Dear Friends of FutureChurch:
We hope you enjoy our July E-Newsletter
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Some Appeals Successful, Vatican Mediation Sought
Two Cleveland parishes and one Byzantine parish in Smithtown New York have won their appeals after their local bishops relent and permit them to remain open. Meanwhile, Peter Borre of Boston's Council of Parishes has begun a new diplomatic initiative to get Rome to place a moratorium on closing parishes
Click here to read more.
Click here to read Catholic News Service article Parishioners try to keep parishes open, but official options are few by Dennis Sadowski that quotes FutureChurch |
America Magazine Publishes Article by Sr. Chris Schenk About Synod Work
The July 6 issue of America Magazine published an article Its Not All About Eve written by Sr. Chris Schenk about FutureChurch's work to restore women to lectionary texts at the Synod on the Word. It is one of the five most read articles for the month of July.
Click here to read the article (subscribers only.)
Or email FutureChurch to have a hard copy sent to you. |
Nuns on NPR Discuss Vatican Visitation, Women and the Word.
Three National Public Radio programs recently broadcast in depth interviews with Catholic sisters about the recent Vatican Investigation of US nuns. A St. Louis NPR affiliate recently broadcast an hourlong interview with Sr. Chris Schenk about Women and the Word that also touched upon the visitation.
Click here to listen to the national "On Point" program hosted by Tom Ashbrook that interviewed professor of New Testament studies, Sr. Sandra Schneiders, IHM, Mother Mary Quentin RSM superior general of the Michigan Sisters of Mercy and New York Times religion reporter, MS Laurie Goodstein.
Click here to listen to St. Louis NPR station WKMU's wide-ranging interview of Sr. Christine Schenk CSJ just prior to a workshop she was giving about Women and the Word.
Click here to listen to Cleveland columnist Regina Bretts WCPN interview of Sister Mary Ann Flannery SC, Sister Catherine Pinkerton CSJ, Sister Susan Durkin OSU, and Sister Erin Zubal OSU.
Click hereto read FutureChurch's statement on the Vatican Investigation of US Women Religious.
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Optional Celibacy: So All Can Be At the Table In the midst of worldwide calls to change celibacy rules, FutureChurch is pleased to announce an important new initiative: Optional Celibacy: So All Can Be At the Table. This effort builds on our earlier work at the 2005 International Synod on the Eucharist where the priest shortage dominated the agenda and four of twelve bishop small groups asked for further study of married priests. The project includes an international electronic and paper postcard campaign asking Cardinal Hummes at the Congregation for the Clergy in Rome to open discussion of optional celibacy at the highest levels of the Church. Cardinal Hummes himself spoke in favor of discussing celibacy rules before he left Brazil. Send an electronic postcard (or order paper postcards) to Cardinal Hummes and Your Bishop. Download your free Optional Celibacy Education/Prayer Kit (Everything you need to encourage people in your parish or small faith community to become educated, prayerful and active about this important issue.) Learn More About the Project |
Jesuits Call for Married Priests
A moving editorial in the Jesuit weekly America recently called for the "recruitment and training of married men" as priests, ordaining permanent deacons to the priesthood, and welcoming back married priests. Saying that, "Silence and fervent prayer for vocations are no longer adequate responses to the priest shortage in the United States," the May fourth issue asked U.S. bishops to take greater leadership in openly discussing remedies to the priest shortage as the church prepares to observe the Year of the Priest.
To read the full article click here.
For more calls for married priests from around the world, click here. |
Images of Early Women Leaders Now Available on CD
An extensively researched new PowerPoint presentation and presenter's guide is now available that will help Christians visually retrieve the history of early women leaders too long distorted or rendered invisible in Christian memory. A sixteen-page presenter's guide contains thumbnail photos of all 43 slides along with a carefully researched summary of what archaeologists, specialists in early Christian images and catacomb experts tell us about these artifacts.
To learn more click here.
To order click here (takes a moment to load.) |
