity in the Department of Religion and Culture at Virginia Tech. She earned her PhD from The University of North Carolina in 2017 and holds master’s degrees from Vanderbilt Divinity School and The University of Chicago. Dr. Patel’s research and teaching is dedicated to complicating easy assertions about the past, and about past Christians in particular. She teaches courses in New Testament, Christian apocryphal texts, orthodoxy and heresy, and demonology and exorcism. In each of her courses, she emphasizes the variety of early Christian groups and their respective beliefs. She locates early Christians within their cultural contexts, demonstrating how these multiple Christianities converge with or diverge from their Graeco-Roman origins.
In this three-part series, Carol Meyers, Ph.D., debunks the myths that have been handed down to us about women in Ancient Israel. Using archaeological, sociological, and biblical scholarship, she helps us reconstruct what life was really like for these women and how to better understand the scriptures in light of this information.
Carol Meyers, Ph.D., is the Mary Grace Wilson Professor Emerita of Religious Studies at Duke University. She received the A.B. with honors from Wellesley College and the M.A. and Ph.D. in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies from Brandeis University. Meyers has published more than 450 articles, reports, reference-book entries, and reviews; and she has authored, co-authored, or edited twenty-two books. Her 2013 book, Rediscovering Eve: Ancient Israelite Women in Context, is a landmark study of women in ancient Israelite society. Meyers has worked on numerous digs since she was an undergraduate and has co-directed several archaeological projects in Israel. She has been a frequent consultant for media productions relating to archaeology and the Bible, including A&E’s Mysteries of the Bible series, DreamWorks’s “Prince of Egypt,” NOVA’s “The Bible’s Buried Secrets,” and several National Geographic documentaries. She has served as President of the Society of Biblical Literature and is currently a trustee of the American Society of Overseas Research, the Dead Sea Scrolls Foundation, and the Albright Institute of Archaeological Research in Jerusalem.
Part One: The Latest Word on the First Lady
Eve has a bad rap in Jewish and Christian tradition: seductress, first sinner, cause of male domination––the list goes on. But does she deserve it? This presentation will take advantage of the fact that we have just marked the 100th anniversary of the historic 19th Amendment to review some of the ways the suffragettes tried to deal with the problem of Eve in the Eden narrative. Then it will show how biblical scholarship of the 21st century rescues Eve from notoriety and even elevates her above Adam!
Part Two: Work and Worth – Women’s Household Activities in Ancient Israel
Women in the biblical period were just “wives and mothers.” Right? Not at all. Rather, they had important economic and social roles. Using archaeological materials as well as biblical texts, this presentation examines AND evaluates women’s contributions to everyday life. This approach shows that women had a greater role in Israelite culture than might otherwise have been imagined.
Part Three: Archaeology and the Hidden Religious Culture of Israelite Women
Who were the most important religious figures in ancient Israel? Most people would say that the priests were. But they would be wrong. The major arena of religious life for most people in the biblical period was the household, and the major figures in household religious activities were women. This lecture takes you into the Israelite household, largely invisible in the Bible, and presents an array of archaeological materials and fascinating ethnographic data to reveal women’s household religious activities.
In her critically acclaimed book Crispina and Her Sisters, author Christine Schenk, C.S.J. explores the archaeological and literary evidence for women’s leadership in early Christianity. Schenk’s original research into visual imagery found on burial artifacts demonstrates that women were far more influential in the ancient world than has been commonly recognized. Yet their paradigm-shifting witness has been all but erased from Christian memory.
Christine Schenk, CSJ has worked as a nurse midwife to low-income families, a community organizer, an award-winning writer-researcher, and the founding director of an international church reform organization, FutureChurch. Her first book Crispina and Her Sisters: Women and Authority in Early Christianity (Fortress Press, 2017) received a first place in history from the Catholic Press Association and her most recent work, To Speak the Truth in Love: A Biography of Sr. Theresa Kane RSM (OrbisBooks 2019) received first place awards from The Association of Catholic Publishers and the Catholic Press Association. She writes a regular column for the National Catholic Reporter and is one of three nuns featured in the award-winning documentary Radical Grace.
