"Women Celebrate a Christian Heroine," read the headline in the Los Angeles Times religion section July 24. The lengthy feature by veteran religion editor Larry Stammer told how the prayer service designed by CTA and FutureChurch to honor St. Mary Magdalen on July 22 has caught on nationally: begun in only six parishes and 24 other communities in 1998, the rituals more than tripled to 100 this year, including 40 in parishes. Articles appeared in the Dallas Morning News, the Harrisburg (Pa.) Patriot-News, the Cleveland Plain Dealer, and other secular and diocesan papers. CNN and the Odyssey channel were preparing TV reports, and U.S. Catholic was working on a magazine feature.

What's newsworthy is the makeover of Mary of Magdala from prostitute -- a misreading of the biblical account -- to chosen apostle of Jesus and a key leader of the early Church. But even more important is the empowering effect for Catholic women today. Gloria Ulterino, former director of the diocesan women's office in Rochester, N.Y. who wrote the 1999 service, told the media: "If this woman was commissioned by Jesus with the Easter message, why shouldn't women today be entrusted with the same privilege?"

Some of the largest gatherings linked the prayer service with a presentation of the background on Magdala by scripture scholars. Jane Schaberg spoke at CTA Michigan, Sr. Dianne Bergant at CTA Chicagoland, and Sr. Noel Keller at CTA Northeast Pennsylvania in Harrisburg. In Cleveland, speaker was Sr. Mary R. Thompson, whose book, "Mary of Magdala: Apostle and Leader," pulls together recent scholarship. Sr. Chris Schenk of Cleveland-based FutureChurch, who pioneered the celebrations in 1998 as an outgrowth of the CTA/FutureChurch joint project on Women in Church Leadership, addressed Heart of America CTA members in Kansas City, Mo. A version of her talk will be printed in Celebration, the pastoral liturgy journal.

Local sponsors of many Mary of Magdala events were CTA affiliates, including groups in Northern Virginia, New Jersey, Pittsburgh, the Ozarks (So. Missouri), St. Louis, Phoenix, and Southern Illinois. Many were coalition efforts: at CTA Indianapolis, coordinator Lynette Herold organized four parishes and a monastery for a joint vesper service, and worked with Sr. Jeanne Marie Greenen on a city-wide service in Anderson, Ind. Greenen called it "a life-giving experience for many people."