Rise Catholic Women
You hold the Key
by
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Introduction
Can you envision your Catholic church today pastored by a married priest and assisted by a woman deacon? The altar boys and girls are seeing a future for themselves in the structure of the church they are serving. All the congregation is singing joyfully and responding so enthusiastically that even the little mouse in the corner would want to be accepted into this God-loving community. Those attending are enthusiastic because they are not just attending. They are able to be Catholics. The divorced are no longer shunned. The young married couples are no longer strapped by stringent birth-control rules. Nuns are now considered clerics and can have an equal voice to the men in Rome. Here is the Catholic Church of the future that will have a future in America.
We have entered a time in our Catholic Church where women have lost the little influence they once had in leading our churches. There has been a dramatic decline in women entering religious life. The few that remain cannot even be classified as clergy, and these few have recently been put under the control of bishops.
Tom Roberts of the National Catholic Reporter recently commented,
If the sweep of teaching in the tradition holds the key to unlocking a future for women in the church, it will only be discovered by the consistent pronouncement of an alternate tradition, strong enough to erode the layers of history that has kept the key hidden.1
Thank you, Tom Roberts, for calling attention to the fact that we need to speak up. We cannot only find this “key”; we can and will use it. We will use it to show our colleagues in Christ not only the roots of women in biblical history but also the facts that alter the reasoning and assumptions that have led to the exclusion of women. We are strong enough to lead a woman-driven narrative, and we are equal in numbers and abilities to do this.
The celibacy requirements for priests also leave out the influence of women in our church. If popes were allowed to be married in the early church, it seems that in this dire time of need for pastors, we could allow the twenty thousand who have left to marry back to their clerical state. Most Catholics and many priests are in favor of allowing priests to marry.
Much has been said by Pope Francis about Catholics coming out of isolation. St. Hildegard tells us we need to be “awake.” We can take this one step further and “rise.” Catholic women need to rise and be that “key” that Tom Roberts refers to.
1http://futurechurch.org/women-in-church-leadership/women-and-word/resource/women-and-word-resources-for-educators.
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About the Book
Women hold the key for the solution to success in our Roman Catholic Church. This key has been hidden! Rise Catholic Women will not only tell you why, but how women can unlock the secrets that have been hidden from them, and expose the unnecessary control of men in decision making in the church.
This informative book provides mostly unknown facts about the reasons priests are not allowed to marry. It answers questions that our pastors have been encouraged not to discuss.
Sarah Harding shows us that even though statistics show the Catholic church is doing well in the United States, the influx of the Latino communities in our Church has covered up the fact that the non- Latino Catholic population has diminished. The shortage of priests has affected the salvation of souls to a large degree. Women need to rise and face the challenge to be heard. We need all our priests, not just those who have courageously endured celibacy, but the other one third who have left the Church to marry.
There are twenty-thousand priests in the United States alone who have left the Church to marry. These priests could be called back to shepherd our churches. You hold the key to unlock the door for them to help save our Roman Catholic Church in America.
Note from the author: I am extremely grateful for the professional help given to me by my daughter and granddaughter, Mary Alice Loucks and Nicole McMahon.
About the Author
Sarah Harding still wonders why, she, at eighty-two, felt the tug of God to do something about the problems in our country’s Catholic Church. Sarah, after raising seven children and losing her husband, Gordon, after fifty-two years of marriage, still manages her two businesses, a Christian Book Store and a flower shop, in Attica New York.