I am in the midst of writing the last chapter of the project and it deals primarily with more recent events. This, of course, gives me hives. I am a historian and I really believe one cannot truly analyze the past if that past was just a few days ago (slight exaggeration on the time). I am not a sociologist or anthropologist or a journalist. I am also not a theorist, or a philosopher, or anyone who has any authority to comment on the state of humanity, the relationship between the sexes, and contemporary socio-political and cultural developments. I may contribute to this blog, but that does not make me an authority on anything.
I, however, have to chronicle, compile, and analyze in a coherent and, of course, smart way, the recent history of my particular group of people for this history project. So, I screw my courage to the sticking point with the sage words of my father, "too bad, you are doing it anyway" and am plowing ahead.
Part of what goes into this is reading articles and op-ed pieces that comment on the state of women in the Catholic Church since the 1980s. It also involves including the "larger feminist movement" of recent past.* This is all very enlightening for me. Or rather, re-enlightening for me. I have been a feminist for a couple decades. When I was in college, I knew I was a feminist, but was afraid to say so. I became confident of my views and position as I entered my late twenties, but felt no need to wear my ideals on my sleeve, or a t-shirt or bumper sticker. I definitely did not bring my views into the classroom.** Yet, I have been a bit more hesitant to look at the current state of women in American society largely and specifically in the Church. My research has brought me in close contact with women who have truly put themselves on the line for their faith and their beliefs about women and equality. Reading this material has in many ways fired me up a bit. When I read an article published in the 1980s about the status of women in the Church, the roles they can and cannot assume, and the inconsistency of and obstacles thrown up by male clergy, I am struck by how much things have not changed. When I sit in the pew and try to find meaning in the Mass and the message of the readings, Gospel , and homily, I have to work hard see what I am supposed to see. I am tired of being passive when a mixed message of women's place in Catholicism is sent from the male pulpit. I have a hard time when someone is rude or degrading to women and I let it go to be accommodating or do not wish to engage in a debate or an argument. Granted, I am tired most of the time and that can truly affect the extent to which a person takes all that fired-up-ness and acts. I may change my mind or take a different attitude.
So, right now, I am fired up, because I am doing some reading. What about tomorrow? Will I sustain this fire? How will I maintain my Catholic faith (or enliven it) and hold to my feminist principles?
*I recently began reading Mary J. Henold's Catholic and Feminist: The Surprising History of the American Catholic Feminist Movement and she rightly refers to what many have called secular or mainstream feminism as "the larger feminist movement." Secular or mainstream implies that these women were not religious, and that those who were, like Catholic Feminists, were marginal and did not engage in the "mainstream" movement. See Henold, 8.
**I still do not do that. I know what I believe, but it is not a part of my job to indoctrinate students. I would rather give them the tools to make up their own minds.
I, however, have to chronicle, compile, and analyze in a coherent and, of course, smart way, the recent history of my particular group of people for this history project. So, I screw my courage to the sticking point with the sage words of my father, "too bad, you are doing it anyway" and am plowing ahead.
Part of what goes into this is reading articles and op-ed pieces that comment on the state of women in the Catholic Church since the 1980s. It also involves including the "larger feminist movement" of recent past.* This is all very enlightening for me. Or rather, re-enlightening for me. I have been a feminist for a couple decades. When I was in college, I knew I was a feminist, but was afraid to say so. I became confident of my views and position as I entered my late twenties, but felt no need to wear my ideals on my sleeve, or a t-shirt or bumper sticker. I definitely did not bring my views into the classroom.** Yet, I have been a bit more hesitant to look at the current state of women in American society largely and specifically in the Church. My research has brought me in close contact with women who have truly put themselves on the line for their faith and their beliefs about women and equality. Reading this material has in many ways fired me up a bit. When I read an article published in the 1980s about the status of women in the Church, the roles they can and cannot assume, and the inconsistency of and obstacles thrown up by male clergy, I am struck by how much things have not changed. When I sit in the pew and try to find meaning in the Mass and the message of the readings, Gospel , and homily, I have to work hard see what I am supposed to see. I am tired of being passive when a mixed message of women's place in Catholicism is sent from the male pulpit. I have a hard time when someone is rude or degrading to women and I let it go to be accommodating or do not wish to engage in a debate or an argument. Granted, I am tired most of the time and that can truly affect the extent to which a person takes all that fired-up-ness and acts. I may change my mind or take a different attitude.
So, right now, I am fired up, because I am doing some reading. What about tomorrow? Will I sustain this fire? How will I maintain my Catholic faith (or enliven it) and hold to my feminist principles?
*I recently began reading Mary J. Henold's Catholic and Feminist: The Surprising History of the American Catholic Feminist Movement and she rightly refers to what many have called secular or mainstream feminism as "the larger feminist movement." Secular or mainstream implies that these women were not religious, and that those who were, like Catholic Feminists, were marginal and did not engage in the "mainstream" movement. See Henold, 8.
**I still do not do that. I know what I believe, but it is not a part of my job to indoctrinate students. I would rather give them the tools to make up their own minds.
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