Dudleian lectures

Transcription

thank you and thank you for being here tonight uh... allow me to begin by saying how humbled and honored i m that you've invited me to this very prestigious lecture i'm also throughout that there are three sisters here with them and share membership in that elsie w_r_ sisters nancy clark graham sally mclachlan and and reagan out we are all part of the leadership conference of women religious and it's an organization in whose membership i and feel very heineken a treasury as he listened to frank uh... elaborate on my credentials it must've been abundantly clear that i don't have advanced training in theology spirituality scripture oren any out the other disciplines that one might associate with harvard divinity school and i honestly wondered in accepting this invitation if i had something offer you but i i have remembered that some years ago probably back in nineteen ninety uh... there was appalled to ect going to leadership and i am congregation and then my disarming i had the same conversations with my spiritual director who is a very wise person anne said to me you know you have that the allergy out here lived experience with god anne city no matter what people study often that's when it comes back to you city night it's a theology of my lived experience with god that i share with you i will be confining my remarks to the understandings that i have for my own faith tradition roman catholicism that regardless of your personal faith tradition i welcome your efforts to integrate to challenge or to elaborate based upon your lived experience with god like to begin with vatican two and talking a little bit about that because it's the years that some so much change was initiated in the church and this year the catholic church is celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the second that lead counsel convened by pope john the twenty third and opened on october eleventh nineteen sixty two and the council generated enormous excitement it included observers from other faiths they weren't daily press conferences and much media coverage it pique the curiosity of the faithful and then on paypal alike it was not simply complex might celebrate this anniversary of the council interfaith groups to which i have belonged celebrated mass to type t and delighted in the ways in which it fostered better relationships between christian and non-christian religions congregations of women and men religious began internist to follow the directives are protected cara taxis decree on the renewal of religious life liturgical forms of worship underwent revisions in order to meet the recommendations of the constitution's on the sacred liturgy that this ship's in their efforts to bring the church into the modern world invited some of the finest theological thinkers to see their thinking there was a kind of electricity point energy any area that was almost culpable and these were the years before i entered religious life but there was this enormous energy and great hope in the church fifty years later what is it that we experience there certainly appear to be some concerted efforts to turn back the time as we watch growing revivals of latin masses the use of vestments we may not have seen for quite some time and old rates last advancing jaise in their language at the red itchy where police departments the london time play recently published the results of an online poll it conducted concerning the most recent liturgical revisions poll results revealed that seventy percent catholic priest responding do not like initiative translation through thirds after priest responding indicated that they found the new translation has less prayerful this finding seems particularly significant and probably if one regards to preside ur as the leader of the communal prayer however perhaps we ought not to worry because the pew forum on religion in public life has told us that the number of adults claiming of religious affiliation has been gradually rising and now represent sublime in five adults in the united states according to their research only thirty-seven percent who are affiliated with the church attend religious services weekly or more twenty nine percent although cleaning religious affiliation selden or never attend services for those of us tonight attend religious services on a regular basis the poll only confirms what we have seen uh... with their own eyes i can remember as a child we would have to leave for church early in order to get to see and there hasn't been any free that inquiry sometime well we have made progress in areas they're going to religious dialogue we live in a world in which extremists still initiate wars in many areas of the world followers of christianity are migrating to other countries in fear of their very lives although we are electronica lee linked to one another in amazing ways and we had access to and nor misinformation with a few creeks on a keyboard or a few silent taps on on week are too often well kelly ignorant of the meanings after sacred text for books of other faiths and our ignorance perpetuates actions that are blatantly offensive others poverty and levels of violence and the world arent staggering proportions tribal wars arab screens syria israel and palestine and the incidents of active riots they have surrounded the rape of women in india are among the events that claimed the headlines each and every day but those countries are far away here we have our own columbine aurora newtown all too close to home we are in a country with religious freedom and where churches abound what is their influence religious congregations after the second vatican council and often week very mixed feelings said about following the directives that were given to them they simplified dress amherst themselves in their founding harrison's became highly educated and diversified in their ministries and these activities also helps some trivialized that they're called wasn't too religious life i can remember women who entered with me saying when i looked around and looked at my mother who was cleaning floors and as a housekeeper and i looked at the sisters three teaching schools leading schools going to school that means she said it was a women's issue and in her final descending she had realized it wasn't where she put on and so as discerning became a are worried that week became more comfortable with and to practice and the women's movement opened up other ways to be of service in the church they were new options and new vocation speaking far fewer in number council fathers according to a lot of slice or c recognize that the ways and means of renewed forms of life ought to be created by the communities themselves to seek the reforms mediate he wrote is not infidelity to their charismatic founder rather it is fidelity to the ever defaulting charismatic reality of the universal church such fidelity to the council fathers has yielded results have not always been appreciated buy some turtle pallets we've had some evidence of that lee athlete and there's been