Opening Doors Already Unlocked: Creating Space to Recognize and Support Women’s Voices and Leadership
2026-04-22 12:00 - 13:30 (America/Chicago) | Online
Join the AUSCP Women in the Church Working Group for a 90 minute online gathering of women and priests. Program will include brief testimonies, a guided Lectio Divina, Conversations in the Spirit, and a Q&A.
Grounded in the Synod’s call for “full implementation of opportunities” and AUSCP’s mission of compassionate, collegial accompaniment, this event creates a respectful space for listening, shared witness, and pastoral imagination about women’s leadership in parish life. A newly released Final Report from Study Group 5 (3-10-26), calls for the creation of “new spaces” for women in diocesan governance and decision-making, stating that their inclusion is not a concession but a requirement for the Church’s mission. Our webinar will explore concrete proposals illustrated by personal testimonies and audience participation.
Join us in this timely work to bring into being a Church where leadership is a shared responsibility of the whole People of God.
Testimonies include:
The Impact of Training Lay Preaching Formation on the Laity and our Church Susan McGurgan ( Director, Preach All Ways Initiative)
Creation of Space for Lay Leadership and Impact – Katie Jansen (Parish Life Coordinator; Director of the Work, St. Francis Xavier College Church) and Tim McMahon, SJ. Canonical Pastor for St. Francis Xavier (College) Church
Lectio Divina led by Lisa M. Orchen, M.Div. (Program Director, Proclaim)
Small group Conversations in the Spirit —35 minutes

Where have you already seen women exercising leadership or preaching in ways that are fully permitted by Church law, and what fruit have you noticed from those experiences?
Given the Synod’s call to fully implement what is already allowed in Canon Law, what opportunities for women’s leadership or preaching seem most ready to be expanded in parish life?

President Trump’s Policies and Strategies: Explained and Challenged
2026-05-21 17:30 (America/New_York) | Franciscan Center
Dear Friends and Readers,
For those of you in the Toledo area, I am giving a lecture, sponsored by the Lourdes Lifelong Learning program, in the theater in the Franciscan Center on Thursday, May 21, 2026 at 5:30 p.m. It is entitled: “President Trump’s Policies and Strategies: Explained and Challenged.” It will include his policies on higher education, mass deportation and waging war as well as moral challenges by Pope Leo and the American bishops.
General admission is $10 (cash or check only) payable at the door. Students, nuns, priests and persons with financial limitations are welcome to attend for free.
WGTE is no longer able to video my lectures, but I am very grateful that they provided that service for many years.
Fr. Jim Bacik

Against the Current: Father Tom Oddo and the New American Catholic
2026-07-23 19:00 - 20:00 (America/New_York) | Online
Join us for conversation with author Tyler Bieber about his new biography Against the Current: Father Tom Oddo and the New American Catholic (Unencumbered Press, 2025). Maxwell Kuzma will moderate this presentation about Father Tom Oddo (1944-1989), an early leader of DignityUSA and a key figure in the fight for LGBTQ rights. Oddo was also a prominent leader in higher education as president of the University of Portland from 1982 until his tragic death in a car crash in 1989. Bieber draws on intimate interviews, personal archives, and never-before-seen documents to portray the compelling story of this courageous leader and activist whose lived within the confines of tradition, yet embodied hope, resilience and a new vision of Catholicism.

Online Feast of St. Phoebe International Prayer Service
2026-09-03 08:00 - 09:00 (America/New_York) | Online
Celebrate the Feast of Deacon St. Phoebe this September 3, 2026! Join Discerning Deacons and an international group of women collaborators from every continent in prayer for our synodal, diaconal church during the Synod Implementation Phase.
Learn more about this event here.
