Loretto Sr. Jeannine Gramick, left, who co-founded New Ways Ministry, with journalist and marriage-equality activist Ursula Halligan (Robert Shine)
The delegates gathering today for the month-long synod of bishops will hear few, if any, women's voices inside their Vatican meeting hall. That's a situation that theologian Tina Beattie wants to remedy, even if it's from the other side of town.
On Oct. 1, Beattie and several colleagues hosted a symposium of mostly Catholic women's voices at the Pontifical University Antonianum, about 4 miles from where more than 300 Catholic bishops are opening the Synod 2018 on Young People, the Faith and Vocational Discernment Oct. 3
"At this time of crisis in the Roman Catholic Church, we believe it is more important than ever to draw attention to the absence of women's voices from the church's leadership and decision-making processes," said Beattie, director of the Digby Stuart Research Centre for Catholic Studies and director of Catherine of Siena College at the University of Roehampton, London.
The event was the official launch of the new book Visions and Vocations, a collection of theological and personal reflections by Catholic women. It is a follow up to the 2015 volume Catholic Women Speak: Bringing Our Gifts to the Table. Both were published by Paulist Press for Catholic Women Speak.