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interviewA college student put out the word: doing research on Catholic feminists, looking for women to interview.

I felt I should talk to her, in case she hadn’t heard that Catholics could be very ‘pro-women’. I stopped by a dictionary to make sure I could accurately describe my (orthodox, Catholic, mom, grandmom, pro-life) self as ‘feminist,’ and found it easy to agree to the terms: seeks equal rights for women and men to vote, study, work.
Since her only other respondents had conveyed their sense that the Catholic Church was suppressing (at least) or oppressing women, I was glad to be a counter-point.
She was amazed that I find the constraints of the Church freeing and conducive to my full realization as a woman and as a person. Apparently, she’d not heard about artists who see constraints as the very pre-requisite of beautiful new form – invitation to creativity and powerful forward movement. We talked for two hours about how much I love being a Catholic woman!
I know I’m preaching to the choir here, but just wanted you all who are living in this glorious freedom to be glad with me that at least one young ‘feminist’ woman has had an eye-opening experience.
On this topic, I’ve enjoyed Genevieve Kineke’s The Authentic Catholic Woman and Pat Gohn’s Blessed, Beautiful and Bodacious.

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