Women and Ministry – Feminism and Religion

This letter was written to to Rev. Edward Dougherty, M.M., Superior General and the Maryknoll Community on August 8, 2011 in response to the call for Fr. Roy Bourgeois to recant his stance on women’s ordination in the Catholic Church.

My Brothers,

I have been a Catholic priest for 39 years and Maryknoll has been my faith community, my family. So it was with great sadness that I received your letter of July 27, 2011 (Second Canonical Warning), stating I must recant my belief and public statements that support the ordination of women, or I will be dismissed from Maryknoll.

In my ministry over the years I have met many devout women in our Church who believe God is calling them to be priests. Why wouldn’t they be called? God created men and women of equal dignity and, as we all know, the call to be a priest comes from God.

My brothers, who are we to reject God’s call of women to the priesthood? The Holy Scriptures remind us in Galatians 3:28, “There is neither male nor female. In Christ Jesus you are one.” How is it possible for us to say that our call from God, as men, is authentic, but God’s call of women is not? Continue reading “A Response to the Maryknoll Community on Women’s Ordination by Fr. Roy Bourgeois”

This is the first blog post I have written, so the concept of being a blogger is a little foreign to me. But I will just jump in!

I grew up in a religious house that became far more religious after my mother passed away from brain cancer when I was thirteen. My single father became heavily involved in the Lutheran Church, thinking this was the best way to raise his two daughters. I was happy to go to church and get the structure that the church provided. I was also grateful that I went to a church that had a female pastor. Lacking a mother, it was nice to have a strong female role model who was breaking into the “boys’ club” that was the church. Having found a postitive, female role model, I was really upset when I heard very conservative members of other churches and my own family say that women have no business speaking or leading people in church. I was around sixteen when this was happening, and it broke my heart to see women telling other women that they have no right to be heard in the church. Continue reading “A Feminist “Nutt” Point of View by Shannon Nutt”