Asian and Oceanic Saints Who Were People of Color

September 4, 2020 By Guest Contributor

Source: Being.the.traveller for pexels.com In the third post on my series about non-European saints, I present saints from the continent of Asia. (You can find the other two here: American saints and African saints.) The history of Christianity in this part of the world is an interesting one as some areas, such as India, contain Catholic communities centuries older than those in the America’s. However, there are also Asian and Oceanic countries whose Catholic communities are primarily made up of... Read more

African Saints Who Were People of Color

August 31, 2020 By Guest Contributor

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Source: Bintu Malu for pexels.com “The only refuge of a Christian is courage” – Father Cyprian Michael Iwene Tansi I’ve been thinking about this quote from Father Cyprian a lot lately. With the pandemic, so much racial violence, and the nasty political campaigns, it would be nice to have a refuge, a place to hide until it all blows over. Isn’t that what we all want in this disaster of a year? But, I don’t think that’s what Father Cyprian... Read more

American Saints Who Were People of Color

August 28, 2020 By Guest Contributor

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Source: Nachelle Nocom for pexels.com It’s very curious how the Catholic Church (both as an institution and as individual people and communities) has responded to the recent uptick of racial discussion, protests, and violence in this country. On one hand, I’ve seen tremendous support for the Black Lives Matter movement from lay people of color and their allies across the country. I finally set up my BLM yard sign two months ago, only to have it vandalized. I’ve only... Read more

Introducing Veronica Roltgen: You’re Not A Good Or Bad Catholic, You’re Just Catholic

August 6, 2020 By Guest Contributor

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Hi there! I’m Veronica, the newest contributor to The Shoeless Banshee blog. I’ve guest blogged several times and was recently invited to join the honored ranks of Jenn and Marie. I’m very humbled and hope that what I share is helpful to others, both fellow Catholics and all other brothers and sisters. To begin, I wanted to share something that’s been on my mind for quite a while: I think it’s very important to change the conversation regarding Catholics “status”—... Read more

Broken Glass: When Domestic Violence Ends in Murder

July 10, 2020 By Guest Contributor

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Her name is Nikki Addimando and she is a victim. For years she braved the abusive hands of her children’s father and now she braves the abusive hands of our “justice” system. I can’t tell you how disturbing this pattern is: Abusive men controlling the women in their lives, making them fear for their safety or the safety of their children, threatening loved ones. Classic abuser behavior. These threats seem like promises, and sometimes they are. Just a basic... Read more

Confessions of a White Ally

June 19, 2020 By Guest Contributor

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Billy Joel and Glass Houses Glass Houses Most of us, at some point in life, are confronted with ugly truths. This may be anything from learning your family enshrines xenophobic hate speech to maybe being unabashedly bitchy. Then some things hit us hard in our core beliefs. I have always believed the races to be equal. My ugly truth is my white silence. We all sit in houses of prejudice. This house is built on a foundation of privilege and... Read more

Mother of the Church, Mother of the Queer and Outcast

June 2, 2020 By Guest Contributor

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Today is the celebration of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church, in the General Roman Calendar. What does it mean to recognize Mary under this title? I think so often when we visualize the Church, we imagine a building such as St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. We may even visualize our own parish, whether it be a large inner community or a tiny country hovel. But I challenge all of us (this includes myself) to picture a person.... Read more

Trans-ition Reflect-ion

December 24, 2019 By Guest Contributor

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A transsexual friend asked me, “Will they love me when she’s gone? Will all the hugs, the smiles, the tears, the shared embraces, the mutual care, burn away like fog? Was all they loved who they thought I was? Am I more than my birth name, my assigned gender, the mask I wore to appease the voices in my head that tell me I’m a monster and always will be?” He broke down then, weeping into his hands, “What if... Read more

Our Lady of Guadalupe’s Feast and Catholic Inconsistency

December 13, 2019 By Guest Contributor

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Social media is at its best a helpful tool and at its worst a cesspool of all that’s wrong with the world. And, between those two extremes, it is a way to gauge human inconsistencies and ironies. Such was the case yesterday, December 12th, the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. While I feel uncomfortable and awkward sharing my political opinions online, others don’t have this problem. So I was surprised when Catholics who normally post positively about the... Read more

Trauma Survivors Have Had It With Hallmark-esque Christmas Stories

December 12, 2019 By Marie

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Content warning: discussion includes domestic violence, PTSD, gun violence, and stalking. . . . . My friend and fellow Patheos Catholic columnist Kristy Burmeister wrote a piece this week about when Christmas is a trigger for trauma survivors. As always, her piece was powerful and I really appreciated it. I never saw Christmas as a trauma trigger for myself, but when I remember how deeply suicidal I felt last Christmas when I was in Spain, and then look at... Read more