Radtrads, staying Catholic, women deacons, and more
Our quarterly AMA letter
A couple of weeks ago, I opened up an Ask-Me-Anything on my Instagram Stories for your questions to build this week’s newsletter. As always, I got so many thoughtful, creative questions, and I really wish I could answer every single one, but I do these AMA issues quarterly, so there will be plenty of future opportunities to get a question in! (Also, if I get a number of very similar questions, I sometimes smoosh them together into one question + paraphrase.)
AMA disclaimers: Some of the questions were repeats/long and personal, so I’m paraphrasing a few of them.As I grow in my faith + personhood + feminism + motherhood + alllll that jazz, I’m really starting to see just how much I value open dialogue. I think the fact that we have such a hard time having conversations with one another is one of the critical breaking points of our society, especially in America— “land of the free”, etc. So here’s what I want to say: you and I can disagree and you are welcome here. You and I can hurt each other’s feelings and you are welcome here. You and I can have very different beliefs and you are welcome here.The only things I don’t tolerate are you telling someone else they aren’t welcome here, or you deciding to radically blaspheme the Holy Spirit or something. K? Lets pray for each other and assume best intentions as we wrestle with tricky topics. Conflict is what happens when thinking people gather.
How do you stay Catholic in the midst of brokenness?
OOF. Such a good question. One I wonder about, many days.
I’d say a few things. The first is that I remind myself every single institution on this earth is run by humans, so they’re all broken. It’s not like there’s some other religion I could join that’s pure. In fact, I believe Catholicism is the only religion founded by Jesus Christ, so while its leaders are far from pure its original creation was.
Secondly, I’m lucky enough to be surrounded by faithful Catholics that hold my arms up when they start to fall. I need these people in my life like we all need food + water. I have a spiritual director, a handful of dear friends, and a mama who can remind me of true things when I have a really, really hard time seeing them or believing them. There were times in 2022 when I literally told friends “I can not pray right now. I need YOU to do it for me.” And they actually…did. What an undeserved gift. I think there’s a beauty and grace in saying “I am literally at rock bottom. I’m going to sit down and I need y’all to carry me for a little bit.” That’s such a hard thing for us to do, and yet the fruit it can bear is quietly holy.