On Tuesday, Franklin Pierce University hosted a showing of the documentary “Pink Smoke Over the Vatican,” which chronicles the journey of women priests. Following the showing of the film, The Rev. Theresa Chabot (RCWP), the only female ordained Catholic priest in New Hampshire, was on hand to speak to the crowd and answer questions from the audience.  continue

Good people of God,

Starting this coming Sunday, March 1, Holy Spirit Catholic Community
will celebrate Mass in the Chapel of Washington Church at 3925 West
Central Avenue, Toledo, OH 43606.  Sunday's Mass will be at 5:30, and
we will maintain our regular schedule of Masses at 4:30 on Saturdays
and 5:30 on Sundays in this new location from then on.

Please drive to the back of the building to park near the Chapel
entrance.  It is handicapped accessible.

Washington Church has our deepest gratitude for the welcoming
hospitality they are extending to our Community.  We also thank Unity
of Toledo for hosting us in the two years since our founding.

Blessings, 
Bev
P.S.  Our last Mass at Unity of Toledo will be Saturday, February 28,
at 4:30.

On Feb. 21, a week after a shooting outside a synagogue in Copenhagen, Denmark, left two people dead and five injured, a Muslim group in Norway plans to take measures to help ensure the safety of Jewish worshipers in that country.  

"We think that after the terrorist attacks in Copenhagen, it is the perfect time for us Muslims to distance ourselves from the harassment of Jews that is happening," 17-year-old organizer Hajrad Arshad told the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK)  continue

By now, Francis has made it clear what he believes -- that the Holy Spirit is pushing the church to be more inclusive, compassionate and outward-looking; that the Lord Jesus is calling it to be less inward-focused, legalistic and obsessed with the nonessential externals.

… to imitate his namesake, St, Francis of Assisi, by embracing the leper and accepting all the different types of outcasts. "Truly, dear brothers, the gospel of the marginalized is where our credibility is at stake, is discovered and is revealed!"

Mass Schedule for Holy Spirit Catholic Community For Ash Wednesday, February 18, our Mass will be at 5:30 p.m. at the Interfaith Chapel of Toledo Campus Ministry, 2086 Brookdale Road, Toledo, OH 43606.  You may recall that we met there before Unity of Toledo became available.

Unity is not available for us that evening and will no longer be available at all starting in March.  We have been looking for a space for Mass and have at least three possibilities but nothing has been firmed up yet. If you have a suggestion, please let me know.  

Thanks, Bev

In North Carolina, three young Muslims who were active in charity work were murdered, allegedly by a man who identified as atheist and expressed hostility to Islam and other faiths…

And, in Alabama, we see judges refusing to approve marriages of any kind because then they would also have to approve same-sex marriages. In one poll conducted last year, some 59 percent of people in Alabama opposed gay marriage. Somehow a loving God is cited to bar loving couples from committing to each other.

These are very different news stories. But I wonder if a common lesson from both may be the importance of resisting bigotry, of combating the intolerance that can infect people of any faith — or of no faith.  continue

When I was a young girl falling madly in love with God, a nun gave me two books about St. Teresa of Avila. Later, I discovered that Teresa and I had another thing in common besides love of God: concern for women's equality. Teresa witnessed women suffering in a church that did not value their gifts, so she set out to make changes. As part of her reforms, she wrote a prayer manual, or, as I like to think of it, a 16th-century feminist survival guide.  continue

The Pontifical Council for Culture touted its meetings as analyses of the status of the world’s 3.5 billion women…

The Pontifical Council for Culture seems to be the Vatican’s faculty of arts and letters. Like all Vatican councils and congregations, it is predominantly male. It includes 13 cardinals, 14 bishops and four “men of culture.” It has 35 consultors, including seven women. Its 16-person staff has male professionals and four female secretaries. It is headed by four clerics: a prefect, a delegate, a secretary and an undersecretary. Such is the crowd that set out to advise the pope on women

From the Council’s working document: “There is no discussion here of women priests, which according to statistics is not something that women want.”

