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2022 Mary Magdalene Virtual Liturgy

Written on . Posted in Mary of Magdala, Women In Church Leadership.

FutureChurch celebrates the 2022 Feast of St. Mary of Magdala. Our virtual liturgy, “Confronting Gun Violence” was led by Crystal Catalan with preaching from Kimberly Lymore, D.Min.

Dear friends, as we gather today
to celebrate the Feast of St. Mary Magdalene,
we do so in a world plagued by horrific violence of every kind
and still in desperate need of the Easter Good News
first proclaimed by Mary Magdalene some two thousand years ago.

Today, as we reckon with the violence raging around us,
and especially the gun violence that day after day, night after night,
claims lives, shatters families, and terrorizes communities, we remember that Mary – along with other women – remained with Jesus, keeping vigil as he suffered the horrific violence of the cross and left the safety of the upper room to anoint his broken body, and was blessed and sent forth to share the news of Resurrection.

And we pray for the same faith, strength, and courage to
bear witness, to stand vigil,
and to confront evil and violence in our midst.
That we too might become bearers of the Good News:
That light dispels the darkness, that truth exposes the lies,
That love conquers hate, that hope overcomes despair,
That death gives way to new life.

View/Download the Worship Aid

Plaque Replicas of Bronze Relief by Sister Margaret Beaudette, SC (1928-2017) available for purchase here.

 

 

 

The Crisis of Catholic Communications

Written on . Posted in Justice In the Church, TalkUp Tuesday.

David Gibson, longtime Catholic journalist and currently director of the Center on Religion and Culture at Fordham University, discusses his recent National Catholic Reporter article on the decision by the USCCB to shutter Catholic News Service and what it says about their financial priorities, their pastoral priorities, and the entire project of evangelization and communications.

David Gibson was appointed the director of the Center on Religion and Culture at Fordham in July 2017, coming to New York’s Jesuit university after a long career as an award-winning religion journalist, author and filmmaker. He’s also a convert to Catholicism, and came by all those vocations by accident, or Providence, working at the English Program at Vatican Radio in Rome in the late 1980s. He returned to the United States in 1990 and worked for newspapers in the New York area and has written for a variety of magazines and periodicals. He is the author of two books on Catholicism: The Coming Catholic Church: How the Faithful are Shaping a New American Catholicism, and The Rule of Benedict: Pope Benedict XVI and His Battle with the Modern World. Before coming to Fordham, Gibson worked for six years as a national reporter at Religion News Service specializing in coverage of the Vatican and the Catholic Church. Gibson is a frequent media commentator and op-ed writer on topics related to the Catholic Church and religion in America.

FutureChurch Welcomes the Appointment of Three Women to the Dicastery for Bishops; Celebrates Women’s Persistent Call for Equality

Written on . Posted in Press Releases.

Release date: July 14, 2022
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contacts:
Russ Petrus, Co-Director of FutureChurch, 216.228.0869 x2, russ@futurechurch.org
Deborah Rose-Milavec, Co-Director of FutureChurch, 513.673.1401 (mobile), debrose@futurechurch.org

CLEVELAND – On July 13, Pope Francis fulfilled a recent pledge by appointing three women – Sr. Raffaella Petrini, F.S.E., Sr. Yvonne Reungoat, F.M.A., and Dr. Maria Lia Zervino – to the Vatican’s influential Dicastery for Bishops, which advises the pope on episcopal appointments throughout the world.

FutureChurch – alongside many other groups and individuals – has long long advocated for the decoupling of ordination and leadership as one path toward gender equality in the Church and welcomes the appointments.

“These appointments are surely one important step in women’s steady march toward equality in the Church,” said Deborah Rose, Co-Director for FutureChurch. “And even as we express gratitude to Pope Francis for making them, we should also acknowledge and celebrate the generations of Catholic women and their allies – prophets – whose tireless pursuit for equality paved the way for them.”

In fact, one of the appointees, Dr. Zervino, herself penned an open letter to Pope Francis in March 2021, writing “I think that not enough has been done in taking advantage of the wealth of women who make up a large part of God’s people.” Moreover, she called on him to expand leadership roles for women in the Church: “May the desire expressed by you, that women enter decision-making groups together with men, cease to be considered a utopia and become something common in the Church.”

FutureChurch also maintains that while progress is being made, full equality will require the ordination of women and the prevalent presence of women in leadership at every level of the Church.

“Bringing more women into these leadership positions is a step in the right direction. Still, we recognize that women receive a call from God to ordained ministry in the Church,” Russ Petrus, Co-Director for FutureChurch. “And in the spirit of synodality, Pope Francis and all Church leaders should listen to their vocation stories and discern where the Spirit may be calling the Church through them.”

Women have always been pastoral and spiritual leaders in their communities, parishes, and families and have increasingly taken up decision-making roles in the Vatican over the last several years. And Pope Francis’ recent reform of the Curia opens up even more possibilities. Progress is being made, but FutureChurch will continue to educate, witness, and advocate until the Church is truly the Body of Christ in the world, fully alive with the gifts, wisdom, and vocations of all its members.

