Dear Friends,

 We hope that you are safe and well.

 Jean and I were delighted and inspired to see this courageous witness by these seven women from the Women's Ordination Conference standing up and speaking out for what they believe in: the Ordination of women in the Catholic Church. They used the Pope's gathering of new cardinals to teach their message. Today's Meditation features their Ministry of Irritation. As Roy Bourgeois would say, "Jean, we are just poking the beehive."

We invite you to join us as we commit ourselves to working tirelessly to end systemic and structural racism in our society, in the church, in healthcare, in the workplace--wherever it shows up so that everyone may come to have more abundant life. May this meditation nourish our contemplative-active hearts and sustain all of us in action.

In the spirit of our philosophy of co-creating community and our awareness that the Spirit speaks through each of us, we invite you to share your meditations with us as well. We truly believe that it is God's economy of abundance: when we share our blessings, our thoughts, our feelings, we are all made richer.

We hope and pray that you find peace, healing, hope and the infusion of joy in your life!

With our love and care,

Jean and Ron

MEDITATION 764: Ministry of Irritation

Dear Jean and Ron

On a cloudless Monday morning, we gathered with Women’s Ordination Worldwide dressed in cardinal red, carrying red parasols intended to share messages of inclusion to the cardinals gathering at the Vatican for their extraordinary consistory. At a meeting of 197 church leaders that includes zero women, we seven women peacefully and creatively made our presence known outside.

As we began, we prayed that our voices might carry beyond the church’s closed doors and that our witness may challenge the conversations and consciences of our brother cardinals inside the Vatican.

We then opened our umbrellas, walking in a vivid line down the via della Conciliazione toward St. Peter’s Basilica. As we passed, a passerby watching exclaimed, “Cardinale!”

With each step your prayers, donations, and support were with us. We were not sure how far we would get before being stopped by one of many layers of security around the Vatican, but to our surprise, we made it right to the gates surrounding St. Peter’s Square. So we kept going.

Next we processed to the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, where we welcomed cardinals entering the consistory with our parasols, which read in part: “Sexism is a cardinal sin;” “Ordain women;” “Reform means women;” and “It’s reigning men.”

After greeting several prelates, the surrounding police apprehended and kettled our group into a makeshift holding area for more than an hour. Despite various promises of being let go, we were eventually escorted across the Piazza del San Pietro to the nearest police station. At the station we were held for an additional 3 hours in a stale hallway waiting for our paperwork to be processed. Our parasols were confiscated as evidence but there was a little joy as our “subversive messages” were carefully detailed one-by-one in the police report. Eventually, we were released “pending investigation,” just as the cardinals were drifting out of the Vatican for their various lunch dates.

Without a doubt, we put the SISTER back in consistory, and our presence and absence were deeply felt. Our “Ministry of Irritation” continues to threaten the patriarchal business-as-usual at the Vatican. We are grateful for our Women’s Ordination Worldwide partners and all those praying for us as we risked arrest to raise up the absolute injustice of the inequality of women in the Catholic church.

The Holy Spirit will not be detained!

For equality,

Kate McElwee

Executive Director

Katie Lacz

Program Director

(...and our police paperwork after detainment)

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