For Mary Daly: in memory of courage walking

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I did not know Mary Daly personally. I never met her professionally. I never heard even one of her public speeches. My concern for women's issues did not come from Daly. I got that from my mother.

My sense of Daly's impact on history comes from every discussion of women's issues in which I ever participated. The impact Daly's ideas and courage was having on other women was palpable. In those living situations, then, I learned a lot from Daly. Most of all, I learned how to look newly at things I'd looked at for so long that I was no longer really seeing any of them.

Recently I heard a commentator remark on her role in the development of thought in our time that "when the theological history of the period is written, Mary Daly will, at most, be only a small footnote in the study." That depends, I would argue, on who is doing the history. Women, I think, will have a great deal more to say about Daly than any amount of footnotes can possibly hold.

Remote as my own associations had been, for instance, when the word of her death came I realized instantly that women in general, whether they knew it or not, had a great deal for which to thank her.

Women need to thank Daly for raising two of the most important theological questions of our time: one, whether the question of a male God was consistent with the teaching that God was pure spirit, and two, whether a church that is more patriarchal system than authentic church could possibly survive in its present form. These two questions have yet to be resolved and are yet rankling both thinkers and institutions.

Women need to thank Daly for bearing the rejection that too often comes to those who say a new insight first and say it consistently and say it in the face of the very system in which they themselves have been raised.

For example, in later years, Daly refused to accept men in some of her classes, forcing men to experience the exclusion that women had endured for centuries. As a result, she lost her tenured position at a Catholic college for allegedly failing to offer equal service to all students, both men and women. But at the same time, no one else in Catholic colleges — or elsewhere — lost their jobs for excluding women from access to theology degrees or various medical specialties, among others, on the grounds that women, as women, were unfit for such programs.

Nor did anyone — now that men had finally experienced what it felt like to be made invisible in the public arena — officially apologize to women for having kept them out of schools, offices, work, leadership positions, discussions and decision-making in both church and state for two millennia. However much theology claimed we were all equal.

Women need to thank Daly for modeling the adulthood, the psychological maturity, the strength it takes to accept the social isolation and loneliness that comes with refusing to agree that just because we have never questioned a thing that it is, therefore, unquestionable. Thanks to her relentless questioning of women's social circumstances and theological exclusions everywhere, the woman's question became a major and profound theological question. It is thanks to Daly and the myriad of women theologians after her that "Because we say so" is no longer either a logical or an acceptable explanation for the exclusion of women anywhere.

Women need to thank Daly for exposing to us a whole new way of being alive. She freshened thought about the role and place of women by using language to show us what we could not see. She dug into history to trace the original meanings of words like hag and witch — once terms of reverence for the spiritual qualities and feminine wisdom of women, but now used to reduce them to the level of the malevolent.

She forced us to think newly, to think creatively. She called on women to Re-member themselves, to put themselves together differently than they had been taught was right for a woman. She talked about Gyn/nocide to make us understand that the infamous centuries of witch burnings were really the genocide of women practiced long before this century's Holocaust and under the guise of holiness.

Indeed, Daly's work is an icon to women. She was a groundbreaking thinker, a threat to any patriarchal institution, a creator of an entire new way of seeing life, of being alive, of celebrating life. She touched a culture deeply. Indeed, we owe her thanks.

From where I stand, a person's influence is measured, not so much by virtue of their effect on the institutions that bred them, but by their influence on those who never knew them at all. It is the women who never knew Daly but now know the things she knew that are the real evidence of her legacy, her impact, her meaning not only to this generation but to generations to come. As in "all generations shall call her blessed."

Down here our neighbors in

Down here our neighbors in Texas are busy trying to erase the great Catholic Cesar Chavez from their state's history books.

Never happen.
Same with Daly.
The body of the People remember.

No little footnotes but the mighty feet by which we now walk.

Benefit from Daly

Benefit from Daly initiative:

Men also benefit from Daly's initiative. Some of us would like to do more in order to render justice to women and to all who are kept invisible in a patriarchal society. Joan insists too much on the benefit that women get from Daly initiative. The work of Daly is fruitful because more and more men accept to change their negative attitudes towards women.

Thank you, Joan and Thank

Thank you, Joan and Thank you, Mary Daly for standing tall and speaking truth! This is a great tribute and we still need to ask the questions Mary asked. I will print what you wrote and share it with others. We will continue to celebrate Mary Daly's groundbreaking thinking and we will continue to be a threat to patriarchal institutions. I am a more courageous women because of Mary Daly and because of you.

