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The Catholic Church in Germany recently concluded a historic meeting between hierarchy and laity. And when it comes to questions of sexual morality, the role of women, and priestly celibacy, reformers' ideas gain momentum in German synodal way — an official dialogue designed to be less formalized than a synod or council. In one of the proposals submitted to the assembly, a German theologian spearheads transition to a 'gender appropriate' Catholic Church — among other things, increasing the proportion of women in local church leadership to 50%.
Jamie Manson has been telling us for years how the pope's attachment to the theology of gender complementarity should put a damper on expectations of change for women in the church: "I did this not to sound like a broken record — though I most certainly did — but rather to spare myself and my fellow churchwomen from the heartbreak that I knew would come." So it's no surprise, she says, that in 'Querida Amazonia,' Francis' sacramental imagination stops short of women.
A lesson that Fr. Dan Horan is taking away from Querida Amazonia (and its predecessor Laudato Si'): Integral ecology requires a larger 'seamless garment' — one that recognizes the interconnectedness of all life.
Sr. Cecilia Ranger has heard more than once how "easy" the lives of sisters must be, with financial security and free summers and no children. But her experience of religious life over the decades provides a reality check, she writes. For some, the traumas of a lifetime can manifest as PTSD in aging sisters.
In her final Notes from the Field blog, Samantha Kominiarek recalls her difficult early days as an Assumption Mission Associate in Chaparral, New Mexico, and describes how her experience has been a movement toward awe through kinship.
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