Chicago woman to become Permanent Deacon? "Lynne Mapes-Riordan, of Evanston, hopes women will one day serve as Roman Catholic deacons. After 800 years, she could be one of the first. Mapes-Riordan, 49, and fellow parishioners at St. Nicholas Catholic Church in Evanston, IL met last winter with Chicago's Francis Cardinal George who reportedly promised to raise the question in Rome."  Read more... 

New Women Deacons: Why Not Now? resource now available Are you curious about why women have been defined out of the diaconate, what roles women served in the past, or how the Roman Catholic Church can restore the female diaconate? FutureChurch's newest education and advocacy resource is designed to help Catholics learn the rich history of female deacons, discover why the Church should restore the female diaconate, and implement a discernment process to surface women candidates to present to the bishop of their diocese.  

Read more   and  order here..  

Grand Cleveland Reopenings Over the past six weeks 9 of the eleven Cleveland diocese parishes who won their appeals have had opening masses, most with standing room only.    Below are links to photos and stories about each parish.

St. Patrick, 2 other Cleveland Catholic parishes reopen (gallery) Published: Sunday, July 22, 2012, 6:01 PM     

Overflow crowd fills St. James Catholic Church in Lakewood to celebrate reopening Wednesday, July 25, 2012, 9:48 PM      

St. Wendelin parish on Cleveland's West Side reopens its doors (gallery) Sunday, July 29, 2012, 6:00 PM      

Cleveland Poles celebrate parish's reopening with joyful Mass

Hundreds flock to St. Mary's to witness its reopening on a day dedicated to the "Mother of God"   

Joyful tears at St. John's reopening Published: July 15, 2012 - 10:18 PM

Download Canonical commentary on Cleveland decrees by Sr. Kate Kuenstler here

FutureChurch Save Our Parish Community Resources here 

Sign open letter to US Bishops here    

Banner year for St. Mary of Magdala celebrations! 

From Soacha, Columbia to Gainesville FL, this was a banner year with over 350 St. Mary of Magdala celebrations held in July and August. Nearly one third of the celebrations included special prayers of support U.S. nuns. Forty two celebrations were held outside the U.S. in Australia, Canada, Colombia, England, India, Ireland, Mexico, New Zealand, Sco tland, Singapore, Uganda, and Zambia.    

         Soacha, Columbia, St. Mary of Magdala Celebration  

 Sr. Louise Akers, Cincinnati,OH             Gainesville, FL  

To see more GREAT highlights click here...

For info on Cleveland's "Unheard Homilies' celebration and to download the homilies click here... 

If you haven't already, send photos and info about your celebrations to liz@futurechurch.org

Senior Irish cleric calls for married priests   Reform is needed to reinvigorate the promotion and uptate of vocations within the Galway diocese. That's the view of Fr. Martin Whelan, the Galway Diocesan Secretary who says the time may now have come to consider having married priests. Read more... 

Sign and Circulate Open Letter From the People of God to U.S. Bishops    

Send Electronic Postcards to Rome:

About Optional Celibacy 

About Women Deacons   

Download "So All Can Be At the Table" Organizing Kit     

US Catholic Church finances an "Unholy Mess?"A recent article in the highly respected publication The Economist was sharply critical of the business practices of the US. Catholic Church. This is especially troubling in light of this salient fact: "The American church may account for as much as 60% of the global [Catholic] institution's wealth. Little surprise, then, that it is the biggest contributor to head office (ahead of Germany, Italy and France). Everything from renovations to St Peter's Basilica in Rome to the Pontifical Gregorian University, the church's version of West Point, is largely paid for with American money." Read more...    

Related:

America on The Economist Article "... the finances of the Catholic church in America are an unholy mess. The sins involved in its book-keeping are not as vivid or grotesque as those on display in the various sexual-abuse cases that have cost the American church more than $3 billion so far; but the financial mismanagement and questionable business practices would have seen widespread resignations at the top of any other public institution. Read more...

John Allen on Church finances "If you're looking for the real moguls and tycoons in the church ... they're not to be found among the bishops....The numbers suggest a possible financial dimension to some of today's debates over Catholic identity. Understandably, some bishops may fret that if schools, hospitals, charities or religious orders drift out of the official orbit, it's not just the church's missionary capacity that's at stake, but an enormous chunk of its financial footprint too. Read more... 

LCWR: "Creating a way where there is no way" [Jamie Manson] "After reading the statement, some among the laity expressed disappointment that LCWR didn't simply disband and reorganize outside of the structures of the church. The fact is, such a move would be canonically impossible...[O]nly the Vatican, having created LCWR as a "public juridic person," has the ability to dissolve it. As one sister told me, they "will try to create a way where there is no way," echoing a common refrain used in the Civil Rights movement. They will not walk away from the institution without taking this unprecedented opportunity to invite the larger church into deeper conversation. The fact is, I don't believe women religious will ever walk away from their connection to the institutional church. One thing I learned for certain last week: If the sisters go, it will be because Vatican tossed them out. Read more....

