My congregation has just done something currently impossible for a Catholic congregation to replicate: It has voted to call a woman as our associate pastor. She'll be the fourth woman to serve in that capacity in our congregation's 150-year history.

My job here is not to tell the Catholic church it should ordain women as priests, though that would be my position if I were Catholic. Rather, I'm going to try to give Catholics a sense of what having female clergy can do to create a full and wholesome approach to ministry.  continue reading

VATICAN CITY Pope Francis on Wednesday backed efforts for equal pay for men and women who perform the same work, saying that continuing disparities in pay for women are a "pure scandal."
Reflecting during his weekly general audience on the "radical equality" he said Christianity proposes between husbands and wives, Francis said Christians around the world "must become more demanding" in emphasizing that equality.

"For example: supporting with conviction the right of equal compensation for equal work," he said.

"Why is it expected that women must earn less than men?" he asked. "No! They have the same rights. The disparity is a pure scandal."  continue reading

At some point in my childhood, just before my teens, I was struck by the fact that almost all of the songs that I was hearing on the radio, half-consciously humming along to or committing to memory were about love.  continue reading

When Massachusetts became the first state to legalize same-sex marriage in 2003, America's major religious denominations didn’t offer much support.

Now, more than a decade later, religious attitudes toward LGBT rights have shifted dramatically. Not only are people of faith more vocal about their support for marriage equality, but they are, at times, willing to contradict official church doctrine to express those views.  

...Despite the Catholic Church’s prohibitive stance, the Public Religion Research Institute did find that the majority of both white and Hispanic Catholics were in favor of legalizing same-sex marriage.
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In his name
It happens to everybody at some point. You do someone a good turn, and you get in big trouble for it. Today, we hear Peter defending himself before the guardians of orthodoxy. Poor Peter is accused of healing a crippled beggar in the name of Jesus. (See the whole account in Acts 3-4.) As the story goes, Peter's responses culminate with the question of choosing whether to obey God or men, even -- or especially -- when the men claim the sanction of religious authority.
continue to full homily
Mary McGlone homily archive

Barbara Ann Beadles
Norma Harrington 
Patricia Shannon Jones 
Susan Marie Schlessler
Kathleen Gibbons Schuck 
Ann Therese Searing and 
Mary Steinmetz 

NEW HAVEN — THIS week, committed gay couples seeking the right to marry will take their case to the Supreme Court. The plaintiffs in Obergefell v. Hodges are supported by amicus briefs submitted by a variety of institutions and people, from the former N.F.L. player Chris Kluwe to Ken Mehlman, a past chairman of the Republican National Committee.

Religious groups are on their side, too. While several prominent religious organizations have filed briefs in opposition, leaders in the Episcopal Church, the United Church of Christ, the Unitarian Universalist Association, the official organizations of conservative and reform Judaism, and more than 1,900 theologians signed a brief urging the court to legalize same-sex marriage. continue reading

CLEVELAND -- City Council passed a resolution supporting gay marriage (Marriage equality) in the state of Ohio Monday evening.  The resolution passed by a vote of 14 to two.

Cleveland now joins Columbus, Cincinnati, Dayton and other cities that have adopted similar resolutions stating they support marriage between same-sex couples.  continue reading

The Vatican’s misguided investigation of American Catholic nuns seemed thoroughly steeped in chauvinism from its inception three years ago by the church’s male-dominated bureaucracy. Rome’s move against widely respected churchwomen was puzzling and provocative in an era of scandal by male priests committing child rape and being repeatedly shielded by their male superiors. continue reading

In an unprecedented move, more than 100 prominent Roman Catholic donors and church members signed a full-page ad running Thursday in The Chronicle that calls on Pope Francis to replace San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone for fostering “an atmosphere of division and intolerance.”
continue reading.  Full text of open letter to the Pope.

(RNS) The Vatican on Thursday (April 16) officially ended a controversial investigation of American nuns with a face-saving compromise that allows Pope Francis to close the book on one of the more troubled episodes from the pontificate of his predecessor, Benedict XVI.  continue reading

The theories of evolution and the Big Bang are real and God is not “a magician with a magic wand”, Pope Francis has declared.

Speaking at the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, the Pope made comments which experts said put an end to the “pseudo theories” of creationism and intelligent design that some argue were encouraged by his predecessor, Benedict XVI…

“When we read about Creation in Genesis, we run the risk of imagining God was a magician, with a magic wand able to do everything. But that is not so,” Francis said. 

“The Big Bang, which today we hold to be the origin of the world, does not contradict the intervention of the divine creator but, rather, requires it.

“Evolution in nature is not inconsistent with the notion of creation, because evolution requires the creation of beings that evolve.”  continue reading

In her 12 years as an ordained minister, the Rev. Sarah Reed has concentrated on a core message, one that she preaches 50 different ways a year.

She said that message — about God’s love and inclusiveness — won’t change when she takes the pulpit next weekend to participate in Sermon Sunday sponsored by Why Marriage Matters Ohio.

Reed will preach at the Downtown First Congregational Church United Church of Christ, joining more than 200 other clergy members around the state who are expected to speak to congregations in support of same-sex marriage.  continue reading

Caracol Radio (English translation by Rebel Girl)
April 3, 2015

Olga Lucía Álvarez from Antioquia, the first ordained woman priest in Latin America and one of four [translator's note: now five] women priests in Colombia, laments the sin of sexism that still exists in Catholicism, that applies canon 1024, according to which only baptized men can be ordained.

"Is the water with which they baptized men different or is it that we don't need baptism," Álvarez wonders in a conversation with 6 AM Hoy por hoy.

She said that although the Catholic hierarchy says they are excommunicated, "we don't accept it, because they can't take away our baptism nor can they throw us out of the Church."   continue reading

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — A group of Catholic women stood witness today outside the home of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, calling once again for the ordination of women as priests in the Catholic Church.

Catholic women with the Southeastern Pennsylvania Women’s Ordination Conference stood across the street from the Cathedral Basilica of Ss. Peter and Paul, holding signs demanding that the church ordain women priests.  continue