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Writer's pictureProfiles in Catholicism
Sep 2621 min read

Women Leadership and Challenges

Updated: Oct 4


A Message from the Editor


In this issue, we try to address some the challenges faced by women. We also provide insights into women’s leadership through our interviews with women globally.

 

Some religions including the Catholic religion are hesitant in include women with pastoral responsibilities. Father Hans Zollner believes that women must be included in formation of priests. This  may be in the long-term future.  However, there is a growing interest in appointing women deacons. For more information on this challenge, please read The debate on women deacons in the Catholic Church: A short documentary by America Magazine.



I have always assumed that United States had the largest incidence of sexual abuse of children per capita. However, it now appears that Ireland does. Here is one of the latest reports -  2,395 allegations of sexual abuse at religious schools inquiry finds.  

When religions are unable to significantly reduce sexual violence against children, you and your friends should write to your government to mandate 40 years of mandatory prison confinement for child sexual abuse. 

 

It is very sad when the Catholic Church and other faiths fall to reduce sexual violence against children. All those who fail to act in every way possible on this challenge may be committing a sin of omission. Churches have paid out billions of dollars for claims of child sexual abuse – money that could have be used for providing food, housing, and education to the poor and homeless as Christ has asked us to do.

 

I was very concerned to learn that the GOP has a surprising new target: the Catholic Church. I wonder how many Republicans are aware of this. This is another parallel to persecution of the| Catholic Church by the Nazis.


There are schools that provide degrees in mammal behavior such as Unity University. I assume that they may not be able to train lonely dolphins.

 

Please check out our comprehensive directory of topics

 

Now for some sad news. Due to a lack of donations we may be unable to continue to pay our staff. Without your help, we may have to stop publishing Profiles in Catholicism. For the first time in eighteen years of publishing Profiles in Catholicism, I am begging for a donation of $5.00 to keep Profiles in Catholicism active. A percentage of donations help support orphans in Africa and cancer patients in India.

 A Quote to Remember

 

"No country can ever truly flourish if it stifles the potential of its women and deprives itself of the contributions of half of its citizens."

by Michelle Obama


Prayers

 

A Prayer for the Protection of Women Globally                                                                   


“Woman” 

 

We know, Lord, the common image of a showingly-shaped woman draped over a car, but there is also the less well known and trained woman who is lying on the ground, using tools needed to mend it.

 

We also know, Joseph, about the exploitation of various kinds of enslaved women, hidden from sight but no less human, trapped in a variety of ways, but helped by helpers and those who have escaped.

 

We know too, Mary, the need to clothe the shapely-unclothed, to help the woman standing close to the kerb and the girls led, lonely, to indescribable brutality all of which should make men ashamed.

 

Lord, you paused after the first burstingly-beautiful flowering of the intimately pulsing universe, alive with life and multiplying, and you reflected on the mysteriousness of being Three, creating a dignified, dual-unity, called man and woman, open to the gift of a child-third?

 

How amazing, Joseph, guardian of the redeemer, that your love of

Mary was enriched by a grace of being prepared to risk scandal and to accept a woman translucent to the mystery of God, revealing in her modesty the immense dignity that God’s gift endowed her with.

 

How, Mary, were you able to dwell in the almost totally hidden life,

letting the Church discover through the centuries the foundational

humility that can only be called God-like, in view of how hidden a wealth of holiness, scarcely believable, was to be mirrored in you?

 

And so, Lord, you took the word “woman” and made this word resound from the beginning, as you spoke to us through speaking to your mother: “O woman, what have you to do with me? My hour has not yet come” (Jn. 2: 4); and then again, towards the end of your poured out love, suffering and crucifixion, you gave us to your inextricably suffering mother, saying: “Woman, here is your son” (Jn. 19: 26).

 

Oh Lord, you addressed the woman at the well, revealing the open-wide arms of the love you promised to give in the form of living water, with these words: “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming …. and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for such the Father seeks to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth" (Jn. 4: 21-24).

 

How wonderfully you have drawn back to the beginning, the gift of woman, drawing afresh on the magnificent nature in which you have chosen to express the inexpressibly hidden face of your mystery, even saying you long to gather your children like a ‘hen gathers her chicks’, disclosing a mothering love in the mystery of God (Mt. 23: 37).

 

Oh Lord my God, your words transformed a woman you healed from a flow of blood; indeed, from a woman who reached out with a flow of blood, and you recognized her as your “Daughter, [saying that] your faith has healed you. Go in peace” (Luke 8: 47), expressing the same wisdom as when you said that whoever does the will of God is my mother, and brother and sister (cf. Mk. 3: 35).