Elizabeth Schrader and Joan Taylor present on their article “The Meaning of ‘Magdalene’: A Review of the Literary Evidence,” which was published December 2021 by the Journal of Biblical Literature. Their examination of the Gospel of Luke, Origen, Eusebius, Macarius Magnes, and Jerome, as well as evidence in hagiography, pilgrimage, and diverse literature, reveals multiple ways that the epithet ἡ Μαγδαληνή can be understood and why it is perhaps best left untranslated.
About our presenters
Elizabeth Schrader: Oregon-raised and now based in Durham, NC, Elizabeth “Libbie” Schrader is a doctoral candidate in Early Christianity at Duke University. Her studies focus on Mary Magdalene, the Gospel of John, textual criticism, and feminist theology. Schrader has recently transitioned to religious scholarship after a long career as a singer/songwriter. Her research is already receiving critical acclaim as she advances new theories about the origins of Mary Magdalene.
Prof. Joan Taylor: After a BA degree at Auckland University, New Zealand, Joan completed post-graduate studies at the University of Otago and then went to the British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem (Kenyon Institute) as Annual Scholar in 1986. She undertook a PhD at New College, Edinburgh University, and was appointed in 1992 to a position of lecturer (subsequently senior lecturer) at the University of Waikato, New Zealand, in the departments of both Religious Studies and History. In 1995 she won an Irene Levi-Sala Award in Israel’s archaeology, for the book version of her PhD thesis, Christians and the Holy Places (Oxford: Clarendon, 1993, rev. 2003). In 1996-7 she was Visiting Lecturer and Research Associate in Women’s Studies in Religion at Harvard Divinity School, a position she held in association with a Fulbright Award. She has also been Honorary Research Fellow in the Departments of History and Jewish Studies at University College London. She has taught at King’s College London since 2009. View the engaging and informative documentary on Jesus’ women disciples featuring Joan Taylor.
In this two-part presentation Professor Margaret Susan Thompson shows us how the history of the Catholic Church in the United States was indelibly shaped by the contributions of sisters – by their work in the parochial school system, their founding and administration of hundreds of hospitals, and untold numbers of charitable organizations. These ministries have transformed the lives of millions of Catholics and the social and humanitarian character of the nation itself. Sisters also have long been advocates for social justice, and unlike most priests, have always provided services not only for Catholics but for the entire population. As laypeople, like most Catholics, sisters have experienced the impact of “engendered power” applied to them by generations of priests and prelates. This presentation will reveal the perhaps surprising history of their resistance and suggest ways we can all learn from their experience as we work collaboratively to build a future church that is more egalitarian and supportive for all believers.
Professor Margaret Susan Thompson is an expert in the history of Catholic women religious in the United States. Her decades long research spans the origins of women’s religious life, the often-treacherous foundings of the first North American communities, the lives of pioneer nuns, ethnic and assimilation issues, tensions with clergy, Vatican II and its impacts, current circumstances, and much more.
Elizabeth Johnson, CSJ (2014 Keynote Address, LCWR annual meeting)
“I grew committed to bringing women’s voices to the table…. It means using the human dignity of women as one lens through which we think about other religious and ethical subjects. It means attending to poverty, lack of education, sexual violence, and other injustices that ruin women’s lives. It means employing theologically what promotes the flourishing of women in all their diversity.”
“As we spend these next days reflecting… I would like to start our explorations by reminding us that not all revelation comes with light—but that we have a long biblical history of God working with people in the mystery of darkness. The problem is that we have associated darkness with evil and created a sense of fear around it, thus seeking to avoid the experience. The poet Mary Oliver wrote: ‘Someone I love once gave me a box full of darkness. It took me years to understand that this, too, was a gift.’ “
