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“Make more space for young people.”
Last night FutureChurch co-director Deb Rose gave a presentation on the final document of the October 2023 Synod on Synodality. Out of all her summaries of the fruit of the document, there was one line that really jumped out to me: make more space for young people.
As a young(ish) woman steeped in the Catholic tradition and passionate about ministry, this statement compels me to ask the questions: What does it mean to take up space? What does it mean to use my voice?
I don’t know when I first realized that priesthood was officially reserved for men. It definitely wasn’t something that even entered into my consciousness as a kid. I suppose I was in college when I first learned about the Danube Seven, when I even realized that I was formed by a tradition that has never permitted people like me to hold leadership roles. It’s like the story that David Foster Wallace once told about two young fish swimming along in the water. The two fish pass an older fish who says, “Hey, boys. How’s the water?” The two younger fish look at one another in bewilderment and ask, “What the hell is water?”
The young fish were so embedded in their reality, they didn’t even notice. I think this analogy can be used for beautiful things- things like the omnipresence of God’s grace- but it can be used for diabolic things too, like systemic racism, or patriarchy. It took me a long time to realize that patriarchy is the church water we are swimming in. And have no doubt, it isn’t holy water.
Realizing this as an undergrad, and discerning my call to ministry a few years later, I circle back to my opening question: “what does it mean to take up space?” How do I, a young woman called to ministry- take up that space when there doesn’t seem to be any room? How do I use my voice when I’ve never been handed a microphone?
As I sit in the depth of this question, I feel God sitting with me in it, and I think about women like Deb Rose. Deb Rose, and Olivia Hastie and Ariell Watson Simon, Kate McElwee, Ellie Hidalgo, Anna Robertson, Shannon Evans, JoAnn Melina Lopez, Phyllis Zagano, Sr. Nathalie Becquart, every Catholic Women Preacher, and every young woman sitting in a theology classroom wondering if she’ll ever be given a microphone. Maybe she won’t. But I do know this- when we all speak together, in one voice, we can sure make a mighty roar.
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