FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

DATE 6/22/2011

National Contacts:

Sr. Christine Schenk Mary Louise Hartman  

FutureChurch Executive Director FutureChurch Board of Directors

216-228-0869 (office) 609-921-9134 (W)

216-513-3647 (cell) 609-915-2258 (C)     

Thousands Work to End Silencing of Catholic Women

In July St. Mary of Magdala Celebrations

CLEVELAND, OHIO: Hundreds of Catholic organizers and thousands of Catholics around the world are calling for an end to the silencing women on the feast day of St. Mary of Magdala, the first witness the Resurrection. At present, women's voices are silenced in Catholic churches.  Stories of female biblical leaders are omitted or made optional in our lectionary and women, indeed all lay people, have recently been forbidden to preach at Mass even though canon law allows it. At press time an estimated 300 celebrations are planned, including thirty in twelve countries outside the United States. (Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Finland, Ireland, Jamaica, Mexico, New Zealand, England and Puerto Rico).

The silencing is not new as women of faith have been pushed aside, made invisible and dismissed for centuries. Interestingly, at the most important moment of Christianity, Jesus’ Resurrection, a woman was given voice to speak and proclaim the Good News. Jesus choose St. Mary of Magdala to proclaim his Resurrection saying to her, “Go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I have seen the Lord.’” (John 20:18)

The focal point of the celebrations will be “unheard homilies” given by women who refused to be silenced. They will preach the homilies they have longed to preach at Mass if they were only permitted- without restraint and without fear of criticism. Their perspectives as women and mothers living the Gospel in a secular world will give new life and meaning to Catholic women and men trying to relate the scriptures to their lived experience.

The prayer services organized around St. Mary of Magdala’s July 22 feast day also call upon the voices of women who have been silenced throughout our history- beginning with St. Mary of Magdala, through the women leaders in the early Church, to medieval times, and today. These voices will inspire their listeners to end the silencing and honor the contributions of women in our personal and institutional faith journeys.

As part of their commitment to end the silencing of Catholic women, participants at St. Mary of Magdala celebrations across the nation and around the world will be sending paper and electronic postcards to Cardinal William Levada, Prefect Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, as well as their local bishops. The postcards ask Church leaders to restore the tradition of women deacons in the Catholic Church.

Restoring the female diaconate allows women to preach a homily at Mass, thus diminishing the silencing of Catholic women of the Word. Their perspectives as women and mothers living the Gospel in a secular world will give new life and meaning to Catholic women and men trying to relate the scriptures to their lived experience. For more information about women deacons and the FutureChurch campaign, go to http://futurechurch.org/watw/womendeacons/.

St. Mary of Magdala was a foremost leader in the early Church, led the group of women who accompanied Jesus at his death, and first proclaimed the good news of his Resurrection. She was not a prostitute as some believe,” said Emily Holtel-Hoag, FutureChurch Special Projects Coordinator.

“For centuries St. Mary of Magdala’s story, like those of the women leaders in early Christianity, has been minimized or excised from the official Lectionary used in both Catholic and Protestant churches as well as Catholic Church history textbooks,” said Sr. Christine Schenk, Executive Director of FutureChurch.

In 2008 FutureChurch led an education and advocacy effort to raise awareness at the International Synod on the Word in Rome about the invisibility of women's biblical leadership and experience in Church preaching and scripture proclamation. The synod outcomes were heartening. Not only did the most women scholars in history attend, but two final synod propositions specifically addressed FutureChurch’s requests. Proposition 17 on “Women and the Ministry of the Word” is a gracious affirmation by the universal Church of women leaders who animate faith communities and preside at services of the Word all over the world. Proposition 16, suggesting a reexamination of the lectionary, was a most welcome surprise. Many doubted that the synod would open the lectionary discussion.

To educate about women leaders and to model gender balance in scripture proclamation, FutureChurch began special international celebrations of the Feast of St. Mary of Magdala in 1997. Each year approximately 300 such events are held in mid July. Participants hear presentations by biblical scholars about early women leaders and experience prayer services at which competently prepared women preach and preside.

“One of the reasons the Mary of Magdala celebrations have proved so enduring is that Catholic women and men are edified to discover that Jesus included women in his Galilean discipleship. Most Catholics mistakenly believe that Jesus called only men, when in fact Luke 8:1-3 tells us Mary of Magdala, Joanna, Susanna and many other women accompanied him in Galilee. The celebrations this year will provide further knowledge that Jesus’ inclusive ministry was modeled in the early centuries of Christianity,” said Schenk.

FutureChurch, headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, is a U.S. coalition of 3,500 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 makes presentations throughout the country, distributes educational and informational packets and recruits activists who call on Catholic leadership to open ordination to all baptized persons who are called to priestly ministry by God and the people of God.

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