some muscle flexing by instigating vatican's enquiries now on as the apostolic visitation of women religious and they doctrinal assessment other leadership conference women religious we have yet to see the results of the visitation reports the mandates that followed nocturnal assessment mandates neither accompanied by nor expecting further opportunities for dialogue have not been well received by the organization's mem con membership nor are they well understood by rpa conference of the catholic faithful but i'm going to return to this experience shortly at like to use it as a kind of metaphor for what i see in the church as these investigations proceeded the same church has been rocked by revelation of hurricane sex abuse scandal is untold numbers of children had experienced the loss of innocence and the under abuse of power by persons in the priesthood it was almost impossible to imagine anything more itni many s and these acts in till it became clear that person's in church leadership knowing out the crimes worked diligently to cover up the malfeasance bus endangering and harming even more children it seemed to get the image of the church was to be protected at all cost no matter how many children were permanently scarred the dallas charter utilized by most vicious attempts to bring the abuse to a halt and it allows for the immediate removal of the accused from active ministry and the prosecution of offenders when the evidences mac is present well church leadership can be almost strident in its normal pronouncements uh... about what it believes that people should follow we sometimes we forget the sense that pelvic the allergy issues the same leadership has failed to hold itself to the are high ethical moral standard theory points that were leaked from the vatican only a week ago are just another painful and sad commentary on the imminence and this implements at the church today benedict a sixteen step-down families people office it was up old and daring act that required i delete those humility encourage on his part benedict powerfully illustrated idoney at the church is more important and any one person tensing that he no longer possesses the energy required by the office he moved inside so that the church might be better served if only goes whose actions have brought shame and disgrace upon the church would recognize that the church is more important in their personal titles and privilege such voluntary resignations would allow the church to begin the necessary work of healing and regaining capability and pastoral leadership so fifty years later please see more fractured disenchanted dissolution and disaffected churches are emptying diocese after diocese has closed parishes sold property and even declared bankruptcy is easy to be comin armchair critic at the church the catholic church and others but that would have solved us from a sponsor bility is this a kind of dark ages in the life of the church has the second that it can counsel failed again latter size four c in his recent book entitled receiving the council tells us today the church is internally stressed and stretched but we should not worry if the impetus for the council came from the spirit his spirit will grant they need it straight for the people to cope with the troubles the kaal bloomington cm the thesis high put before you this evening and i can tell you how excited i wasted here that i was suppose to talk about the validity of non ecclesia like nation not to make up that captor instantly s but it's it's really all their i think it's time to every embrace what was said of us in the dark matter constitution on the church lemon chen cn and this particular kinds to teaching and constitutions hold great week was the first that was produced by the council there's seven sections and a devoted to the mystery of the church the people of god the hierarchical nature at the church wearing two it describes the roles and functions that bishops priests and lady the universal kalter holiness religious life and the churches program the reddit throughout the document are references to the people dot com the document is filled with scripture references concerning the activity of the life of the spirit and the life of jesus and his church and of how the spirit unites us all anions rereading these documents at this point in time i often pink or praying images and if i had to create one diagram would not be one avaya triangle weaker hierarchical tip at the top and the people at the bottom it wouldn't be a rectangle with his own larger group of people at one end and we're at the bottom it would be that at the circle a loose leaf form circle where there's room for all of us and that at times the circle wouldn't be smooth peace different ones would be to step up to share their gifts booklet always step back and be a part of it but the words on which i particularly like to focus i think that once contained in this section on the lady it defines that term lady s all the faithful that is to fight back to you soon are incorporated into christ and constituted the people of god who have been made sherry's in their own way in the priestly prophetic and came the office of christ and played their part in carrying out the nation off the whole christian people in the church and in the world you and i form that priesthood catholic faithful and constitutions from the vatican council's offers statement that reflect the highest teaching authority at the church well we respect and honor or at least right too it crazy on structures that surround us we may never give up our baptismal bright to serve and to participate in the priesthood of the people we don't have the right to indulge disenchantment disillusionment and disaffection lou mentioned cm cited beautiful quote from saint casting and it talks about the relationship sane accustomed as between your gained and non-working an e-vite when i am frightened by what i am to you i am consultant bible and wpm to u and the patient with you i am a christian the fairest isn't office the second disagrees the fairest is the danger the second is salvation it is time once again to be vigilant about being vehicles of greece and salvation and sources light to extrapolate fair they're i'd like to use the retesting experience of catholic sisters in the united states as a kind of metaphor but what happens is we endeavor to participate and the priest today the people and why it's so important that we continue to work together with in our church as well as look at the qualities that need to be characteristic of our work other leadership uh... conference at women religious uh... it it's important to note was not initiated by women villages themselves um... it was founded in nineteen fifty-nine specifically at the request for pulp pious the twelfth uh... this is just really didn't want to do it they already had an education organization that was a nursing groups and they thought you know well with were all taken care of we have ways to network but in obedience to the pulp they got together and they've they