Sacrament of Heterosexual Matrimony
Sacrament of Men’s Holy Orders

"That way, when children are taught about the sacraments, they will be given a realistic picture. For girls, there are six sacraments, whereas for boys there are seven; for heterosexual people, there is one more than for LGBTIQ people."

Barbara Billey is about to be ordained by the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests (ARCWP) — a movement determined to shake up the church hierarchy  read full article

In 1993, then-parishioner Gigi Gruenke, a clinical social worker, began standing during Mass as a simple "direct witness" on behalf of women, she said.

"Every time a woman goes to Mass, we are being discriminated against because we are women," Gruenke said. "We are not priests, not deacons, not dispensers of the sacraments. Mass at St. Aloysius used to be the better part of two hours. It was not comfortable for standing. The discomfort of standing was congruent with the discomfort of being a woman in the church."  

…Mary Helen Washington, a professor of english, said "I will keep standing during Mass until women have positions of equality. I plan to stand for a long time."  full article

"It is a gesture to say, This is a church that does not acknowledge us," Washington said, later adding that she never "intended to stand for so many years. Now, it would be impossible to sit down. My natural position is to stand up for women in the church and in the world."

The Church remains intransigent on virtually any vestige of equality for women. Ask any honest director of a non-governmental organization that focuses on economic development, and she’ll tell you that fundamental to economic progress for all people is the empowerment of women. When women can read, their families thrive; when they can control their own fertility the society benefits economically. In places where women lead throughout society, even at the micro-level (as in running small businesses), standards of living increase for all.

An institution that bars women from leadership conveys the message that women are not fully human. No leader of such an institution, especially one who has expressed his assent to that barrier, as Francis has, should ever be taken as a progressive  read full essay

• On gender: The Dalai Lama says he considers himself a feminist and would like to see more women leaders because he thinks women are often innately more sensitive and peaceful. “I insist that women should carry a more active role,” he said. “If eventually most of the leaders of different nations are female, maybe we’ll be safer.” read full article

On May 17, Josie Petermeier took to the altar to be ordained as a Catholic priest. As ceremonies go, it was uneventful. Her small congregation gathered where it always does, in a modest Craftsman-style Methodist church below the Witch’s Hat Tower in Prospect Park, to watch Petermeier receive the sacrament of Holy Orders from a bishop who flew in from Indiana.

As Petermeier took part in a tradition said to trace an unbroken line to the original apostles, she promised to carry out the work of Christ on Earth. At that moment, she was excommunicated from the church. By order of the pope, she no longer can be buried in sacred ground. She cannot go to confession or receive the Eucharist.  continue

The leadership of the Episcopal church has voted to withdraw from fossil fuel holdings as a means of fighting climate change, delivering an important symbolic victory to environmental campaigners.

Two weeks after the pope’s pastoral letter on the environment, the divestment decision by a major US Protestant denomination underscored that climate change is increasingly seen by religious leaders as a deeply moral issue.  continue

As a faithful Catholic in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, I cannot in good conscience allow Archbishop Charles Chaput’s June 26 response to the Supreme Court ruling on marriage equality to be the final word. His message does not reflect the Catholic voice of inclusion and equality. The Church is made up of all the baptized, and the majority of Catholics in the United States support same-sex marriage.

The archbishop is right that the truth of God’s word does not change. Our understanding of it, however, has, does, and should. Our understanding of God’s word has changed on slavery, capital punishment, war, and now, on marriage. It is not in spite of my Catholicism that I support marriage equality, but because of it.  continue

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — The Episcopal Church has completed its embrace of gay rights, changing church law to allow same-sex religious marriages throughout the denomination, just days after the U.S. Supreme Court legalized gay marriage nationwide.

The new policy won overwhelming approval from the top Episcopal legislative body Wednesday, following decades of debate and conflict. It came 12 years after the denomination blazed a trail by electing the first openly gay bishop.  continue