| Written by Lesley Frescura (South Africa) |
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I went to Catholic School for 12 years, sometimes as a boarder, run by the Holy Family sisters – mostly Irish but their mother house was in Bordeaux, France. I became a feminist when I was at university, but it was only after reading Mary Daly’s Beyond God the Father, that I became more aware of the anomalies in the Catholic Church. My working life has been with NGOs working for social justice, and I have many Catholic women friends who feel the same way that I do. We meet together on a regular basis exploring feminist spirituality. They have become my place. It has become very difficult for me to attend church now, where the language is not inclusive and where we seem to have gone back instead of forward. Women should be treated as equals in our church and be able to become priests – there is no good reason why not, and I have so strongly felt this since the 1980s. I also support married priests and that LGBTI people should be welcomed as full members of the church. I love the Mass, and would like to see the church throw off the stranglehold of St Augustine and his attitude to women, read the signs of the times, and change. I also see hypocrisy in my country in the way that the different cultures are treated by the church, again especially with regard to women.
I went to Catholic School for 12 years, sometimes as a boarder, run by the Holy Family sisters – mostly Irish but their mother house was in Bordeaux, France. I became a feminist when I was at university, but it was only after reading Mary Daly’s Beyond God the Father, that I became more aware of the anomalies in the Catholic Church. My working life has been with NGOs working for social justice, and I have many Catholic women friends who feel the same way that I do. We meet together on a regular basis exploring feminist spirituality. They have become my place. It has become very difficult for me to attend church now, where the language is not inclusive and where we seem to have gone back instead of forward. Women should be treated as equals in our church and be able to become priests – there is no good reason why not, and I have so strongly felt this since the 1980s. I also support married priests and that LGBTI people should be welcomed as full members of the church. I love the Mass, and would like to see the church throw off the stranglehold of St Augustine and his attitude to women, read the signs of the times, and change. I also see hypocrisy in my country in the way that the different cultures are treated by the church, again especially with regard to women.
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