Emily Reimer-Barry, Ph.D. presents FutureChurch’s first Respect Women Lecture. In her presentation, Dr. Barry addresses obstacles to women’s full participation in the leadership and decision-making of the Church and the justice consequences of such exclusion. She also presents an action plan for structural change and the full inclusion of women.
Dr. Emily Reimer-Barry is an associate professor and the chair of the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of San Diego. She teaches courses in Catholic theological ethics, including sexual ethics, feminist ethics, war and peace, and ethical responses to HIV and AIDS. Reimer-Barry’s research explores the intersection of sexuality and social justice. She is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame (B.A. 2000), Weston Jesuit School of Theology (M.T.S., 2002), and Loyola University Chicago (Ph.D., 2008).
Upon the death of Pope Benedict XVI, FutureChurch offers prayers for him and the church and condolences to his family and friends.
Pope Benedict
The late pope offered the church consequential gifts. Most prominent among those gifts was his decision to resign his papacy. The recognition of his limitations in carrying out the functions required of a pope rightly helped de-mystify the office and humanize the people who sit at the helm of authority in the Church.
But it must not be forgotten that Pope Benedict XVI left a legacy of pain for many faith-filled Catholics; especially women, LGBTQI+ Catholics, and those who had the courage to publicly dissent from his doctrinaire views.
While affirming women’s equal dignity in the church and recognizing that the roles that women held in the early Church were in no way secondary,* his actions belied his distrust of women and their Spirit-led faith and authority. As prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and later, as pope, he became a chief curator and enforcer of church laws, teachings, and policies that sought to keep women subordinate and silenced.
During his tenure, he investigated the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) twice. During the 2012 offensive, the Vatican accused the LCWR of promoting “radical feminist themes” and “corporate dissent” and fully intended to seize significant control over the most prominent and most trusted Catholic organization of women in the country.
The Vatican also harshly criticized Professor Elizabeth Johnson, CSJ, casting aspersions on her feminist scholarship with fallacious arguments.
These attacks on the nuns led to one of the most notable uprisings of Catholics in the United States. Ordinary Catholics and reform organizations (including FutureChurch) organized hundreds of protests in support of the nuns and their courageous, compassionate, and Gospel led ministries. Under the banner of “NunJustice,” representatives delivered over 17,500 signatures to the Vatican urging them to quell the attacks and honor the work of the most respected Catholic authority in the country – women religious.
Further, as Pope Benedict dealt out punishments, he offered clerics who sexually abused children and committed crimes the benefit of a process, while automatically excommunicating the pioneering women who chose a path to priestly ordination. The clericalism and sexism used to justify those decisions were in plain sight at every turn.
As New Ways Ministry and DignityUSA clearly demonstrate, the pope’s policies and teachings on homosexuality have devastated our LGBTQI+ friends and family and caused immense suffering and pain.
While we grieve the loss of Pope Benedict XVI, we must not expunge the record when it comes to his many efforts to keep women subordinate and LGBTQI+ people excluded. The policies set while he served as prefect of the CDF and later as pope, matter today. Women and LGBTQI+ Catholics still suffer the effects of his policies in a Church that continues to undermine their authentic value, gifts, wisdom, and authority.
In a Church still plagued by sexism, homophobia, clericalism, and other forms of injustice, we will continue to raise up the voices of justice; pray; and work to bring healing, hope, and love to all those who suffered during his time in power.
Catholic Women Preach: Raising Voices, Renewing the Church, Cycle A
Elizabeth Donnelly and Russ Petrus, Editors
with Foreword by Sr. Barbara Reid, OP
2022 | Orbis Books
Emerging from the ground-breaking website, Catholic Women Preach, a project of FutureChurch, comes this new collection of reflections on the readings for Sundays and other feast days, offering an invaluable resource for weekly meditation, an inspiration for homilists, and an aid to enriching the church with diverse voices and experiences.
Published by Orbis Books, this first of three volumes of Catholic Women Preach: Raising Voices, Renewing the Church covers Cycle A of the liturgical calendar and opens with an energizing foreword by Sr. Barbara Reid, OP, one of the world’s leading scholars in feminist interpretation of the Scriptures.
Other contributors include African theologian and gender justice advocate, Nontando Hadebe; Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipient, Sr. Simone Campbell, SSS; esteemed womanist and Black Catholic theologian, M. Shawn Copeland; acclaimed author and speaker, Sr. Joan Chittister, OSB; and executive director of Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley, Sr. Norma Pimentel, MJ.
Together, the sixty-four contributors represent an extraordinary range of voices – religious and lay, scholars, activists, and pastoral leaders of every age and ethnicity.
Mary Magdalene Proclaims Resurrection! (c) 2021 by Laura James/Rita Houlihan is one of a series four panels created by Laura James based on John 20. The series was commissioned by Rita L. Houlihan for FutureChurch with the goal of helping to reclaim the true story of Mary Magdalene as Apostle of the Apostles.