founded this organization and it has always been attentive to its intrinsic relationship to the church and it has all through the years developed and maintain practices of communication with both local cheque clergy and that it can offices it just a little bit about what it is and what it is not it's composed of the elected or appointed leaders i can't be that women's religious congregations uh... the agenda at the meeting fairies as we gather you would think they had all this clandestine things to plan for women's ordination but it's not the case they would usually be is speaker or two and the speakers purpose is to stimulate thinking on and then bombing that killed the releasing roundtables this table discussion sometimes t purchased the membership likes the speaker sometimes they don't we're not there usually decree t we sometimes say oh i don't really agree with that but it's an internal thing it's not a public forum in that sense we all think discuss it with one another best practices things that we struggle with and that's the kind of thing that's led to the religious retirement fund helping organizations to especially larger communities are sometimes able to reach into smaller communities to give them tighten sound practices because we have the resources and the personnel that they might not have we set direction for the conference wean with usually do some action that supports of social justice initiative as well as electing each year a president-elect the presidency of the l c w_r_ ascent at three year commitment first-year president-elect and president and then pass pressing and since we have to do this simultaneously being in leadership in your own congregation the idea is that the first year you find it where the paper clips are this xing yet and you learned a second year year you're on your own with the support of the people around you and the third year you've got a lot of ways to him to share it with the two who follow you so it's been a lookout wonderful model for for going forward the number of women in the forum would usually bring span between six and nine hundred and the factors that affect that might be the cluster where it's located plane fares those kinds of things um... contractors in individual communities after their doctrinal assessment mandate was released we had a full complement of nine hundred women room it has not been our organizational practice to spend time discussing people letters church teachings or the preferences of patients because they believe they re especially basic preferences across the country the conference is not the biblical society theological society nor is that if i mentioned conference such conferences already exist um... and a number elected leaders have doctor it's not my own are not in areas of theology the number of the elected leaders do have doctors and theology so it's our feeling that church documents can best be ready local levels and promoted accordingly the conference purpose was to name and help leaders navigate the complex issues that they face on a daily basis as well as defined mechanisms for us to collaborate with one another one of the mandates of the decree uh... mandating the renewal of religious life was that sisters p educated if some of you who may have gone to catholic schools are some who are in religious life would know that in earlier years a sister and hit the congregation and within two years shed a little normal school training and was in front of probably a hundred kids in the classroom by those days could not continue so it create expands tative congregations themselves um... they sent their sisters to colleges and universities turned advanced degrees such degrees for a current not only in areas of education medicine healthcare or nursing or administration they were also earned areas such as the elegy spirituality scripture canon mom church history at the same time this sisters in their own renewal we're looking at in experiencing differing forms of prayer prior to uh... my entrance even into the community prayer was very prescribed you met at certain times that they gave you had a book your prayers were in it in earlier times in my congregation indicted in german and widow might have been in latin so at this point it was an english but it was very they redefined now sisters were learning things like centering prayer and shared prayer they were learning about discerning and they were able to receive spiritual direction no longer pary treats days of prayer or spiritual direction only by priests actually priests were increasingly receiving spiritair direction and or attending retreats given by sisters um... there where numerous examples of um... we became aware i think his sisters got spirit of direction that sometimes at the prettiest all of whom he assumed had developed a deep right life that it may not have really been there and that's not a judgment is simply a statement that it's a it's a personal responsibility and git to be hungry to develop one spirituality and if one doesn't cultivate that that the stores pretty empty when you go to work for accounts so it's eights all of the issue picking up the ships that are going on it's no longer my father said about everything during the years following the council sisters american citizens and it kept them covered and sometimes childlike and dependent these women came to claim for intellectual competence picking came to be articulated that their beliefs and learnings and estate tested their abilities it grew increasingly confident and using their gives as contributing members catholic church they were even times when a sister may have challenged what father said sisters also crew and the practice of collaboration we crossed over a congregational lines for the sake of ministry and service to the people of god and so well some clergy preferred use the tactics of isolation and asked his teaching when they want to silenced the particular sister this became increasingly difficult to accomplish because sisters dude with and for one another their doctrinal assessment commented upon the attention of the sisters is issues of social justice subtly and sometimes not so subtly alleging at this took us from devoting attention to church doctrinal issues such as abortion euthanasia human sexuality and someone institutions issues and social justice stands directly from the gospel a document that ought to be foundational to halt search teaching father jose garland spanish scripture scholar has written we must not forget option for the poor it was not invented bison twentieth-century theologians nor is it a fad invoke after the second vatican council it is the option of this spirit of god animating the entire life of jesus it is not possible to live as jesus lived and make him known if we do not stand by the loneliest in solidarity with all who are excluded perhaps our critics have failed to know as we stand side fine side with the poor we deal daily with moral issues of abortion euthanasia human sexuality and more well some are privileged to be able to