Mary Magdala 2006
Mary of Magdala: Focus on Fact, not Fiction
Click here to learn how you can be a part of this effort.
With the May 19th release of The DaVinci Code movie, casual conversation will once again turn to speculation about the true role of Mary of Magdala. CTA and FutureChurch plan to use the media moment to renew our call for women’s full ministerial equality in the Church and to focus on the facts of Mary of Magdala's leadership in the Church rather than the fiction of her marital status. (If you are interested in serving as a media contact in your area email magdala@futurechurch.org)
In many ways, Dan Brown’s book has done a disservice to the historical Mary of Magdala, and to the early women church leaders who saw themselves in apostolic succession to her. While The DaVinci Code portrays a beautiful ideal of the essential unity of male and female, it is ultimately subversive to women’s full and equal leadership in the Catholic Church.
Now people no longer focus on the FACT of Mary of Magdala’s leadership in proclaiming the resurrection to the male disciples who had fled, but on the FICTION of her marital status.
There is no historical or biblical data to support Brown’s contention that Mary of Magdala was married to Jesus. The contention that there was no mention of the marriage and offspring for fear of Jewish persecution doesn’t really hold up in light of the fact that John’s gospel and almost all of the apocryphal literature were written after the fall of Jerusalem when there would have been nothing to fear from Jewish authorities. If Mary of Magdala was Jesus’ wife, it is highly unlikely that these texts just omitted this important fact, especially since she is prominently portrayed in both as the preeminent witness to the resurrection and a female leader who, in many ways, understood Jesus’ mission better than the male disciples
This being said, if Jesus was married, it wasn’t to Mary of Magdala, because then she would have been known as “Mary the wife of Jesus”, not Mary of Magdala. This is owing to literary and social conventions of antiquity which dictated that if women were named in ancient texts (a very rare occurance) they were nearly always named by their relationship to the patriarchal household, for example: “Joanna the wife of Herod’s steward Chusa” (Luke 8: 1-3).
Atypically, Mary of Magdala was named according to the town she was from (not by her relationship to a man). Biblical scholars believe this indicates that she was probably a wealthy independent woman not bound to a patriarchal household.
But all the publicity for the movie makes this a great time for those committed to an inclusive Church to share the truth of women's invaluable leadership both in the past and in the present.
Call To Action and FutureChurch will provide resources for media outreach, education, celebration and advocacy to support reclaiming women's rightful places in Church leadership.
FutureChurch and Call To Action will launch a postcard campaign calling on U.S. Bishops to appoint women preachers and petition the Vatican to ordain women deacons and re-open the conversation about women priests in light of new archaeological and literary evidence that male Church leaders suppressed women priests because women were thought to be subordinate to men. Since we no longer hold this belief, the Church's teaching about the non-ordination of women must be revisited. The postcard idea builds on the highly successful postcard campaign leading up to the Eucharist Synod. Click here to read the text of the postcard!
If you are interested in serving as a media contact, working on the postcard campaign, and/or sponsoring a celebration of St. Mary of Magdala during the Lent and the Easter season or near her feast day of July 22nd, please contact magdala@futurechurch.org. Resources, including a sample op ed article, updated brochure, a media release, postcards and a new prayer service will be sent to you to support your efforts.
If you would like a Mary Magdala brochure and prayer service in Spanish, click here.
How you can be a part of the effort:
Honor St. Mary of Magdala in poetry- Enter an original poem in our second annual poetry contest. Poem entries must be received by June 1 to magdala@futurechurch.org.
Organize a celebration and/or prayer service in honor of Mary Magdala- Email magdala@futurechurch.org to request your free organizing kit that includes a new prayer service, press release, op ed piece, postcards, and more.
Volunteer to be a media spokesperson calling for full ministerial equality for women- To volunteer, send an email to magdala@futurechurch.org giving your name and contact information.
Send a post card and/or organize a post card campaign for your community. To request postcards by mail, email magdala@futurechurch.org. To download the postcards, click here. For tips for Organizing a Postcard Campaign, click here.
Support the movement financially. Please consider making a donation to offset the cost of printing postcards and organizing packet, postage, etc. To make a donation, click here.
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