 

What is more, Oh Lord, you entrusted the discovery of your resurrection to a woman, whom you had recovered, renewed and filled with love, sending her as the apostle to the apostles to announce the new news, not just to them but to all who are to follow and to experience, as she did, the mystery of being taken out of sin’s disfigurements into the beaconing light-life of the resurrection!

 

So, Lord, what will help us to rediscover the cherishing of women, whether in the newly bright spring, the autumn’s array of light-lit colours, not forgetting the wintered suffering and the summer’s fullness, all of which comes in every shade of blemished beauty, colour, and shape, all of which express the wondrous reality of sharing the expression of the mystery of God, perhaps more fully

for expressing the mystery of being-in-relationship more clearly?

 

In answer, Oh Blessed Trinity, you have said how you have expressed your own, blazing love for the mystery of woman in the act both through and beyond words of a reality scarcely imaginable: that you chose a woman, Mary, from the first instant of her being, to be the mother of the only begotten Son of the Father, Jesus Christ, conceived through the Holy Spirit (cf. Lk 1) and constantly rediscovered under ever new and old titles as the Mother of the living and of the Church.

 

by Francis Etheredge, Catholic married layman, father of 11, 3 of whom are in heaven, and an author:

 

A Prayer for Pregnant Women

 

Good and Gracious God,

I hear and feel the sounds of a new beginning. Help me Lord to know, love and care for this child from the moment I learned the child is here. It is with great joy I welcome the child into my womb. Like Mother Mary in the Magnificat I am filled with the presence of the Lord, for myself my child and my husband.  We have begun a new covenant with you Oh my God. We are preparing for the child by letting the child know how we wanted and cared for the thought of the child. May the child's life be filled with the joy of knowing/loving/and serving you.  Help us to let the child know about you as much as we can and that the child's Godparents would assist in getting to know you, Oh Lord. We pray, Lord, for those who do not have good decisions to make, they are economically poor or feel unable to make the decision they want. Assist them in their decision so they too can live in your presence.

We ask you this in the name of the Father, His son and the Holy Spirit.

by Eileen Quinn Knight, Ph.D Profiles in Catholicism

 

A Prayer for the Victims of the School Victims in Georgia 

 

Wow many times, Lord, how many times? Another school terrorized by a lone gunman, a fellow student. Four died. Others injured. Many traumatized by the nightmare. Since when did going to school become a high-risk occupation? Heavenly Father, we know that you grieve with the families of the victims, just as you grieved with Martha and Mary at the death of their brother. Lord, help us find what is eating away at the base of our soul. What is it that leads us to believe that using a weapon of war will bring us peace?  Amen

by Father Joseph Chamblain, O.S.M. Profiles in Catholicism

 

Prayer to end child abuse

 

What has happened to the world Lord Jesus that so many abuse the children? Many look away and hide the crimes, they do not cry out for justice. You said the children are the most important in the Kingdom, To accept a child, you said, is to accept you.

Bring the children to me you told the disciples that they be blessed and protected.

You said let the abusers be brought to account and do penance as if a mill stone were tied around their necks and they be thrown into the deep sea, you said Lord in Matthew (Ch.18: 6-7)

Lord, inspire us and strengthen our faith by your words and actions, that goodness, love of neighbor and action for justice will over come evil. Inspire us to save and heal the children through justice, peace so they can live a new happier life. Amen

 

by Father Shay Cullen Profiles in Catholicism

 

Prayer for Immigrants Who Died Trying to Reach the United States

 

In your mercy, Lord, receive the souls of those who undertook perilous journeys

to escape hunger or crushing oppression or threats of violence

May they who did not know peace and security in this life

now find in you and with all the angels and saints

a place of peace and happiness,

as the share in the fullness of life with you, their creator and redeemer. Amen

by Father Louis Cameli Profiles in Catholicism

 

Women Challenges and Leadership Interviews



General Interviews

 

 



The Month in Review


General Articles and Commentaries


Book Reviews, Excerpts, Commentaries, and Announcements



Film Reviews and Commentaries



Music Reviews and Commentaries

 

 

Podcasts

 

Help Save Lives

 


Videos


The Feminine Genius

 

The Women Fighting to be Priests


Meet the Woman Who Runs Her Catholic Parish


A Look into America's Oldest Carmelite Monastery


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