FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

July 5, 2005

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Thousands To Celebrate St. Mary of Magdala

Apostolic Role Model for Early Women Officeholders
and Beacon for Women Ministers Today

Over 250 groups in the U.S. and worldwide will hold special celebrations of the Feast of St. Mary of Magdala on or around July 22 in parishes, convents, Catholic schools, retreat houses, private homes and small faith communities. The celebrations make available contemporary biblical scholarship about Jesus’ inclusive practice and provide a venue for Catholic women to lead worship. This year, in story, poetry and song many also plan to honor early women officeholders such as Phoebe and Prisca as well as Julian of Norwich, and female doctors of the Church such as Teresa of Avila, Therese of Lisieux and Catherine of Siena. Several celebrations will take special collections for women’s shelters and other special projects for women.

“Early women ministers in the Church saw themselves in apostolic succession to St. Mary of Magdala , much as the men saw themselves in succession to St. Peter.” said FutureChurch Director, Sr. Christine Schenk. “Inscriptions and images found on papyri, tombstones, frescos and mosaics, show that Christian women served their communities as apostles, prophets, teachers of theology, priests, stewards, deacons and bishops. These women saw themselves following in the footsteps of Mary of Magdala as they ministered the name of Jesus. It is wonderful to honor Mary of Magdala’s witness and celebrate the women who minister in the name of Jesus today.”

St. Mary of Magdala was the first witness to the Resurrection and was called the “Apostle to the Apostles” by early Church Fathers. In the past, she was mistakenly believed to be a prostitute or public sinner until recent scholarship showed there was no basis for this in the Bible.

Spearheaded by FutureChurch and Call to Action for the past nine years, celebrations this year will be held in the United States, Canada, Ireland, Great Britain, Australia and Puerto Rico and are expected to attract between 30 and 300 people at each location, according to local organizers.

“ I think it is especially important for Catholics to celebrate this great woman of faith at a time when it is so clear that church needs the ministry of women,” said Call To Action spokesperson, Linda Pieczynski. “If women and mothers had been integrated into our Church’s decision making structures we would not be dealing with the payouts for clergy sex abuse that we are today.”

"St. Mary of Magdala symbolizes the significant position of women in the early Church and she now stands as a beacon for women in the Catholic Church." said Schenk. "Presently women comprise 82 percent of paid lay ministers yet none have a voice in governing the Church. Instead, they have little job security and are often treated unjustly." Schenk referred to recent firings of well liked campus ministers in Long Island. and last year’s dismissal prominent diocesan women leaders in Atlanta and Lexington Kentucky.

“Celebrating and learning about Jesus’ remarkable inclusion of women despite the strong cultural prohibitions of the time can also inspire all of us to redouble our efforts to end the systemic inequality of women in society and to work in behalf of the marginalized, said Pieczynski.

The recommended format for the celebration consists of a presentation by a biblical scholar explaining recent findings about St. Mary of Magdala’s discipleship, followed by a prayer service at which a woman leader presides.

FutureChurch has a list of celebration sites and times posted on its website at www.futurechurch.org (Click on Mary of Magdala icon on homepage)

Local media contacts are also available from FutureChurch (216-228-0869).

A free copy of this service is available from the FutureChurch website: www.futurechurch.org

FutureChurch, headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, is a U.S. coalition of 5,000 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 encourages widespread discussion of the need to open ordination to all baptized Catholics who are called to priestly ministry by God and the people of God.

Call to Action is a national organization founded in 1977 as a follow up to the U.S. Bishops’ Call to Action conference in 1976. Its members include 25,000 laity, religious and clergy with a national office in Chicago and 41 local chapters. It advocates for reforms in the Catholic Church such as equality for women and homosexuals in the Church, optional celibacy for priests, more focus on the church's social teaching, and consultation with the Catholic people on church decision making.