2017 Berkshire Conference on the History of Women, Genders and Sexualities

June 01 - 04, 2017

Despite scholarship that recovers histories of ordained women in the Catholic past, the Roman Catholic church does not ordain women and other big Catholic bodies (Anglicanism, Orthodoxy) maintain restrictions based on gender, sex, and sexuality.  Within Rome, activism on this issue has made little progress.  Increasingly, Catholic individuals and communities are taking the radical step of forming independent churches to enact “sacramental justice,” including the ordination of noncelibates, women, and LGBT persons. 

Independent Catholic churches have a long history dating back to early modern Europe.  In the contemporary US, they have found new vigor, visibility, and alliances.  Yet they face challenges.  Externally, the numbers and power of the Roman church make “getting the word out” a huge difficulty.  Internally, the rhizomatic nature of the phenomenon is both a strength and a liability.  Still, independent Catholics strive to change what counts as Catholicism and practice an unusually liberal, mobile, and creative version of the largest US religion.

This panel features three ordained independent Catholic thinker-activists and three historians of religion.  The three activists are lifelong advocates of “sacramental justice” who eventually chose to join independent Catholicism.  The three scholars are among very few outsiders doing research on the movement.

Together they will discuss: What has independent Catholicism accomplished and what are its most promising future directions?  In what ways is independent Catholic women’s ordination both radical and not radical, i.e. prone to replicate the power structures it criticizes? How is new visibility (including notice by scholars) affecting the activism?