This panel depicts Mary Magdalene in the upper room, having already interacted with the Risen Christ and commissioned by him to “go and tell” the others, proclaiming – for the first time – the Good News of Resurrection.
The inscription, taken from A Women’s Lectionary for the Whole Church by the Rev. Wilda C. Gafney, Ph.D. (Church Publishing, 2021) reads, “Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, ‘I have seen the Savior’; and she told them he had said these things to her.”
The other three panels in the series are Called By Name, Jesus Commissions Mary Magdalene, and Pentecost: Jesus Sends Them Out. The four panels were recently exhibited as part of Black is Blessed: The Art of Laura James at The Sheen Center for Thought and Culture in the Archdiocese of New York.
This week, despite the valiant efforts of some reform-minded prelates, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, by their elections, discussions, and decisions signaled their intent to continue looking backwards.
The conference has, once again, chosen a culture war mentality when a majority of faith-filled U.S. Catholics are seeking an authentically welcoming and inclusive community.
The conference has chosen to stand by their single-issue voting guidance when a majority of U.S. Catholics seek support for the difficult job of discerning how the fullness of the Gospel mandate should impact their voting decisions.
The conference celebrated the 20th anniversary of the Dallas Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People while electing a churchman as president who oversees the diocese with the greatest number of clergy sex abuse cases in the country (BishopAccountability.org).
In essence, the conference continues to uphold a glorified moral certainty and to build walls to insulate themselves from anyone who would challenge them, rather than courageously and humbly follow the example of their brother bishop in Rome who, throughout his papacy, has consistently chosen love over security, trust over control, and service over power.
Yet, despite the trajectory of the U.S. Bishops’ conference, there is Good News.
Even as the USCCB continues down a path that offers scant light and love, the Church – the People of God – guided by the Holy Spirit will continue moving forward toward a future rich with possibility. Synodality, a radically inclusive way of being church where open-hearted listening, faith-filled discernment, and decision making that arises from wisdom born of community, will mark our future. With a clear, steady focus on living out the synodal priorities and style of Pope Francis, Catholics will continue to breathe new life into the Church we love.
Professor Rafael Luciani, S.T.D. is a world renown expert on synodality in the Catholic Church who knows much about the current efforts of Pope Francis to create a new phase in the reception of Vatican II — a church that “walks together” discerning the future.
Professor Luciani argues that what is at stake is nothing less that the Church’s fidelity to her calling as a follower of Jesus and her response to the new signs of the times. He contends that synodality is a re-ordering of relationships within the church. In this new ecclesial “we”, all the faithful – from the pope to the laity – are equals in a communion, with the same responsibility regarding the identity, vocation, and mission of the Church.
Professor Rafael Luciani is lay theologian from Venezuela who has been appointed as Expert of the Theological Commission of the General Secretariat for the Synod of Bishops. He holds degrees of Doctor in Theology and Licenciate in Dogmatic Theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University of Rome; Baccalaureatum in Philosophy and Baccalaureatum in Theology from the Pontifical Salesian University of Rome; and Licenciate in Education (with mention in Philosophy) earned from the Jesuit`s Catholic University Andrés Bello in Caracas. He is an Associate Professor of the Practice at Boston College and is currently engaged in postdoctoral research activities at the Julius-Maximilians Universität in Würzburg, Germany.
He is the author of Synodality: A New Way of Proceeding in the Church, the book FutureChurch used during our three-week book study in October.
In August, approximately 150 Catholics gathered weeklyfor a virtual four-part study of Subversive Habits: Black Catholic Nuns in the Long African American Freedom Struggle, sponsored by FutureChurch. This examination of the pioneering research by Shannen Dee Williams drew both Black Catholics and white Catholics. It also drew members of religious communities.
This intentional, albeit temporary, community of seekers understood that they were being invited to bear witness to a difficult truth about our Catholic history, a truth that had long been submerged and denied. Using the tools of faith — prayer, song, study and witness — the group learned, listened deeply and held themselves accountable as they explored gut-wrenching realities together.
The first night of FutureChurch’s 32nd Annual Fall Event – “Fertile Ground: Building a Synodal Church” features remarks from our award recipients, Yunuen Trujillo and Sr. Maureen Sullivan, OP. Don’t miss the special appearance by Sr. Jeannine Gramick, SL or Deb Rose’s celebration of the publication of Catholic Women Preach: Raising Voices, Renewing the Church.
Emerging from the ground-breaking website, 
Mary Magdalene Proclaims Resurrection! (c) 2021 by Laura James/Rita Houlihan is one of a series four panels created by Laura James based on John 20. The series was commissioned by Rita L. Houlihan for FutureChurch with the goal of helping to reclaim the true story of Mary Magdalene as Apostle of the Apostles.