preach compartments others of us and mike's must preach primarily family actions of our lives and it's all part of sharing in the priesthood of christ i make dat that we received a mandate from the congregation for doctor mcafee we were in forint the findings were being released on the website if the u_s_ conference of catholic bishops at noon u_s_ time the l c w art direct executive director expressing past president and president-elect waited for representatives appeals he can be learned room i was at that time the past presidents i was in that room since we had responded fully and honestly to all increase and since we also been told that there were no further questions at meetings the year before and that no new information was needed we were stun by the report it was the first appointment that we had in a week a scheduled annual visits to the various to pass trees we were isolated from our membership power-on congregations and the support systems upon which weakling well the l c w_r_ had conducted all addicts correspondence with cd yet in quiet and confidence in the goodwill at faith issue that of course they'll understand what we're sending back to them they were the ones who dropped this into the arms of the press now the results of doing that were perhaps what they were beyond anything that we could possibly imagine our anticipate and i don't think it it cheap the kind of results that the vatican might've been seeking well they would have expected coverage of this story and topic newspapers and media we were suddenly being beaten about in the new york times maureen dowd nicholas kristoff and laurie good one are among the reporters who had probed details and have weighed and under astonishment at what might appear to be an attempt to control catholic sisters and then they were the letters thousands of them they were certainly son and they were very few hoop and letters to us about being baby killers and lying yet actions of the vatican at the elsie w_r_ office we have binders these things with letters week emails that came from the people of god he came out only from people in the united states who came from around world and well we were in brown over there for that visit rehab time to meet with the leaders of religious congregations uh... party union if international superiors general and they had a record attendance at that as well and they said she was whatever happens here happens elsewhere that the kinds of difficulties that catholic sisters are experiencing here are being experience lights is just about for a in africa talk about being bullied by their patients there were other stories abounded they're not it's not every it's not every patient it's not every cardinal but there's way too many instances to be comfortable with so it is these outpouring it wasn't just into the letters just didn't stay all good for you you know it wasn't that people toward out in these letters their faith stories and there were people who said it's because at this down hanging on tonight my faith by ted or it's because that things like this and that would cite hurtful incidents that i i i left the church there were some letters that said it's because if things like this that i terminated my discernment to religious life because i couldn't live under this kind of it um... i have to stay ahead not only did they come into the l c w our office that we've gotten tons of them ourselves and i it's it was it's been a very painful process i haven't yet deleted them from my own computer when they elsie w_r_ board met and email remember that immediately following we called for a time of quiet and prayer on the part of our members you know words are very important and when you potter words and anger and frustration in reached it's hard to get those words back those words get caption and so what we did is we passed all of our membership because it is a membership driven organization to take the next month and she just was really engage in quiet prayer about all that was happening the l c w ours divided into fifteen regions across the united states the region's net and talk quietly at their own price talking points and so on uh... even at the four of us that day before we went to c_d_f_ that morning we sat for an hour in contemplative prayer with one another hoping we didn't know what would happen but if anything uh... that we didn't want to happen did which was the case that we had agreed that we were not going to see much to hold it until we had time to bring it back to our members back further reflection in a contemplative prayer that really marks everything that we do i would not uh... as we talked about these letters and looked at them when we first gathered they brought those letters we brought the national ports u_s_ to washington at the end of may that year and all those things were there they had uh... you know as psychologist eight spiritair directors there to work with us and uh... i don't know what that pile some folks in the vatican pink about women religious but i don't know if they could have understood the amount of her that was inflicted or if they would have anticipated to tears that were in the room with women haven't defending given their lives in service to the church feeling that it weighs it was completely the disregarded at this moment now if the bishops have come back per family somehow it's not simply loved the sisters it's just the us together you are noite d_l_c_ w_r_ is the sisters and we uh... unlike adn accepted some of the church structures were semis appointed for life we appoint our leadership of the aisle seat if you are our religious communities uh... elect or appoint their own leaders and once they applied they've released anyway spiny night was remembering feeling tight no idea lost my phone thought it was my reputation lost my mind if i was there but you know i conclude that can my secretary picnic at the airport and she said your kadhich ended in a cottage on the property she said you cut it has been cleaned erie free-trader freezer construct this enough whining scratch their ticket for the next few months my assistant was there waiting for me and they were huge signs throughout my mother house we're in front of you behind you the psyche of hope we can and the next day i was hominid thursday night the next day my patient had already called over to see if i was alright and he saw me friday afternoon in its residents and we have it we have a good working relationship an extended to go to a gathering a four hundred dominican women gathered at my like to talk about terrorism at least i was too fragile to stay with them for the day that i knew i had to get up and say something because it sounds like a hijacked other purpose of other days and so you know you don't know what people think i got onto the stage and four hundred winston and a standing ovation before a broken man now so that kind of support is what the sisters are about and with the sisters give to their leaders and what they appreciate about the elsie dot the wire but something also because of all