Creativity at the Grass Roots: Women-Church Convergence Models Religious Community

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If one reads only the news of official Catholicism, it might appear to some to be a depressing picture. I was recently asked by a Presbyterian leader if I "still" had any relation to the Catholic church. I said I belonged to a local parish haft a block from my home. He professed himself astonished, evidently assuming I would be unwelcome in Catholic circles. I felt like saying, "Catholics are not as deadly as you think they are," but did not. What I could have said is that half of my speaking engagements every year are with Catholic groups.

Although the news from the Vatican appears to be endlessly backward looking, from continual warnings against "relativism" to the reinstatement of the Tridentine Mass, there is astonishing creativity at the grass roots. Indeed the more the hierarchy of the Catholic church appears in …