Christine Schenk

Simply Spirit: It may be time to own our despair. The clerical system isn't working anymore. Perhaps it was never meant to work, only we didn't realize it.

Simply Spirit: Okay, I have a confession to make. Last spring, as I watched the coronavirus pandemic explode across our planet, I was beyond furious at Donald Trump. (But that's not my confession.)

Simply Spirit: In a group called "Believers for Biden," I did not expect to be so deeply moved by praying together and witnessing that our shared faith requires us to help the most vulnerable and to promote the common good.

Simply Spirit: The Vatican's recent instruction on parishes restates a male-celibate-priest-controlled vision that is already moribund. St. Paul reminds us of a better way of mutuality in ministry: the example of Aquila and Prisca.

Simply Spirit: The Catholic Church should not be vilified for accessing a greatly needed government program that protects its employees. But it can get tricky.

Simply Spirit: It is not easy to be "put to the test." Which is why Jesus instructs us to ask for God's help in a world too often seduced and corrupted by the power of evil.

Simply Spirit: Two months ago, I was privileged to accompany a remarkable group of people touring ancient Christian sites in Greece, with some impressive female leaders traveling right alongside us.

Simply Spirit: We remembered Jesus as we broke bread and raised our cups of wine in front of our webcams. No one could accuse us of attempting to say Mass. But there were many priests around our virtual table.

Simply Spirit: The third FutureChurch pilgrimage to the Greek sites where women helped found Christianity brought to light the strength of the faith and the work women do for it today.

Simply Spirit: There is much good news for our world in Querida Amazonia. But much is lacking, for Amazonian Catholics and also for Catholics like me, who long to return to the practice of the early church.

Ally Kateusz command of early texts does a fine job of uncovering gender balance in second to 10th-century Christian leadership, but her analysis of visual evidence offers only thought-provoking speculation.

Simply Spirit: I had the pleasure of taking my niece and grandnieces to see the movie "Little Women." Growing up, Louisa May Alcott's classic was my all-time favorite book. Love is central to the work.

Simply Spirit: People who live close to the earth have much to teach us about living in harmony with a fractured world beloved by God, who, to quote Pope John Paul I, is "our father; even more he is our mother."

Simply Spirit: Speaking to FutureChurch, veteran Vatican journalist Robert Mickens asks progressive Catholics "to push and support the pope" — and have patience with the slow pace of reform.

Simply Spirit: The ongoing Synod of Bishops for the Amazon stands in stark contrast to the Synod of Bishops on the Eucharist held in 2005. Prioritizing the people of God makes a difference.

Recently my spiritual director of 30 years passed away. She was one of many hundreds, perhaps thousands of female spiritual directors who are exercising essential — if largely invisible — leadership in our church.

Simply Spirit: I owe my learning to the women and men with whom I have walked and am walking. Their solidarity helps me to first accept and then join together to alleviate the wounds of our world.

"Mary Magdalene" is a perfect way to celebrate the "Apostle to the Apostles" on or around her July 22 feast day. It is both cinematically beautiful and well-grounded in contemporary scholarship about the religious and political context in which Jesus and Mary sought God and God's reign. 

It is difficult to ignore ever-mounting evidence that the clerical system governing the Catholic church is in a significant state of decay. Yet, I can't help believing that the Holy Spirit — who loves creating something new out of chaos — is summoning us to build a new church governance.

Daily Easter Reflections: Because most of history relies heavily on literary records written by men, discovering reliable historical data about Christian women can be challenging. This search is further complicated by the fact that Christianity has relied heavily, if not exclusively, on the written word as a primary means of understanding its own history.