those letters uh... if something happens we cannot and those letters found us to you in fairy profe bound ways um... we clearly recognize now in ways that we probably didn't before that your struggles our struggles are one in the same we encounter complex situations in our lives en una relationships we can seldom find a place of safety to try to unravel the complexity you and i am nova have guests that would enable the church to grow stronger and yet too often we're stymied about the ways in which we can contribute we witnessed practices in actions that simply make no sense and yet the list of things about which we are not supposed to speak or question grows longer and longer in our personal journeys to develop an adult fee we wonder if there's room for asking the church accommodate adults there is no doubt in our minds that as people afsane as members of the priesthood at the faithful we need to engage in dialogue the inherent danger in claiming our participation in the priesthood faithful is that we might inadvertently surround ourselves with persons who think like we do and begin to form our own version of church is apart from the whole that would leave us vulnerable to develop in the kind of arrogance and self-righteousness that we are so quick to spot and to criticizing others in our masterful presidential addresses to pack darryl offered as six guidelines that we might use going forward we have clearly articulated as an organization that we want to remain economical entity com because if we don't and that that could be a move we could take you become sisters become like the rose realtor society at the church and soda haba voice to continue to have a voice we're willing to stay in the struggle to stay at that table and we're committed to finding ways to stay in honest respectful and loving dialogue and paul paul the sixth outlined beautifully her dialogue could occur innocence cyclical make lazy and so on the richest written in nineteen sixty four and how we do this is of relevance not only to be sisters button all of us industries to detect the fob and i'm gonna love rate a little bit on the characteristics that sister pat suggested that ought to mark are churning we must remain deeply contemplative silence and prayer both alone and in the presence of one another ground sense well it is important at all times it is critical right now that we engage in contemplative prayer as the cardinals prepared to enter into the conclave that will result and the election of a new party uh... we may feel powerless as the go behind the closed doors but the power is in the power of the holy spirit and we can participate in that through our prayer we all share in this prophetic role religious life is prophetic and charismatic by its very nature pretty pretty study of the faithful clearly shares in the prophetic dimension of the church we must find ways to speak our troops together so that we can discern the direction god might be inviting in our on lines their is no choice clarence are to remain in solidarity with the poor and with the marginalized it is the pol of the class bob and working with the war keeps us honest we must act as the priesthood at the faithful together this dialogue with the church is not marked by about your preferences or my preferences it's marked by are careful listening to one another thank deep desire for truth and mercy and i'm not believing anyone bahut and in order to engage in our priest to depict faithful in the manner of jesus we must do so non-violently during these latent gays christians remember the walk that jesus took eventually led to his crucifixion in death well violence was inflicted upon he did not react unkind and even in his time of difficulty we need as people of the resurrection surveyed enjoy false hope we have to trust in the ongoing activity of the holy spirit and in the power of the resurrection what kind of leadership will eat cake during this time in our history some anything seemed dark hazy funky and all kinds of undecipherable and we look for light we long for leadership that can encourage and spiros and bring out the best in each one of the house uh... in preparation for today one of the things that i was looking at least eve kongers diaries at the council i cannot begin to have gone to alton thousand pages have it pretty kept these wonderful diaries that mercifully someone translated into industries and it's a day-by-day account of what happened at the council and i was looking at the section particular regarding where they were adopting the wrice preceded the faithful to see if it was one of those things that just a bit eat didn't but it it have a lot of support but in between those those commentaries on on what actually happened he you get an insight into this person clearly this was a man of staggering intel he's a man who had been silenced in the church and for didn't to speak or too bright and as space he listens to these arguments you get these little comments about so-and-so didn't understand and you you'll have a set of things and he talked at one point about how some people are able to get out and with great um... passion advocate for the positions that they believe him and he didn't feel that he had gotten pretty it was his health issues part if it was what he uh... had been subjected to suspicion he felt he was always regarded in in the church but he insists beautiful passage of time myself cheering up the same ready he said for some of us were like the waiters at the wedding and we stand outside the door waiting to see her listening to the music and he talked about that value of patient and you know are wading scenes like is just was not enough time you know when is the plan is this really kinda happened but we have to remember the age of the church is over two thousand years old and so things have have grown much more complex they will move slowly and so when we use that we may not understand all of our efforts to make a difference uh... every cent article in common we ob highlighted the work of catholic activist dorothy day and she let this wonderful cheap included this wonderful quote from her she said as six hundred and never expected much from the basics in all history hopes and a ship's and father addicts scene took them blind and power loving and greedy i never expected leadership from them it is the saints who appeared throughout our history that keep me going timothy radcliffe caf form a master of the dominican order speak sticky issues of leadership in a slightly different but equally important way and that the introduction to his book take the plunge living baptism and confirmation to make the right christianity will be strong at all baptized people of god stream their vocation recognized and their creativity released in the catholic church three out the great patrons of europe saint benedict saint francis of assisi and from catherine of c_n_n_ we knew that the church in times of crisis none of them were ordained priests and you know is sometimes you know when we come back i know when i came back i