On International Women’s Day 2023, FutureChurch hosts a screening of the BBC documentary “The Women Fighting to be Priests” with special guest Father Anne Tropeano. This recording includes Fr. Anne’s opening remarks and the Q&A session following the screening. To view the film, visit the BBC YouTube Page:
Father Anne, born Anne Tropeano, was ordained on October 16, 2021 in Albuquerque, NM through the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests and is now an independent Roman Catholic priest. She has a deep love of the Society of Jesus and Ignatian spirituality, which blossomed over twelve years of ministering with Jesuits. She earned a Master of Divinity from Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley, CA, and has worked in several parishes in the Jesuits West Province. To learn more about Father Anne, visit her website at https://www.fatheranne.com/.
Winner of the 2020 American Studies Network Book Prize from the European Association for American Studies, MarkNewman draws on a vast range of archives and many interviews to uncover for the first time the complex response of African American and white Catholics across the South to desegregation.
CLICK HERE for a transcript of his remarks on February 23, 2023.
CLICK HERE for a link to a Cambridge Journal article he wrote about the Vatican’s role in Desegregation.
MarkNewman received his PhD from the University of Mississippi and is a fellow of the Royal Historical Society and the Higher Education Academy. His book Getting Right with God: Southern Baptists and Desegregation, 1945-1995 won the Lillian Smith Book Award for nonfiction from the Southern Regional Council, the American Studies Network Book Prize from the European Association for American Studies, and the Anne B. and James B. McMillan Prize from the University of Alabama Press, and the book Desegregating Dixie: The Catholic Church in the South and Desegregation, 1945-1992 the American Studies Network Book Prize from the European Association for American Studies. His article “The Catholic Church in Mississippi and Desegregation, 1963 – 1973” won the Willie D Halsell Prize from the Mississippi Historical Society, the article “Toward ‘Blessings of Liberty and Justice’: The Catholic Church in North Carolina and Desegregation, 1945-1974” received the R. D. W. Connor Award of the Historical Society of North Carolina, and the article “The Catholic Church in the Diocese of Galveston-Houston and Desegregation, 1945-1984” won the Paul Foik Award from the Texas Catholic Historical Society. His research interests include Twentieth century United States: African American history, the civil rights movement, and religion and race relations in the US South.
This depiction of Mary’s Magnificat by Laura James was commissioned by FutureChurch in 2015 for its Mary of Nazareth project. The work shows Mary in a modern, diverse urban setting delivering her Magnificat hymn (Lk 1: 46-55).
Speaking prior to a FutureChurch viewing of the documentary, “Going Home Like a Shooting Star: Thea Bowman’s Journey to Sainthood,” Sister Anita Baird, DHM offers remarks and reflections on her own experience and relationship with Servant of God, Sr. Thea Bowman. FutureChurch hosted the viewing in celebration of Black History Month as a part of its Women Witnesses for Racial Justice series.
Approximately 150 Catholics from the United States and Canada came together for two gatherings hosted by FutureChurch in January 2023 to pray and reflect on the Continental Stage Document.
These responses were offered after two evenings of prayer, listening to Scripture, a review of the Continental Stage Document, small group discussions, and written reflections. The participants were guided by the three questions posed in Part IV of the Continental Stage Document:
After having read and prayed with the DCS, which intuitions resonate most strongly with the lived experiences and realities of the Church in your continent? Which experiences are new or illuminating to you?
After having read and prayed with the DCS, what substantial tension or divergences emerge as particularly important in your continent’s perspective? What are the questions or issues that should be addressed and considered in the next steps of the process?
After having read and prayed with the DCS, looking at what emerges from the previous two questions, what are the priorities, recurring themes and calls to action that can be shared with other local Churches around the world and discussing during the First Session of the Synodal Assembly in October 2023?
Professor Mary Anne Case joins FutureChurch for this “Women Erased” presentation, which focuses on the historical development of Complementarity and the Marian and Petrine principles.
In a recent interview with America Magazine, Pope Francis reaffirmed the church’s embrace of complementarity’s constructs — the Marian and Petrine principles — for organizing ecclesial life, ministry, and governance. The language and framework he cites is a rather recent invention in the history of the Catholic Church. Professor Case offers an overview of the history, timeline, as well as the nuances of papal thought on the topic.
Professor Mary Anne Case is the Arnold I. Shure Professor of Law at the University of Chicago Law School.
Participants came together in prayer, to listen, dialogue, and discern if the Continental Phase Document authentically reflects our concerns, hopes, and priorities for the future of the Church.
FutureChurch hosts the first of two sessions dedicated to discerning the contents of the Synod Continental Phase Document, Enlarge the Space of your Tent. After song, scripture, and prayer, FutureChurch co-director, Deborah Rose offers a summary of the context of the document and the contents of section three, “Towards a missionary synodal church.”
“All Are Welcome” by Marty Haugen. Copyright 1994 by GIA Publications Inc. Music displayed and streamed with permission under OneLicense #A-737115.
Additional Resources:
Continental Phase Document Read More. (It would be very helpful to read Section III as completely as possible)
Highlights and notes from Section I, II, and III of the Continental Phase Document (Deb Rose’s slides) Read more
Summary of FutureChurch Synods Sessions – What Our Participants Said. Read more
FutureChurch hosts the second of two sessions dedicated to discerning the contents of the Synod Continental Phase Document, Enlarge the Space of your Tent. After song, scripture, and prayer, FutureChurch co-director, Deborah Rose offers a summary of the responses provided last week’s participants and invites participants to discern the three questions asked of the Synthesis drafting team:
Which intuitions resonate most strongly with the lived experiences and realities of the Church in your continent? Which experiences are new or illuminating to you?
What substantial tensions or divergences emerge as particularly important in your continent’s perspective? Consequently, what are the questions or issues that should be addressed and considered in the net steps of the process?
Looking at what emerges from the previous two questions, what are the priorities, recurring themes and calls to action that can be shared with other local Churches around the world and discussed during the First Session of the Synodal Assembly in October 2023?
Excerpt: Sadly, the church currently limits the pool of potential preachers to less than half of the Catholic population: men.
But thanks to a website — and now a three-volume series of books — Catholics can access preaching by Catholic women. Catholic Women Preach offers theologically informed perspectives by Catholic women with weekly reflections available as videos, audio/podcasts and written texts.