(I wonder if this is the CeCe

(I wonder if this is the CeCe who was a fellow student with me in Mary Daly's classes at Villa des Fougeres in 1965-66.) Being in her classes was mind-expanding in a way that I had never experienced before or since. She was one of the greats.

Thank you, Joan Chittester,

Thank you, Joan Chittester, for renewing my respect for Mary Daly!

Thanks, Joan, for a wonderful

Thanks, Joan, for a wonderful piece. I think Mary would have liked you and vice versa. Below is some info that you and your readers may find useful. It comes from the team of us who have helped Mary in recent years. All good wishes and my thanks for your words, Mary E. Hunt

Mary Daly
1928-2010

Mary Daly’s friends are grateful for the enormous outpouring of energy and good will following her death. She leaves a large community of people whose lives have been touched and shaped by her and by her brilliant, challenging ideas.

A private burial will take place at the historic Mt. Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts. A public memorial event will be scheduled for spring 2010 in the Boston area. It was Mary’s hope that those who wish to celebrate her life gather in local groups to read her work and discuss its impact on their lives. Such gatherings are already taking place around the world.

A Web site, www.marydaly.org, has been set up by her estate. The site will include links to various obituaries and commentaries, as well as information and reports on gatherings held in Mary’s memory. Please feel free to post materials there and to read the thoughts of others.

Donations in memory of Mary Daly may be made to the Sophia Smith Collection at Smith College, where her papers are collected and will be made available for research, and to The Nature Conservancy, which protects the natural world she loved.

May her intellectual courage and daring vision continue to spark the world!

With gratitude,

Linda Barufaldi
Emily Culpepper
Mary E. Hunt
Nancy Kelly
Nancy O’Mealey
Jennifer Rycenga

Ah, thank you, thank you,

Ah, thank you, thank you, thank you...

Thank-you Sr. Joan for

Thank-you Sr. Joan for illuminating to me the life of Mary Daly. Now I need to research more about her contributions. Grateful for the illumination that I might have otherwise missed!

We Catholics, Christians, and all of good will need these lights!

If she is the "Dead Man Walking" author, I need to give even more focus to the issues she raised/supported. With our busy lives, we appreciate your recommendations on leading-edge research directions.

Much thanks for the leadership in your bold writings.

fyi...Sr. Helen Prejean is

fyi...Sr. Helen Prejean is the author of "Dead Man Walking".... google her.

I appreciated your words on

I appreciated your words on Mary Daley, Sister Joan. Other than the members of FOCIS (Federation of Communities in Service/former Glenmary Home Missionaries) Daley was the first "out loud" Catholic dissenter I knew of. By the way, I read your books and recommend them to others.

As to the mention regarding Ms. Daley's exclusion of men from some of her classes, I felt a sting here. I was a teacher and tutor to persons in Episcopal and Presbyterian lay ministries for many years. I would not have considered excluding any folks from the classes. Excluding men from her classes was, in my estimation, a hostile act. I understand, though that Mary Daley had "left" the RC fold at some point, and was no longer subject to its discipline.

Wish you could come to Charleston WV and visit a couple of ministries founded by Catholic sisters (two were run out of the SSND group) which have garnered lots of support.

Lawton Posey, Retired
The Presbytery of WV
lwposey@suddenlink.net

Mary Daly did not exactly

Mary Daly did not exactly "exclude" men from her classes. She offered to teach them separately, conscious of the intimidation and possible lack of freedom that the presence of males might make for women's contributions in class (a phenomenon which can be attested to by any number of women's studies professors). I've always wondered who the man was (a "plant") who brought suit and whether if he even was a student at Boston College?
But Joan Chittister is absolutely right. She (and the women from FOCIS)was a force to be reckoned with --and will continue to be so!

RIP, Mary!

Thank you Joan for also

Thank you Joan for also speaking truth to power. You are a prophet we desperately need in our church.

Very beautiful tribute to a

Very beautiful tribute to a remarkable woman.....she will be missed!

Very beautiful tribute to a

Very beautiful tribute to a remarkable woman.....she will be missed!