catherine's picture package or if talk dramatic welcome morning i'm breeder when i come back in the afternoon that you know i i i love this woman live which she was able to do but i think sometimes we might forget i mean if we had lived in that time creeped out that the people she was talking to we're really excited about what she had to state and and so it might be for us sometimes you know and two people will sometimes per tree her asset with they talk about uses passionate woman and i think that's true but i also think she was very sadly where she would not have been heard and so we do draw under examples as we go forward there are pockets a promise at the world there are parishes that are fine print and leaders active and appreciate input from the lady their universities like this one where uh... dart is free and generally more protected and discussions can occur una most any topic with recur enthusiasm and passion there this if kitchens and homeless shelters here are at the transition homes that reunite the formerly incarcerated with their families there is a multiple educational efforts to teach the skills of conflict resolution non-violence and peace making and their are wonderful unholy bishops archbishop and cardinals and i have been privileged turn to meet and to know some of them each of these persons armpit stains among us their places and people of light there is one last story i'd like to share with you uh... about how we how they continue to do this and i think it just in caps rates much of what i've spoken about this evening and it was shared with me via sister in my own community and although we're not known as a missionary congregation this particular sister abu injured more than sixty years ago has the heart of the missionary and so early on the congregation allowed her to minister importer rico which at that time i summation but when that was to team she has to go on and she went to ecuador and she worked in the interior in the jungles uh... and loved the work but somehow the bishop of ecuador in her local region became on not so font of her and for reasons that were before my tenure in leadership she was asked to leave the diocese and she with some ado did but then she went on to the kidney acts she went down to uh... matt ecuador she went down to and colombia south america and she ministered in this little tiny parasites in the mountains santana it's inhabited by largely indigenous people who are very very poor and they have the most gorgeous children his cheeks are bred from the cold aftermath tunes and so she was ministering there and target and sheet by sea she did all kinds of things life pataki's is trying to keep people connected to the church it dick church did not have a priest assigned to it they were trying to send someone and sending so one day she told me that the people came together and they've brought her to a woman who was living in a straw hut in an outline and gary l the woman was dying the woman was very very poor and she'd made some un fortunate races throughout her life she was aditi and fearful of dying finally basis to say to her would you like me to hear your contention and the woman said yes and she poured out the story of her life and this is just said to her well you know i'm sorry and she said i know that god forgives you friendly scenes and then she as she prayed with mom and she asked if she would like to receive the eucharist she said the woman said yes she gave it to her i within a few hours she died now the best you assume that this sister is a radical feminist fine for ordination i can assure you that nothing dispirited from the truth she does even know inclusive language is all about i would not presume to have the knowledge or the expertise to say whether or not the sacrament was administered there were no words of absolution there was no blessing only the assurance of god's forgiveness was there a sacramento encounter absolutely and persons who minister in hospitals is that the harm them and comfort the hungry and destitute know exactly what i'm talking his sister turned eighty-nine on christmas day and is now ministering in a poor mission that we have in the dominican republic anchor only idoney one think about the kinds of sacramento encounters she blesses the people of god with when necessary their are the saints among us irradiated light include means they moved quietly in the footsteps of jesus u_n_ on are part of this priest to get the people we share in the priestly keenly and prophetic role with the church let's claim it and delights in the darkness thank you for a very powerful moving and gracious talkers wonderful uh... occasions sister mary has agreed to and texan questions and them it uh... is anyone have any questions and again or s positions around yes and you know it's how you get that was the biggest as the price for inciting mandy because it had not come out in the previous inquiries that where ac generated about our organization i know that that's too bad i pasted uh... feminism and recall radical or not is i think what every parent i think about my own parents what they want for each of their daughters that we would be recognized for gifts never held back because of gender and allowed to contribute foley now if that's radical it may be radical if your if your culture is all male but it's i don't think it's radical in the everyday world uh... i grew up in a family in the oldest attend children there were seven girls everyone of us is different everyone of us is a leader in some capacity or another and that came from really very simple uh... parents who didn't have the benefit of the education and i've had but had such a common sense and knew that they valued their children and we're never going to read those kinds of comparisons so if that's what it is i think that's how most sisters we define afghanistan i simply they desire to see that women can contribute their gifts as foley eyes anyone of any other gender or cross gender transgender or whatever but that we act each you know as as i look at that people that makeup church leadership each of them does business gets no one of them businesses all the kids and so it's going to gather you put date the variety uh... not present is that you you get a fuller extrication and i guess i would argue that uh... if they only surround themselves with men to discuss issues of church doctrine and so on it's not that they don't put their gifts and implicating education to work but perhaps it's incomplete because there are a voice is missing and mr ice estimate thank you so much for coming to me and emails in year talk a lot about dialogue and so i'm wondering from you and fashion allay woman uh... where you see my space uh... place for me and i like and others i think they're is the desire for asked to have dialogue and win and people within because you're not allowing that to happen where do we treat that space thank you thank you that's a sixty four thousand dollar question but i think that's the one that this is just a rough against right now the presidency of