Angela Bonavoglia

AUTHOR UNDER FIRE
May 2005

It was May 9, two days before I was to speak at the Jesuit Loyola Retreat House in Morristown, New Jersey as a guest of the Northern, New Jersey chapter of Voice of the Faithful. The event had been scheduled and advertised, for months. But suddenly, I was being publicly denounced by Paterson Bishop Arthur Serratelli.

According to his spokeswoman, I had failed "to support the basic teachings of the Catholic Church"--particularly on women's ordination and abortion. As a result, the Bishop banned me from speaking at the Jesuit venue. It fell to the Jesuits to issue his order--and they did.

In record time, VOTF succeeded in finding an alternate venue, St. Mark's Lutheran Church, headed by a welcoming female pastor, Mary Jane Hastings. I got to deliver my presentation, entitled "Catholic Women: Victims and Leaders." That subject had been jointly selected by VOTF and me, based on our shared concern about the silence around the clergy sexual abuse of women and girls, and an eagerness to make visible the crucial leadership roles women have played in getting the Church to address that crisis.

I spoke to an overflow crowd of nearly 200 people, clamoring for an end to silencing in the Church and an opportunity for dialogue.

This ban imposed by Bishop Serratelli is unfortunately one of many actions being taken by Church authorities to stiffle legitimate concerns in the Church. The most dramatic recent example was the forced resignation of Father Thomas Reese from his post as editor-in-chief of America magazine, but there are many others.

Such actions deprive Catholics of the right to express the sensus fidelium--the sense of the faithful. And that sense of the faithful remains crucial to the integrity of the Catholic Church.

For more on Bishop Serratelli's ban on Bonavoglia:

"Angela Bonavoglia won't let Catholic Church silence her," Herald News (Passaic County, NJ), May 19,2005

"Bishop Bars Rights Activist; Writer banned from speaking at retreat," Maya Kremen, Herald News (Passaic County, NJ), May 11, 2005.

"Diocese to Lay Group: Drop guest or you can't meet here...Voice of the Faithful moves meeting with controversial author," Abbott Koloff, Daily Record, Morris County, NJ, May 11, 2005.

"Paterson diocese to reformers: Hold your meeting elsewhere," Jeff Diamant, Newark, NJ, Star-Ledger, May 11, 2005.

When I returned in the late spring of 2006 from my 16-stop paperback tour, I was exhilarated, and spent. That tour took me to college campuses and lecture halls, Catholic altars and a convent, parish basements and people's homes, a condominium lounge, a historic hotel and a Holiday Inn.

It took me all over Central Michigan to five cities in Upstate New York to four suburbs of Boston. This was not a publisher's tour, but one arranged completely by the dedicated volunteers with progressive Church reform groups, and to each of them I am deeply grateful.

The tour's sponsors included Call to Action Michigan, Call to Action Upstate New York, Voice of the Faithful-Natick, the women's studies department of Kalamazoo College, Regis College, and the College of St. Rose, Mass WomenChurch, St. Susanna's parish in Dedham, Massachusetts, and St. Andrew's Church in Saginaw, MI and Sts. Simon and Jude in Westland, MI, those marking the first times I ever spoke from a Catholic altar. (see Events page for complete list)

I found that Catholic women want to talk, they want action, and they want change. After my presentation, as I signed book after book, women came up to me one by one.

They shared their experiences and ordeals--from a public high school student wanting to take on the Church and its unconscionable position on condoms and AIDS, to college students who had no idea these Catholic women leaders existed and found great inspiration in them, to a recently divorced woman who finally defied her priest's admonishment to stay in an abusive marriage, to a woman raped by a priest as a child, to an 82-year-old woman who told me she was so upset as a young mother about the Church's stand on birth control that she left, raised her family, and didn't come back until menopause--and is still mad at the Church.

At the parishes, we had the bold support of terrific pastors--Father Donald Christianson, Father Gerry Bechard, deacon Larry Bloom (aka "Lorenzo the Magnificant")and Father Steven Josoma. Father Gerry is a co-founder of a new reform group launched by priests in the Detroit area called "The Elephants in the Living Room"--established to talk about all the elephants the hierarchy would prefer to ignore. These priests are greatly beloved by their parishioners and were tremendously welcoming to CTA and to me.

I came home inspired. There is such great energy out there, and all kinds of creative work going on to make a better Church. See the links to all the groups on my home page and join in!

REFORMERS ROCK!
August 2005

Despite the proclamations of an extremely reactionary new Pope, Catholic women reformers continue to represent an exhilarating force for change.

Among those gathered for the second national convention of Voice of the Faithful in Indianapolis, Indiana in early July were Sharon Harrington and other parishioners from St. Albert the Great Church in Weymouth, Massachusetts. With their beloved pastor Father Ronald D. Coyne, they showed the Boston Archdiocese the real meaning of "we are Church." Resisting the ax slated to fall on their parish, members of St. Albert's held a 24-hour vigil inside the church for months--a show of resistance that resulted in a rescinding of the closure order.

On hand at the VOTF meeting also were Justice Anne Burke, the fiesty former head of the U.S. Bishops National Lay Review Board, who received VOTF's first Catherine of Sienna Award.

Then just two weeks later, Ottawa Canada became the site for the second international conference on Women's Ordination Worldwide. Nearly 500 people came from around the world, including an overflow crowd to my "Join the Changemakers" workshop.

My workshop featured a panel of extraordinary women from Good Catholic Girls, including:

Sister Celine Goessl, one of the first Catholic women to run U.S. parishes, work she did for 33 years.

Kathy Itzin, a lesbian mom in a committed relationship and parish-based religious education teacher, whose parish rallied to her side when the diocese rescinded her award for excellence in catechesis.

Rev. Dagmar Braun Celeste, former first lady of Ohio and one of the original women ordained a Catholic priest on the Danube River in 2002.

On that note, I also had the great pleasure of attending the ordination of nine Catholic women by three Catholic bishops on a ferry boat on the St. Lawrence Seaway. My news report will be available soon in the upcoming issue of Ms. magazine.

I was interviewed live on the boat (with a safety announcement blaring in the backgound) for Ontario Afternoon (CBC radio). Later that week, I participated in a spirited debate on women's ordination with three other observers for "Broad Perspective" with Sophie Nadeau, on Ottawa radio.

Finally, filmmakers are following the efforts of Catholic women for change. This is the second time this year I was interviewed for documentaries in the making: at home, in April, by John Ankele and Anne Macksoud for their film on abortion, and in Ottawa by Jules Hart for her film on women's ordination, entitled "Pink Smoke Over the Vatican"--a take-off on the Women's Ordination Conference's Conclave demonstrations.

So the fire is still fueled. Stay tuned!