Thursday I was the guest speaker at a luncheon organized by the Centre for Women’s Studies in Theology at the Faculty of Theology, Catholic University of Leuven (Louvain) Belgium. I had been involved in founding the Centre in 1993.
While I was asked to speak to several questions, I did manage to describe what our CNWE team did in Rome, our rationale, and how we did our legwork with the media. Those present were almost all young graduate and doctoral students in theology, and the reaction I heard back was deep disappointment about the misogyny in the Church (using just that term). I was asked if I saw even a tiny crack in the stained-glass ceiling, and I said Yes — just a hairline crack. I let speakers know that they were heard, and encouraged them to hope and to work for reform in this historic moment.
Then I met two longtime friends for coffee, two religious sisters, 86 and 87 years old. And they were interested in what we did as well.
So the tent expands a tiny bit further…