Thank you, Joan, for honoring

Thank you, Joan, for honoring the life and memory of Mary Daly so wonderfully. Mary Daly, or as we knew her, Mademoiselle Daly, was my philosophy and theology professor in a Dominican study-abroad program in Fribourg, Switzerland in 1963-64. She challenged and elevated our thinking with her brilliant teaching, and I've followed her career and writings with interest in the years since. Significantly that same year, our Directrice introduced us to "The Feminine Mystique," just published. Praise God for our feminist mothers!

Joan Chittester reminds us of

Joan Chittester reminds us of the courage of Mary Daly, who much like Chittester, spoke truth to power. Jesus modeled inclusion, but sadly his church hierarchy is dominated by those who practice exclusion.

The Catholic Church more a

The Catholic Church more a "patriarchal system" than authentic church? Wherever did Mary Daly see patriarchy in the Catholic Church? We are all well aware that women cannot be priests because they do not bear a "physical resmblance" to Christ! Jesus told us this Himself. Oh,no, not Jesus one of the popes.One of the male popes,I'll wager!

Thank you,Mary Daly.
Seton

Thank you Joan Chittister for

Thank you Joan Chittister for your sincere tribute to Mary Daly. I am still getting teary every time I read something about her. Over the years I read all her books, as they came out, and so profound has been her influence, I cannot always recognise that something I think, or say, or intuit was inspired by something Mary wrote.

Yes, we have much to admire: the willingness to bear the isolation, the dogged persistence for those seven years at Fribourg, when she was the only female student and the male seminarians refused to have anything to do with her, the utter wildness and wrecklessness with which she cut through the mindbindings.

Someone wrote on a blog the other day that they were angry about the obituaries that end with "Mary Daly left no immediate heirs." We are all her heirs, wrote the blogger, all of us.

I like to jokingly say that I

I like to jokingly say that I was the last male Mary Daly spoke too. Not really. In 1971 she came and spoke to a meeting at Ball State University Muncie, IN. She opened my eyes. We spoke for a few minutes after her presentation. She was very gracious to this "kid." I have enjoyed watching her stir the pot since. She will be far more remembered than most of her contemporaries.

Mary Daly spoke to men as

Mary Daly spoke to men as urgently and charitably as she did to women. I hope and trust that we will listen.

She did? really? examples

She did?
really?
examples please

I know she did to my father

I know she did to my father for one, a BC alumn, who gifted her books to me, when new.
frère charles du désert OSB OBLAT (Congrégation de Subiaco)

Mary Daly....so sorry she has

Mary Daly....so sorry she has passed on....truly a woman of outstanding courage, insights, integrity. The institutional church acknowledged no truths which she put forth in front of them. It was Mary Daly who began my journey into feminism and it is Joan Chittister who continues to inspire my thoughts and actions regarding the marginalization of women in the Church and in society. L. Rice, Somers, N. Y.

"a person's influence is

"a person's influence is measured, not so much by virtue of their effect on the institutions that bred them, but by their influence on those who never knew them at all."

The real test of this principle will be measured, not in the weeks after Mary Daly's death, but in the decades and centuries that follow. If her thought is taken up by generations of men and women who work to transform this world of ours, her legacy will be great indeed. If it is rejected as irrelevant by this and later generations, well, "nil nisi bonum mortuorum."

For example, in later years,

For example, in later years, Daly refused to accept men in some of her classes, forcing men to experience the exclusion that women had endured for centuries.

Unfortunately, she excluded men who were open-minded and prepared to experience the sort of chataqua to which she invited women.

We don't praise (the very few) African-Americans who retaliated against white Civil Rights activists by excluding them and attacking them and abusing them.

Daly's tactics, while interesting, were nonetheless discriminatory. They must be viewed as such; nothing more, nothing less. She refused to afford her potential students the same sort of "academic freedom" which she demanded for herself.

Academic discrimination, whatever its motivation, is a dirty, evil, rotten thing to do. It has no redeeming value in whatever form.

Discrimination is discrimination; there is no such thing as "reverse" discrimination. There is just discrimination.

Daly had options: as a classroom teacher she could have established whatever boundaries she chose within her classroom. She could have demanded respect for the thoughts and opinions of all, and laid it on the line with those who'd push the male-dominated views, loudly, and with bible-in-hand (and haven't all of us Religious Studies Majors put up with that garbage?).

The exclusion of individuals by virtue of their gender, however, was not an acceptable one.

Baby and bath-water, and all that.