the aisle seat if you are as they try to work with the bishops and you'll notice that there's been a great deal of silence about this time because there was a common agreement both on the part after three archbishop startin a bishopric rocky and bishop blair as well as the presidency i've not seen air at this in through the media uh... because sometimes it everyone has it you can see this with the pope everybody wants a slant on why he retired no one can even take for granted that he really just realize he's just too tired to do this so um... as we can look at that they're they're struggling with it and so much trust has been broken and so where quick trying to create the conditions for dialogue and to use this as a teaching moment for the church not only for ourselves but for u_s_ delay woman for others of you is laymen that they would be a place to break when we tell people they can't park it's that it doesn't seem healthy for me even as an educator uh... i don't know how you teach uh... without uh... anti-cd i think that the important thing about dialogue as it doesn't even necessarily mean that dialogue is going to change any particular doctrine it may not result in there but if we dialogue and if we each have the opportunity to be hurt we know that we have been hurt and we may better understand and and we certainly may have stretched everything out the person who's trying to keep in answer to us and paul the sixth in his uh... that payoff links in either case really some wonderful vatican letters sent in cyclicals written that we need to reclaim what he said in nineteen sixty four not just us but the those aboard church leadership themselves to not be afraid after questions i to me when you tell people they can't speak uh... it's about fear and shutting down what they have to say i think what most of us have done is we found the places where we can talk and so we people vote with their feet in parishes you know so there's some parishes uh... that people walked out of a milk gravitate to another place where there's more of a role for the lady uh... sometimes it gets particularly hard dynasties where the actions of the patient uh... seem to take away all the bishop says for instance there can't be female altar servers which of course there can be uh... that that hampers an entire diocese and uh... under know that we should just take that lying down hiking again sometimes cdr act people even being very respectful as off the church i love what i hope it can be i'm gary disenchanted andheri upset with some of the things i see in right now but um... i'd also believed that love can change things and so we could never give up i don't think have tennessee and i saw the results of of her quest to have only one pulp while she was still alive it happened after she died like eve congress that sometimes we feel like the waiters on the outside we've brought everything in and uh... were not invited to the party you know we can't we just listened to the music uh... but i tend to believe that those efforts on all of our parts i guess it's a p p excellent and i don't feel that you're alone indians kind no i don't think the l c w are y ever do anything again that only uh... thinks about itself and that's really because of the actions of so many laypeople even when we met in saint louis this past summer fifteen hundred letters word delivered to the hotel apart from all the binders that we already had and they were the centerpiece well the religious leaders met and it was very beautiful to beat the letters and to see what people were saying to sometimes we think a simple no or a phone call or something like that doesn't what what difference does my voice me but uh... if you believe in something passionately i think we have to work a note that answers your question i don't have that annette hill thank you very much den wesson is of what is your vision for women's villages and i in the twenty-first century and also or what kind of women's leadership models do you see viable for the twenty-first century demian religious congregations and to discuss equivalent invariably congregations believe women and author of the way you know that the kinds of leadership models that women religious have are probably a good model for the whole church we don't elect anybody from life uh... the and you know you go wind and my office in my community and sing for months next weekend are elections and on june twenty third i step down from being a priors and i'm just one of the sisters and there's something very leveling in that the other characteristic that i think marks uh... especially women's congregations and i think some of the men's as well is it's out more characteristic of women though is its debt definitely more circular uh... i could not do anything in my congregation without inviting their voices aka sisters we all on it uh... in especially in the dominican community we believe that each person possesses a piece of the truth not one person not three persons are five but all of us up i guess i would hope that the kinds of models and i uh... i was interviewed recently in a show and they said something about the pope stepping down and i i think it's a wonderful motto i hope that future hopes also look at that and say maybe i have tickets for this time but when i've done as much as i'd continue and i know that i've exhausted my stamina and whatever maybe it's time for someone to come in with different gifts i think it's a profound opportunity eddie offered that i hope it's it's more than about feeling uh... the ravages if of eighteen it's it's very much about what's the best thing for the church and so i would hope that that would happen um... religious congregations uh... i have to tell you we have never had more attention and we've had we could not have paid for the publicity uh... you know to be very napa all the places that we've been written up it's being it's been really very beautiful and uh... i don't know of any of you saw the piece but you take the on and that washington post last week about why the next punctured the end then and i mean days he's a wonderful thinker and he did is fabulous piece and it was soaked could that he did it not me too you know they mean it's it just as they're all bran but it people thinking people i'm thinking i read something in the land and happily yesterday when it's coming here i've got a little girl who had is refusing confirmation ashe's public twelve years old um... and so there are women priests and it's not because she feels she has a vocation it's just the principal other thing this is calming it's calming in it's someone used to say to me with the rate feather blown over it's it's all going it's going to shift uh... because we know that in the early church there where there is no pretty decently and i anything kits they fear out there uh... what will we do with their children might do with how we pay for this instead of that trust that if you do the right thing demeans are always there in the early church it was phil has the kids and will they put them at