April 19, 2010

Maureen Dowd recently wrote about the Catholic Church\’s negation of women. It seems like that\’s a frequent headline: Women Negated by Religion. Or: Women Still Negated by Religion. Too often, it\’s true. It\’s true in enormous, striking, unavoidable ways that deny women ownership of their own bodies and prevent them from taking control of their own lives, let alone their communities. I hope I don\’t appear insensitive to this reality when I point out another, quieter, but equally unavoidable trajectory. For some women, leading a religious community is not only normal, it is a critical part of their experience of themselves as women.