Vocations Newsletter

Today we celebrate the Resurrection, the greatest of our Church’s feasts. That makes it the perfect opportunity to think about what I call “faith encounters.” There is a rich variety in the different Evangelists’ scriptural accounts of that first Easter. There are, to be sure, differences in the details of Jesus’ appearances to Peter, Mary Magdalene, the Emmaus disciples, Thomas, and various groups of apostles. Yet each Gospel writer seeks to communicate the same fundamental truth: the crucified one is risen. Surely, this was also the Virgin Mary’s experience!
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Robert Ellsberg sits down with Author, Carolyn Y. Woo, to discuss Rising, Learning from Women’s Leadership in Catholic Ministries. Through reflection on first-person narratives of a range of women involved in leadership positions in Catholic ministries (social justice, LCWR and religious congregations, educational, media, diocesan, NGOs, etc.), Rising examines the range of leadership roles that women play in the Catholic Church, explores the particular challenge that women face, as well their distinctive styles of leadership, while also pointing toward an expanded understanding of ministry and leadership in the church. The contributors represent a broad range of women in leadership positions, ranging from the conservative Becket Fund, to Sr. Simone Campbell, Kerry Robinson, Kerry Weber (America media), Sr. Carol Keehan (Catholic Health Association), Kim Daniels (staff for USCCB), etc.
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On Palm Sunday we begin our intimate Holy Week journey with Jesus. On this occasion I recall a moving experience from the Philippines, where I spent 52 years in mission. It was during the visit of Pope Francis in January 2015. He came to accompany the people who had been so badly devastated by a typhoon. In Tacloban City on January 17, 2015, the Pope said: “If today all of us are gathered here, fourteen months after the passage of Typhoon Yolanda, it is because we are certain that we will not be disappointed in our faith, for Jesus has gone before us. In his passion he took upon himself all of our sorrows.”
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I have observed a recurring theme among the different groups that I accompanied in mission: the inability to accept that God forgives us completely and has lifted the burden of guilt once we recognize our sins and repent. For many of us, it is easier to believe in a God ever-ready to punish us than to believe in a merciful God who goes the extra mile to forgive us. We condemn ourselves to constant “mea culpa behavior”.
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