Three new books offer different insights about Catholic women today. Walking with Wisdom's Daughters by Gloria Ulterino presents women to admire. Hispanic Women by Ada Maria Isasi-Diaz and Yolanda Tarango gives voice to oppressed women. The Authentic Catholic Woman by Genevieve Kineke suggests guidelines for women.
Walking with Wisdom's Daughters by Ulterino provides reflections and essays about women saints, biblical figures and inspirational models. The author, inspired by the quotation "We had hoped ..." from the Emmaus story, applies the idea to women's hopes for equal participation in today's church.
Utilizing extensive documentation from major scripture scholars and theologians, the book explores new ways of remembering and re-imaging women from the past, in particular those who resisted oppression and crossed institutional boundaries. Included with the biblical women are Eve, Elizabeth and Lydia. Among the saints are St. Catherine of Siena, St. Bridget of Ireland and St. Teresa of Avila.
The prayer services are detailed and life-giving, complete with musical selections. The women are presented in a number of original ways, including first-person narratives, an interview and a newspaper article.
Ulterino stresses basic gospel values of inclusivity, companionship and solidarity, suggesting that readers join her in a "subversive remembering" that speaks out against injustice and is "suspicious of any passage or story that flies in the face of a liberating God."
In Hispanic Women, Isasi-Diaz and Tarango deal with what the authors term "Hispanic women's liberation theology," which is based on lived experience, rather than abstract theories. Half of the book consists of verbatim stories of women who have attended the authors' weekend retreats. Most accounts include oppression, marginalization, sexism, poverty, and both physical and psychological abuse. Each chapter is summed up in Spanish.
The book focuses mainly on women of Mexican, Puerto Rican and Cuban descent from a variety of backgrounds in schooling, societal levels and ages. The authors emphasize dialogue with oppressed women as a major step to working for a better future, through awareness and subsequent action toward changing present structures and realities.
Although all of the women consider themselves Catholic, much of the identification seems to be cultural. Many do not attend Mass or read scripture, but prefer devotions to particular saints, a number of whom have pre-Christian origins. Most feel that the church contributes to their oppression by sanctioning patriarchy. Some of the theology in the book may be questionable, but the overall message – that there are many voices within the church that need to be heard – should be taken seriously.
Kineke, in The Authentic Catholic Woman, uses literalized and confusing figures of speech, suggesting that women "image" themselves after holy mother church in all aspects. Specifically, she recommends that women mirror the sacraments: baptism by diligent housecleaning analogous to cleansing the stain of original sin, reconciliation by repeated cleanings coupled with forgiveness of mistreatments, and the Eucharist by providing meals for others.
Pervasive literalism and inaccurate theological examples fill the book. Kineke states that men reflect both God the father and Christ the bridegroom. The title father is appropriate for priests, she says, since they are "husbands of the church" and supply "spiritual seeds to bring forth children destined for heaven." Women are to be subject to male authority, and whether a religious or a wife, "a woman's fruitfulness is a function of a man's fidelity and oblation."
According to the author, women who embrace their position and "cleave with it to the cross for the good of all" will be the hope of the church and the world. Although sincere in tone, Kineke's book will not appeal to well-educated Catholics in today's world.
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Walking with Wisdom's Daughters: Twelve Celebrations and Stories of Women of Passion and Faith, by Gloria Ulterino. Ave Maria Press (Notre Dame, Ind., 2006). 224 pp., $19.95. Hispanic Women: Prophetic Voice in the Church, by Ada Maria Isasi-Diaz and Yolanda Tarango. University of Scranton Press (Chicago, 2006). 143 pp., $15. The Authentic Catholic Woman by Genevieve Kineke. Servant Books (Cincinnati, 2006). 156 pp., $13.99.
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Sister Castelazo, a member of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, has taught English for many years in Los Angeles. She is the author of Under the Skyflower Tree: Reflections of a Nun-Entity, published by iUniverse in 2005.
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