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Witnesses
Mary Caroline Jonah
Retired Pastoral Associate, Detroit, MI
April 4, 2024

“I started out in aeronautical engineering. In graduate school, I had an experience that made my faith come alive. About a year later, I experienced a call to priesthood. I was receiving direction from an Episcopal priest, and belonged to the most radical church of any denomination in Detroit. The church supported me all through my journey. I believe God called me from my ministry as an ordained pastor in the United Methodist Church so that my life would be a presence of an ordained woman in the Catholic Church. This is the heart of what I am in all I do. God is again calling the Church to be ministered to, and minister with ordained women. [If women were deacons,] [w]omen would then be able to preach at Mass, the only place most Catholics gather. There is a reality to ordination which is irrevocable and affects all we are, all we say, all we do, all who encounter us, all who are blessed, fed, healed, housed, taught by us.”

Witness
“Being able to be educated on who St. Phoebe is and giving others the chance to meet her, being part of a community of women who promote an inclusive model of the church, and seeing my own community come alive and heal from division provides a vision of what can and will be possible one day in the Catholic Church.”
Kathleen O'Brien
Maryknoll Bay Area Regional Coordinator in the Mission Formation Department
Witness
“I have witnessed these women become Catholic high school teachers, professors, writers, administer parish life and leaders of prayer services. Women have been my peers and supervisors, except in diaconal ministry. I continue to hold out hope that women’s gifts for ministry and service can and will be acknowledged by the church.”
Fr. Tom Cwick, SJ
Pastoral Minister, North Side, St. Louis, MO
Witness
“I am grateful as a pastor and a part of the BCCs here to learn and journey together with others. As a priest in our community, I am proud to be a part of this ministry to uplift women who are struggling. It is great joy and fulfillment. In my personal life, I have experienced the richness of acknowledging and uplifting the witness of women in the early Church and also in our Church today.”
Fr. Vincent Dsouza, SJ
Pastor and Base Christian Community Leader, India

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This is the hub where we share relevant news, events and opportunities to participate in the work. 
*We will send the newsletter only once each week, and we will never share or sell your information.