As a result, she lost her tenured position at a Catholic college for allegedly failing to offer equal service to all students, both men and women.

As well she should have.

There is no "allegedly" about it.

Her choice to sacrifice her tenure (conveniently at retirement age, isn't it funny how young profs rarely do same) on the altar of an object lesson in discrimination, or whatever her motivation, was hers, and hers alone. There was nothing particularly noble about it.

We all make mistakes.

This was hers.

It was a whopper.

That said, it doesn't offset her magnificent contribution to the idea of the Deity as something different than a great big "man" up in the sky. Of course the Unitarian/Universalist/Transcendentalists "got" this at the time of Ralph Waldo Emerson...

You clearly never sat in a

You clearly never sat in a class with Mary Daly, Greg. She DID have many men in her audiences when she lectured at BC. This whole thing was a "put up" deal. You have no right to merely accept what some blogger says was "the truth" here and make such rash judgments.

Dear Sr. Joan, Thank you for

Dear Sr. Joan,
Thank you for the lovely tribute to Mary Daly. I too heard that commentator say she would be only a "footnote," I was offended by such a cavalier attitude about someone, who even he described as making a profound contribution to the Church and to all women. He also reported that the students at the school where she was designed tenure, women AND MEN, protested against the college's decision to cancel her tenure. And I agree with group above, Mary Daly would have loved you, I'm sure.

Please continue your path of supporting and lifting up the lives of women in this world, and thank you for that work.

Faithfully,
Carolyne Ashton

Right On, Joan! And as the

Right On, Joan! And as the inquisitions from the Vatican continue to persecute Roman Catholic Women's religious communities and our father's hard earned wages handed over to Roman Catholic Institutions for the education of their children are being pledged by cardinals for the payment to attorneys for the defense of pedophile priests and as women continue to be denied inclusion in all of the sacraments of the Roman Catholic church Mary Daly inspires us to work harder, stand stronger, protest louder, and withdraw financial support completely until justice is served.

Thank you Mary Daly and also

Thank you Mary Daly and also Sister Joan. I agree that Mary and Joan have also done great things for men. We have a long way to go before there is equality for all people of the world as Jesus taught. It is ironic that the translation of the word vatican means 'prophetic' when ordinary people 'the people of God' believe more that it is women 'religious' predominantly and some men and other women across the world, who are prophetic to the world rather than the Vatican.

Many ordinary blokes like me support the good works of these courageous women.

Thank you

David Mapstone

David. I'm one of the 'People

David. I'm one of the 'People of God' (who couldn't be more ordinary) and I don't believe for a single second that women religious (or the men for that matter) are 'prophetic'. This notion is a mere human construct. It is the Church (with the Pope as her earthly head) which has the authority to teach and sanctify - not Mary Daly or Sisters Joan or Sandra et al. By the way, when did Jesus teach that all people must be equal? Aren't you getting the Gospel confused with the French Revolution. Ben

David: You cannot argue with

David: You cannot argue with the "Smoke of Satan"-only exorcise the evil from Mother Church, yes, "Mother" Church. May God have mercy on these supporters and us all. Maria, ora pro nobis!

Dear Sr. Joan, Thank you for

Dear Sr. Joan,
Thank you for this wonderful tribute to Mary Daly. I, too, heard that commentator also refer to her as a "footnote," while at the same time describing a life of profound contribution to the Church and to women, especially. In that same report it was noted that the students, both women AND MEN, protested about her loss of tenure at that Catholic college. That says something about her influence.

As was said earlier, I'm sure that you and Mary Daly would have liked each other immensely as you each valued equality in life. Please keep illuminating the path for all of us.

Faithfully,
Carolyne

There will now be a ground

There will now be a ground swell of voices supporting the fact that God is not
a man. That Jesus is not God anymore than we are all God. Jesus was a very
special person who came to teach us how to live and die. But God did not take
on humanity, did not became incarnated in Jesus. We all have God's life in us or we would have no life at all.

"But God did not take on

"But God did not take on humanity, did not became incarnated in Jesus"

If you believe that then you are not Christian nor Catholic.

God as you indicate is

God as you indicate is Love.
God is Love, as the Apostle clearly states.
God has ever been within us, as God is Love.

To pursue and to incarnate this love, to make a reality Love among us, this is to serve God in Truth and in Power.

"We all have God's life in us or we would have life at all."