the surface of the church uh... i think the gender question is the wrong question i think we need to get back to and you know every i realize the early church was uh... much less complex in many ways but maybe we would really benefit from going back to you to looking at how a little bit more that piece of people would on their church with on it and love it and and their fate with the inner treatment i hope that enhances someone else uh... over there so i want to thank you for coming in com it's people like you and lectures like this the reason that and still catholic and my question is here on its hands on and talk about being catholic i said very apologetic please and i'm catholic and a liberal progressive catholic especially because a lot of people some people searching on the divinity school area uh... wool innocence associate me with uh... the statements of the fish epson things that i see in the news that i don't know whether to laugh or cry sometimes uh... and a lot of people and i was an undergrad i work with doctor elizabeth johnson at fordham and and young men and women in theology class this is a what is wrong with you would your complaining about the church lunch if you don't want you all just get out than me and i'm wondering what is your response to why don't we just get up and leave and what a week to it i have so much attract have hoped for you-know-what that results of the concrete but what do we do if it does get worse sessions the potential choices and someone who supports that killed a gay spell what uh... what do we do if it does get players i don't know i arabic dilemma you're not alone in your uh... your questioning ite eighty eight pound after i came back from roman when bishop in as press secretary company do anything for her and just ask a chicken we have what they call offline conversations that never going to print but we can talk honestly with one another and i was in his residence i was crying ania icic this is just not worthy of our church and he said to him i have to tell you it's the first time in my life that honestly say to myself i don't know if i can stains church anne he didn't know what to see and i i said i'm past it now i know this is the one true church we know it in my heart i know i have to stay but he said none of these is worthy of the church to which really all of us want to belong uh... the other piece that today it's it's an interesting recently timothy radcliffe who is a former master of the dominican waterways addressing uh... priest in uh... i think a person's again this is just really missing neatness even if it was australia and you know they've had some discomfort away over the removal of one of their patients and timothy was addressing the priests and he said to them uh... innale we have to be careful about church he said we talk about the institutional church we talk about the hierarchical church we talked at the church is the people of god he said sometimes we self marginalized ourselves when you use those kinds of terms he's at the church is the body of christ in any isn't very rich mixture of politics and authors and writers in sculptors and dancers and educators and philosophers cynthia theologians an easy in this body of christ their it should be a place with the most arch-conservative person could sit down with them most left-wing person and have a meal together and sometimes lamp about our differences he said we close the laughter anne said uh... but it's when up people i think worked very hard to define what being happily means it gets kind of thing i can be very scary place that a lot of us don't fee and so uh... i think we keep pushing and i take comfort in the fact that there are leaders like a tentative radcliffe out there who always respected and hands accents that we don't have odd to be able to say those things outloud because it keeps pushing behind them keeps crashing thank you very much for coming out my question is is around how much church because you were you make the abuse scandal or if you talk about how much is the church in haunted and how prime minister on there was this program some of you may have heard and to bb you are thus morning hours ordered leaving or next bull into the conversation is sort of being in my day with various people and i'm struck by good-hearted people no who have just dismissed church i mean utterly statistic and when i come to harvard divinity school on the longest here of course i get back into the feeling of we surround the wagons a little bit you know we know what's real but uh... and that that i'm thinking of people i talked to today warner how you feel about that i think it's and it's done a lot of time in ways that i don't think that the uh... church leadership sometimes understand uh... what happened to children was absolutely correct i think that many people but those who refused to recognize it was done by people who were sick what what what has never then is the church has never owned it's participation in the cover up and i think often that that is seen as the bigger scene again and if if there is such a thing uh... and i realize that in earlier days and i'm going to be very honest here i do know that they ships free gejdenson meant for treatment or persons who everywhere and they came back and psychologist told me they were cured so i i understand that they acted and that but when it happened a second time why did we can continue to pass people around and eight i think that what it is it reduced the moral culpability at family members that haven't gotten back because pastors in their church lied to them that they had never had any instance and then a week later as in the newspaper about not only one but three priests that were in that same paris edit different times had allegations against them so what happened is they've lost their moral ability to teach in and that's what you know acceptable standard kind of thing that most of us have have uh... little tolerance for you know i i i think about i was try to go back to the gospel and i think a often about what they say that the authority of jesus and and how uh... you know he was always question uh... which does it come from nasa report what does he know you know but he's at the already was recognized because he lean out he's lived experience with cody's lived experience with his father and that's what made his words have merit sometimes i don't know if we get the same impression from our church leaders that they have that lived experience with god by often say that you tell people what to do when their children before the age of reason uh... it's just we have to uh... they've they've lost a lot and i wish they wouldn't be afraid to surround themselves with other voices are you know their organizations like we said the people and some bishops will meet with them others won't and if only they would realize that they even just listen to one's it might help them to understand what it is that people are angry at that and what they don't get pyari surround yourself with your friends you don't care you know k