END

About FutureChurch: Headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, FutureChurch seeks changes that will provide all Roman Catholics the opportunity to participate fully in Church life and leadership. It is a national coalition of parish centered Catholics striving to educate fellow Catholics about the seriousness of the priest shortage, the centrality of the Eucharist (the Mass), and the systemic inequality of women in the Catholic Church. FutureChurch is a nonprofit organization that makes presentations throughout the country, distributes education, advocacy and prayer resources and recruits activists who work on behalf of its mission.

2022 Mary of Magdala Virtual Art Tour with Dr. Christine Axen

Written on . Posted in Mary of Magdala, Women In Church Leadership.

FutureChurch begins its 2022 celebration of the Feast Day of Saint Mary of Magdala with a virtual art tour, comparing artistic depictions of Mary Magdalene in the East and West and two homilies that helped to shape those cultural and artistic imaginations.

The misidentification of Mary as reformed public sinner achieved official standing in a homily delivered by Pope Gregory I (540-604). Henceforth, Mary of Magdala became known in the west, not as the strong woman leader who accompanied Jesus through a tortuous death, first witnessed his Resurrection, and proclaimed the Risen Savior to the early church, but as a wanton woman in need of repentance and a life of hidden (and hopefully silent) penitence. The Eastern church, however, never identified her as a prostitute, and honored her throughout history as “the Apostle to the Apostles.” Dr. Axen’s presentation explores how these disparate treatments influence artistic representations of Mary Magdalene.

Dr. Christine Axen, Ph.D. is a medievalist with a specialization in French religious history and female religiosity in the Middle Ages. She received her doctorate from Boston University, and currently teaches art history at St. John’s University in Queens, NY. She also gives guided tours of the Met Cloisters, the medieval branch of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and is interested in the depiction of women in medieval art, and the messages that art conveys about social order.

Prayers:

Opening Prayer
Closing Prayer

Dark Money in the U.S. Catholic Church

Written on . Posted in Justice In the Church, TalkUp Tuesday.

 

National Catholic Reporter’s Brian 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.

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2022 Mary Magdalene Celebration Download

Written on . Posted in Mary of Magdala, Women In Church Leadership.

Thank you for your interest in celebrating the Feast of St. Mary Magdalene with us. Celebrating and lifting up Mary’s true role as Apostle of the Apostles is one of the most important things we can do for our Church and world.

This year, recognizing that horrific violence of every kind rages around us, we turn our focus particularly to epidemic of gun violence. How does Mary Magdalene’s story instruct and inspire us today as we seek to bring about change?

Through this prayer service, we will intentionally place ourselves with Mary at the foot of the cross as she witnesses Jesus’ violent death and remember those who have been killed in incidents of gun violence. We then place ourselves with Mary in the uncertain time between Crucifixion and Resurrection as we hear Kimberly Rubio and X. González speak to us through their grief and trauma in the immediate aftermath of their own experiences of gun violence. Finally, we join Mary as she sets out to the tomb on that first Easter morning to discover the Risen One and consider how Christ is calling us to join Mary as bearers of the Good News in a world so desperate for it today.

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Fertile Ground: The Synod, Vatican II, and the Future of the Church

Written on . Posted in Justice In the Church, Synod on Synodality, Vatican II.

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. 

 

Transcript

Session Two: Dignitatis Humanae and Synodality

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.

Transcript

 

Session Three: Dei Verbum and 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.

Transcript

Session Four: The Legacy of Vatican II

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.

Transcript

 

 

President Mark R. Nemec, PhD, Honored by Brooklyn Jesuit Prep

Written on . Posted in In the News.

(FutureChurch’s Commissioned Art for Women Witnesses for Racial Justice Art by Chloe Becker is featured)

Dr. Nemec received the Thea Bowman Award for Education for his leadership and Fairfield University’s commitment to raising the level of educational access and achievement for underrepresented students.

Fairfield University President Mark R. Nemec, PhD, was honored at the 2022 Brooklyn Jesuit Prep Gala and Celebration on May 11. Dr. Nemec received the Thea Bowman Award for Education, which is conferred upon an individual who demonstrates Sister Thea Bowman’s belief in the transformative power of education to bring about a more compassionate, multi-cultural community of justice and faith.

The granddaughter of a slave, Sister Bowman was a lifelong educator and founder of the Institute for Black Catholic Studies at Xavier University and the National Black Sisters Conference. Her mission centered around intercultural awareness and building up the Black Catholic community, sharing its rich cultural and spiritual heritage through prayer, music, writing, teaching, and preaching.

Senior leadership from Fairfield University and Fairfield Prep were among those who attended the event at the New York Athletic Club in New York City. Dr. Nemec was introduced by Brooklyn Jesuit Prep Class of 2009 alumnus and trustee Chris Ferreira, who presented the award with President Rev. Mario Powell, S.J., and Chairman of the Board of Trustees Christian Johnson.