To share this love is the secret of our Faith, the secret of Life conquering death and division, to be truly pro-life, and our transcendence.

Jesus in his sermons and commandments teaches us clearly how to love. We refuse at our peril, at the peril of our species, to the destruction of God's beloved creation. To love is to assure new life.

Jesus teaches us to love, as God is Love.
We each have this power to love, as Jesus taught.
Let us therefore Love.

What does Saint Paul say of Love in that letter to the Corinthians?

Love is beyond gender.
God is Love.

Mary Daly was my professor of

Mary Daly was my professor of Theology and Philosophy at the University of Fribourg. She was a major influence in moving my understanding in a new and deeper direction. I often wonder where I would be today if she hadn't been there at a crucial time in my life. You could never get away with assumptions in her class. Any statement made while answering a question was sure to be followed with the question, "Why?" There you were, on your own, forced to answer that question, for yourself and for others. My husband, two friends and I traveled to Moorhead MN to hear her speak, many years later. She did not allow questions from men in the audience. The discomfort (and possibly rage) was palpable! What an experience.

Thank you for writing this!

Thank you for writing this!

As a priest, nothing makes me

As a priest, nothing makes me ache more than the exclusion of women from the priesthood. As long as they are excluded, to say that ours is "not a male dominated Church" is a bald-faced lie.

At the same time, Daly's decision to exclude men from her classes in order to "teach them how discrimination feels" was a small-minded thing and not worthy of the person with vast vision that she really was.

"teach them how

"teach them how discrimination feels"

Who said that, Taylor?

Did Mary say that? When and where?

Were the men sincere in their desire to take Mary's classes, or were they hoping to disrupt the class and interrupt and talk over the women, as men so often do?

(Like the men planted in Atheneum's seminary classes to get professors fired.)

You should read some old articles on various women fired, denied tenure, etc., and try to broaden your outlook.

http://natcath.org/NCR_Online/archives2/1999a/011599/011599p.htm

hey masculinist! way cool

hey masculinist!

way cool nickname and good points throughout, starting with that name, just one question:

Which Atheneum?

Should be Athenaeum.

Should be Athenaeum.

Search NCR pre-2008.

Seminary professor gets settlement, still hopes for theological debate
These are stories from past, or back, issues of the National Catholic Reporter, the NCR.
... the school, the Athenaeum of Ohio, recently paid Milavec $72,000 to ...
... , had taught at the Athenaeum, which includes Mount St. Mary's Seminary ...
... , issue that the Athenaeum is sometimes listed among the nation's ...
... of events at the Athenaeum follows. Before classes began in the fall ...
... , now dean of the Athenaeum's seminary division, was asked to join ...
http://natcath.org/NCR_Online/archives2/1998b/042498/042498d.htm • Wednesday, 29 November 2006, 4:54pm GMT • 26.4k

Inside NCR
These are stories from past, or back, issues of the National Catholic Reporter, the NCR.
... professor at the Athenaeum of Ohio in Cincinnati who lost his job ...
... division of the Athenaeum after two conservative students ...
... the shots at the Athenaeum and why. National Catholic Reporter, May ...
http://natcath.org/NCR_Online/archives2/1998b/050198/050198b.htm • Wednesday, 29 November 2006, 4:54pm GMT • 5k

I appreciate Greg Bullough's

I appreciate Greg Bullough's ideas, see the argument he makes, however Mary Daly was making such a the strong statement I think because women are shut out of seminaries, Vatican governance decisions, any input, ordination. She highlighted this unfairness and waste of women's talents. You definately have a great point too. Tough call if she was wise to have done that. However it certainly drove home how wrong the pope(s) have been to shut out women so much. It brought/brings lots of valuable attention to the unfairness and wrongness of the popes' take on women and the church.

Frankly the pope(s) PBXV1 and JPII seem ignorant and untheological claiming only men can represent Jesus or that God is ""male"" only. What are/were they thinking? The Old Testament presents God as both male and female and ineffable.