Pope Francis has declared that he is "convinced of the urgency of offering spaces for women in the Church" and that he wants a "more widespread and incisive female presence".

….There is no reason to doubt the sincerity of what he said, but he had himself already ruled out one area of leadership for women; in 2013, he said the "door is closed" to the possibility of women priests.

Episode One: Sex Trafficking in the USA 
Premieres Monday, January 26 - can be viewed online until February 17th
The first episode introduces survivors of sex trafficking in Nashville, Boston, and Chicago, and illuminates the widespread existence of crimes happening in our own backyards.  
Episode One more info.

Episode Two: Breaking the Cycle of Poverty 
Premieres Monday, February 2  - can be viewed online until February 17th
Travel from West Virginia to Haiti and Colombia for stories of children and women breaking free from a life of poverty and abuse.
Episode Two more info.

Episode Three: Violence and Solutions 
Premieres Monday, February 9 - can be viewed online until February 17th
Explore the work of organizations combating domestic violence in the U.S., and one providing a Kenyan slum's most at-risk young girls with a path to opportunity.
Episode Three more info.

There are 93 women who speak in the Bible, 49 of whom are named. These women speak a total of 14,056 words collectively -- roughly 1.1 percent of the total words in the holy book.  continue

LOS ANGELES — The first women-only mosque in the United States opened its doors in Los Angeles on Friday with an inaugural jummah, or prayer, by Edina Lekovic of the Muslim Public Affairs Council. The mosque is housed in a century-old multifaith worship space near downtown. Originally built as a synagogue, Pico-Union is now the home of the nonprofit Women’s Mosque as well as several Jewish and Christian groups.

Even as the boards of directors at many American mosques are becoming more welcoming to women, the relegation of Muslim women to basements, balconies and other less desirable spaces in their houses of worship remains a common practice. That second-class status is the main force behind the founding of the Women’s Mosque.

In mainstream mosques, women’s issues are usually a sideshow. Our intention is to help women read the Quran and interpret the scriptures and tradition for themselves. We’re doing this with an eye on empowering women to serve the broader Muslim community.

“We want to make sure that marriage is looked at as the benchmark and not the finish line,” she said. “Where are the hearts and minds of Americans?”

To answer that question, Glaad commissioned a Harris Poll late last year. I was given a first look at the results, which underscored how uncomfortable many Americans remain with gay, lesbian and bisexual people — and, even more so, with transgender people.

About 30 percent of the respondents who didn’t identify themselves as gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender said that it would unsettle them to learn that their physician or child’s teacher did.

Close to 45 percent said that they would be uneasy about bringing a child to a same-sex wedding. Thirty-six percent feel uncomfortable when they see a same-sex couple hold hands.  full article

When speaking to students at Georgetown University earlier this week, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said she is regularly asked when she believes there will be "enough" women sitting on the Supreme Court. continue

It may be Women’s Week at the Vatican, but you have to look carefully at the skirts to find many women. However well-intentioned Vatican officials may be, they embody Murphy’s Law when it comes to women: everything that can go wrong does go wrong. Maybe if women were more than bit players, things might improve.

The Pontifical Council for Culture in Rome, presided over by Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi and made up of cardinals and bishops who are all men, are discussing “Women’s Cultures: Equality and Difference” from February 4-7, 2015 in mostly closed-door sessions.  continue

Despite the recent rebranding of the Roman Catholic Church, with the liberal Pope Francis addressing climate change and recognizing the LGBT community, the church continues to ban women from preaching the gospel. But a group of rebel women is defying the rules of the Vatican by ordaining women as priests across the U.S.  continue

A retired Active Duty Army Chaplain and a retired Diocesan Catholic Priest. I help out in local parishes and hospitals whenever I can, which is fairly often.