Magdala services celebrate women's history and gifts to the church

“I grew up in a Catholic community and I loved it, but I always felt like parts of the story were missing,
Thank you for telling me.”

So wrote a woman who attended a St. Mary of Magdala celebration in the Bronx, N.Y. Despite a record heat wave, 120 came, many by public transit, to an event cosponsored by the Sisters of Charity of N.Y. and the Elizabeth Seton Women's Center. It was just one of this year's nearly 300 special celebrations convened by women (and a few men!) working to transform patriarchal understandings of God, scripture, women's leadership in the Church, and of course Mary Magdalen. (Dozens more women skipped holding local events because they traveled to Ottawa the same week for the Women's Ordination Worldwide conference. Story, page 3.) It is the eighth year since FutureChurch and CTA began promoting such services on or near the saint's July 22 feast day.

The National Catholic Reporter devoted a three-page cover story to the movement “Resurrecting Mary Magdalen.” A sidebar by our own Sr. Chris Schenk explained how the runaway success of The Da Vinci Code novel, soon to be a high-budget movie, capitalizes on broader popular knowledge of women's leadership roles in early Christianity. Many observances, like the Woman,Why Are You Weeping? program at CTA Columbus (Ohio), had educational sessions on women in the early Church and women’s roles today.

Twenty-four CTA chapters and cooperating organizations either had their own events or cosponsored events with as Dignity, Pax Christi and other organizations. In Cincinnati the service in the Xavier University chapel was cosponsored by the archdiocese, 22 peace/justice groups, many parishes, women's religious communities, as well as CTA of Greater Cincinnati.

Creativity abounded: dramatic readings, vignettes in costume, choral readings, liturgical dances, distinctive food and special music. Several celebrations were held outdoors to evoke the garden setting of Mary’s first encounter with the risen Christ. Magdalena cake and French “madeleine” pastries were served by Notre Dame de Lourdes parishioners at a public park in Skowhegan, Maine. CTA Iowa served food from the Holy Land. CTA New Mexico held a Garden Celebration and Supper, and also a St. Mary of Magdala Speaks for Herself chautauqua-style drama with music. In front of the New Orleans archiocesan seminary 30 local CTAers gathered in front of a beautiful sculpture of Jesus and the Samaritan woman.

Some events incorporated ministries of care and outreach. In Naperville, Ill, St. Thomas the Apostle parishioners raised $1,000 for projects serving women at St. Mary of Magdala, their sister parish in Haiti. At the Spiritual Life Center in Honolulu, funds were collected to aid women's ministries on the island. At a ninth annual celebration in Atlanta, 200 Catholic activists gave their Magdalene Award for courage to Debby Freel (photo, left), plus funds for the home she runs for homeless pregnant women at Seamless Garment Catholic Worker. (seamlessgarment@yahoo.com)

Other services stressed healing for the women present. The Catholic Worker in Vancouver, B.C. was one of many groups that used Edwina Gateley’s poetic Soul Sisters. They wrote: “We see so much of the wreckage of women’s lives. Reading the choral prayer aloud was like having finally found someone who understood all the pain, suffering and doubt.”

Magdalen as journalist?

At FutureChurch/Cleveland, Heidi Schlumpf, Managing Editor of U.S. Catholic, spoke about The Prophetic Voice of Journalism: What Would Mary of Magdala Say? She gave examples of prophetic Catholic media: the National Catholic Reporter for breaking the clergy sex abuse story in the 1980s, the website bustedhalo.com for a courageous article about faithful gay priests, and her own publication, one of the few willing to speak frankly about the Vatican’s chilling decision to fire America editor Fr. Thomas Reese last spring. She named “seven demons” needing to be expelled: timidity, blandness, officiousness (too many photos of the bishop), sexism, reverse ageism (too often geared to the over-60 readers), paternalism (avoid controversy because “readers can't handle it”), and the “PR/marketing slant” (diocesan paper as mouthpiece for the bishop). Schlumpf sees Magdala as a model for journalists because she spoke the truth even though some would not accept her witness.

Retreat days abound

The Wisdom Ways Center for Spirituality in St. Paul Minn., had its second annual daylong retreat. Presenters were scripture scholar Joan Mitchell CSJ and storyteller/therapist Karen Hilgers CSJ. Over 140 women and men came from all over Arizona to Sedona’s St. John Vianney parish for a day of reflection. Scholar Kathleen McGrory spoke about “the Real Mary of Magdala” and dramatist Terri Bays recreated Mary in a one woman performance. At the Santa Fe, N.M. Institute of Spirituality, Sr. Chris Schenk gave a weekend workshop on Mary of Magdala and the Jesus of History.

For a pictorial overview of 2005 Magdala celebrations, visit www.futurechurch.org and click on the Mary of Magdala icon.

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