Former LCWR head holds out hope for dialogue August 15, 2012 at 1:00 am "Like women everywhere, we awakened to our own identity as women and claimed the rights that were ours, equal to those of men," said Sr. Nancy Sylvester. "Our ministries have brought us face to face with the homeless, those in prisons, those on drugs, the economically disadvantaged, those suffering because of their sexual orientation. Those are the people today who Jesus would have called friends. And once you start working with real-life folks, you realize very few things are black and white." Read more.. 

Reality check: Nun candidates equally attracted to progressive, conservative orders " ... some commentators have made assertions about the demographics of religious life in the United States that are not based in fact. Regrettably, such misinformed statements create dichotomies that not only mask the complexity of religious reality, but are patently false. ...One of the most striking findings regarding new entrants [to religious orders] is that almost equal numbers of women have been attracted to institutes in both conferences of women religious in the U.S. in recent years.... Since a significant number of young adult Catholic women have fallen away from religious practice, religious institutes have the challenge of trying to recruit women who are also struggling with their deep ambivalence about the church. This is an issue that belongs to the entire church, not just to religious institutes. Read more...   

Related:

Seattle "flower march" draws more than 500 people

Catholics pledge Over $100,000 to Nuns As of August 27, 1,156 Catholics have pledged to direct or redirect $100,103  to US sisters. Of this, the Nun Justice Project report that an estimated $64,858 was from Catholics choosing to give to the sisters rather than the Peter's Pence collection at the end of June. The remainder was pledged at Pentecost. One person from Silver Springs MD pledged to redirect $4,000 wrote: In the Church, money is power, I say, give the nuns real power, not just the pittance of Peter's Pence, which will not impress the bishops. Henceforth, I am sending most of my financial support of the Church directly to the nuns.  Pledge to support the Sisters 

Sisters' Petition gathers over 64,250 signatures If you haven't signed it yet, click here.

Read FutureChurch Statement on mandate here 

NCR to track stories on LCWR crackdown. Follow at Sisters Under Scrutiny     

 More Parish Closing and Appeals News  

Parishioners continue Vatican appeal after church holds closing Mass  Jessup Catholics fighting to keep St. Mary's Assumption Church from permanently closing plan to push on with their appeal after a last Mass was held. The 100-plus members of the Committee to Save St. Mary's Church said they were disheartened by the Diocese of Scranton's decision to close "our beloved church"... "We shall not yield, and we shall not be bullied into compromising our principles" Read more... 

Youngstown appeal succeeds  Parishioners who appealed the closing of Immaculate Conception Church in Wellsville by the Youngstown Roman Catholic Diocese said Thursday they received word from the Vatican upholding their challenge. Parishioners say the Vatican has overruled a second Ohio bishop and ordered a church reopened. They say the parish had 150 families, sound finances and its one Sunday Mass was crowded. Read more...   

Related: Youngstown Diocese gets Vatican decree concerning church   

Download Free Canonical Appeal Resources here.

Order the Save Our Parish Community packet here.  

Russian and Polish church leaders make historic appeal for mutual forgiveness WARSAW, Poland - The leaders of Russia's Orthodox church and Poland's Catholic church signed a document Friday that urges their nations to forgive each other for past wrongs. Read more...

German Bishop's extravagant behavior triggers uproar

He extols the virtues of poverty and humility, but the German bishop of Limburg enjoys first-class flights and a luxurious new living complex. As the truth comes out about their secretive shepherd, local Catholics are threatening to abandon the fold en masse. Read more...   

Bishops Cullen and Cistone named defendants They may have escaped criminal prosecution, but according to a memorandum of law filed Monday in Common Pleas Court, Bishops Edward P. Cullen and Joseph R. Cistone can expect to be named as defendants in an ongoing civil case against the Archdiocese of Philadelphia regarding the sexual abuse of a former 10-year-old altar boy.  Read more... 

Vatican numbers hint at fading faith practice   VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The percentage of Catholics practicing their faith is declining almost everywhere around the globe. Almost all bishops report it, but it's difficult to prove statistically. The working document for the upcoming world Synod of Bishops on the new evangelization contains more than a dozen references to a "weakening of faith" or "declining practice" ...[B]etween1990 and 2010, the global Catholic population grew from 928.5 million to almost 1.2 billion, a 29 percent increase.... However the 29 percent increase is not mirrored in the number of first Communions or confirmations reported. Read more...

Vatican magistrates order trial for papal assistant accused of theft VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Vatican magistrates have formally indicted Pope Benedict XVI's personal assistant, Paolo Gabriele, on charges of aggravated theft and have indicted a computer technician from the Vatican Secretariat of State on minor charges of aiding Gabriele after he stole Vatican correspondence. Read more...

Group house gives women a place to discern their calling as nuns In what is being described as the first of its kind in the U.S., the Archdiocese of New Orleans has transformed a vacant church rectory into a group house where single women will live together while deciding whether to undertake lives as nuns. Read more...