Jesus tells us in NT God is Spirit, not ""man"". Also Jesus even outlines the female/male ineffableness of God by saying that Jesus is Bakerwoman, is Widow, is Mother Hen. So it is only stubborness and misogyny that blocks the popes from realizing that women do represent Jesus, do image God. I can not figure out why some men refuse to acknowledge what Jesus really said and did. Why some men dislike or want to ignore women so much. I get the impression when I read the NT that Jesus really likes women a lot. Really valued women a lot too. Jesus saw the pastoral, spiritual worth of women too. So I don't understand how the popes can turn down women for priesthood and still claim to believe in God, Jesus or the Holy Spirit. It is good that Mary Daly reminds us what Jesus really did and taught about women's roles in the church. Womwn: Co-workers, prophets, anointers, missionaries, apostles, public preachers, public teachers, disciples, deacons, presbyters which is another name for priests, church leaders . Thanks Mary.

I never had a name for the

I never had a name for the ground swell that eventually changed my thinking forever. You start out being told and you believe, that the church has the truth and if following the Spirit so cannot err and then you start to question because you read and the questions are met with anger and you are told to shut up and just believe the garbage you are seeing and hearing but you can't. You finally have to leave the church or feel like you are participating in the evil with no voice to combat it. Well now I have some names and some voices. I have Mary Daly, Joan Chittester and Sandra Schneiders among some others who have shown me I am worth something as a female even though the official church says I am equal but different which means not equal and is a lie. You all have opened my eyes to the value of ALL humanity which is what I saw all along in Jesus' stories and Way of Life but was told I was wrong. There is no difference in spirit just as God is not male (Jesus had to be a sex but that does not speak to his "true" nature) but spirit and our souls are spirit. Now I am rambling so I will stop. But thankyou to many of you and especially Mary Daly for starting to open the eyes to such ingrained wrongs.

The great

The great late-19th-early-20th-century feminist Charlotte Perkins Gilman was once told by a suffragist something like this: "We are so grateful for you! You make the rest of us look tame." I always felt that way about Mary Daly. She gave us so much impetus, so much insight, but she was so out there on the edge that we, the less courageous, benefited enormously, and our cause advanced amazingly, because we were seen as -- well, something less terrifying. Something less we indeed were, and are.

"Recently I heard a

"Recently I heard a commentator remark on her role in the development of thought in our time that "when the theological history of the period is written, Mary Daly will, at most, be only a small footnote in the study."

Perhaps according to HIStory:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122258110

HIS own prominence should be as long-lasting on the profession.

Interesting comments below

Interesting comments below the article, too. Mary's death has unleashed a LOT of anger/hatred/churlishness/jealousy from those on the right/far right/ultra-far right/etc.

E.g., The Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, an order founded by the brutish Fr. Feeney, gave a "great, yes 'great'”, on their web site to an article bashing Mary Daly, by Jack Kenny in the magazine of the John Birch Society.

Thank you for writing a

Thank you for writing a wonderful tribute to the amazing Mary Daly.

Did Mary Daly advocate

Did Mary Daly advocate separate education for men and women? If this is so, is it really the best type of education?

Mary Daly's writing and

Mary Daly's writing and vision gave me hope when I was a young
woman who was deeply perplexed by the limitations in the Church.
Her witness and amazing vision continue to do that for me and I
am grateful to have lived in her times.

I had just graduated from

I had just graduated from Grinnell College and was living in Atlana when I went to hear Mary Daly at Emory one evening in 1986. I thought she might have something to add to what I learned in my "liberation theology" class the spring before-- in which her name had not come up, in favor of more "tame" but still quite wonderfully liberating feminist theologians. She blew me away! I had no idea what she was about going into the talk, and it was a revelation. Really important and I hope I have integrated some of her ideas into my own life and way of being.

Mary Daly's legacy may be

Mary Daly's legacy may be significant, but I wonder to whom. To equate her in any way with Mary, the mother of Jesus, is self-serving.

The most honored and revered

The most honored and revered human in the Catholic Church is our blessed Mother Mary. How does this make the Church anti-women?

Jesus himself taught us the prayer "Our Father". Is that demeaning to women?
P.S. I am a woman. Referring to God as Our Father does not bother me at all.

Someone who made a

Someone who made a comfortable career, a media sensation, but who will have no lasting influence on anything which matters. RIP

"Whether a church that is

"Whether a church that is more patriarchal system than authentic church could possibly survive in its present form?"

Could someone please explain this to me?

The Catholic Church is only partially authenic? Which part? How exactly is it a patriarchal system?

How sad to see S.Joan

How sad to see S.Joan Chittister's ending comment about seeing Mary Daly as 'blessed among women'- more scary actually than sad...God help Mary and you too, Joan.

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