Celebrating the Stories of Women in the Church Today
The Story Behind Our Name
Photo by Nick Staresinic
T
he Catholic Woman.
When you hear this phrase, what comes to mind? Maybe it's your mother or grandmother. Maybe it's the woman you see every Sunday with those five adorable children.
Perhaps you think of an image of Mary: the first Catholic woman, the best witness to the true Christian life for all men and women. When you hear “The Catholic Woman”, perhaps “fiat” echoes somewhere in the back of your mind.
And of course, if you are in fact a Catholic woman, you likely identify with this phrase, at least at face value.
But, depending on who you are, if you dig further, you may find the phrase off-putting and be skeptical of it. You might wonder if “The Catholic Woman” signifies some sort of prescriptive role for Catholic women, one that spans beyond the precepts of the Church, one that women must fit into in order to be accepted as truly Catholic and truly woman. Perhaps in the past, you’ve encountered others who have claimed that in order for women to truly live out “Catholic womanhood” (as if it’s an ideal), they must embody the looks and lifestyle of a 1950s American housewife. Or something of the like.
If your reaction to this phrase includes a dash of the skepticism described above, we think it is indeed warranted.
Beyond Stereotypes: The Call to Sainthood
The mission of this project, The Catholic Woman, sort of springs from both of these reactions to the phrase: the firm, hopeful knowledge that being a Catholic woman, at the heart of it all, simply means giving your yes to God, and the simultaneous creeping skepticism that comes from having witnessed others wrongly use and abuse the phrase, and similar ideas. We want to respond to the problem indicated in the latter by affirming and illustrating the great diversity of the former.
Having taken on this sort of name “The Catholic Woman” though, it would indeed be easy to try and trek the wide, beaten path that many others have walked before us: promoting some sort of idealized, shallow notion of “Catholic womanhood.” To start puffing our chests, claiming that our brand of femininity (as if femininity is something that can be branded) is the best, the ideal toward which all women ought to strive. To proclaim that what we share here should be the standard for true, authentic womanhood, if you only just follow us, subscribe to our newsletter, read our content, and buy this product and that. If you can just be like us, you can finally become the Catholic woman you’re meant to be.
Based on our name alone, and on the fact that this sort of approach has been endemic to Christian women’s ministry, it might even make sense to guess that this is what our mission is about.
It’s not, but we chose the name “The Catholic Woman” anyway precisely because we want to challenge this problematic and popular idea: that there is only one way of being a Catholic woman - of living out the genius of womanhood - and that everything else falls short. To challenge this idea, we want to renew the way in which we, culturally as Catholics, understand and talk about femininity, women, and the feminine genius so that we can share the truth of the vision of the Church on women, and help detach these ideas about womanhood from the harmful stereotypes and generalizations that have become wrongly associated with.
The truth is, God calls every woman to holiness, and each one of us will live out that call differently, just as the saints have. We cannot forget the fact that Catholic means universal, so the many different ways in which each of us is called to live out the faith are diverse and reflect that universality of the Church. This is something to be celebrated.
And likewise, the genius of womanhood - that particular disposition women have to be attentive to the human person - is not monotonous. Each one of us women, being unique persons, will live this out differently, in accord with our own unique personalities, and strengths, and weaknesses, and God’s callings for our lives.
Illustrating the Many Faces & Vocations of Catholic Women
When we share a story at The Catholic Woman from a new woman, know that we are never holding her life up as ‘the standard’ - as an implicit demand for you to live exactly like her. The woman that discerned a cross-country move to New York to serve the poor does not have the same calling as the woman who is a wife and a mother, working from home with her husband and five kids. In every letter and interview we share, we can find new ways in which women express their “genius” — their ontological disposition to be attentive to the person. The call to love to God and neighbor, essentially.
In these efforts to renew how we understand women in the Church today, let’s look to Mary as our guide: the woman who shows every person how to courageously say “yes” to the particular path that God sets before them. The woman who reminds us of what matters the most.
Let’s celebrate the many different faces and vocations of women in the Church today, the many different ways in which women are living out the Gospel call to love one another.
While you are here, whether you’re a dedicated reader or just a quick visitor, we hope that our growing collection of stories from Catholic women of all different walks of life reminds you - wherever you are - that you belong in the Church and have a path here.