Coredemptrix, Heart of Our Mother - Dr. Carrie Gress - CONF 452

Summary

In this talk, Dr. Carrie Gress explores the enduring influence of Mary, the mother of Jesus, as an antidote to modern societal issues. Dr. Gress discusses the attacks on femininity and maternal roles over the past several decades, linking this to a cultural departure from Marian virtues. Through historical and cultural comparisons, Gress argues that Mary represents the perfect feminine ideal, contrary to negative influences like the mythical figures of Lilith and Jezebel. Emphasizing Mary's role as "Co-Redemptrix," she encourages a return to virtues embodied by Mary to heal societal rifts.

Highlights

• Dr. Gress calls Mary the most influential woman, embodying virtues needed today. 🌟
• There’s a cultural "anti-Mary" spirit that favors figures like Lilith over Mary's virtues. ⚔️
• Modern feminism's move away from traditional Marian values has societal consequences. 📉

Key Takeaways

• Mary is seen as an antidote to modern societal crises, offering a counter to negative influences. 🌼
• Historically, Mary is depicted as a perfect woman, unlike mythological figures with flaws. 💪
• Cultural shifts in the 1960s led away from Marian virtues, impacting women's roles today. 🔄

Overview

Dr. Carrie Gress delivers a compelling exploration of Mary, the mother of Jesus, positioning her as the beacon of hope and guidance amid the chaos of modern life. She elaborates on Mary's unparalleled influence as a woman and her role as a spiritual compass in a world increasingly adrift from traditional values.

The talk delves into the historical transformation and challenges that women have faced, juxtaposing the image of Mary with contemporary influences that have shaped society's view on femininity and motherhood. Dr. Gress highlights a shift in the 1960s away from Marian values, which has reverberated through societal and cultural norms to present day.

Emphasizing Mary's role as "Co-Redemptrix," Dr. Gress passionately argues for a return to the nurturing and virtuous ideals Mary represents. She suggests that doing so is vital for healing societal divides and restoring a more profound understanding of true femininity, which she believes can lead to a more harmonious society.

Chapters

• 00:30 - 01:00: Introduction and Speaker Background Chapter Title: Introduction and Speaker Background
• 01:00 - 02:00: Role of the Heart of Mary Carrie Gress, a PhD holder in Philosophy from Catholic University of America and an author of several books, focuses this chapter on 'The Role of the Heart of Mary.' She highlights her book, 'The Marian Option: God's solution to a civilization in crisis,' which is central to understanding Our Lady's role in the world.
• 02:00 - 08:00: Impact on Women and the Concept of Anti-Mary The chapter discusses the current remarkable times and introduces the idea that Our Lady, or Mary, is an antidote to contemporary issues. The speaker references the 'Marian option' and notes the relevance of Dr. Mary Valley's statement 'the more the merrier' to the discussion, suggesting it could be an alternative title for the talk.
• 08:00 - 15:00: Cultural Symbolism and Influences The chapter "Cultural Symbolism and Influences" begins with an exploration of the current state of women, outlining the historical and societal changes that have influenced their status and perception. The speaker intends to address the negativity and frustrations directed towards women by examining the root causes and consequences of these shifts in cultural symbolism.
• 15:00 - 31:00: Feminism and Cultural Shifts The chapter "Feminism and Cultural Shifts" explores the reasons behind the attacks on women over the last 50 to 60 years. It delves into the identity of women and their connection to Mary. The discussion includes how the Heart of Mary is seen as a solution to current societal issues.
• 31:00 - 35:00: The Role of Mary in Healing and Redemption This chapter explores the perception of Mary as a powerful figure in both secular and religious contexts. The author encountered the widespread recognition of Mary as 'the most powerful woman in the world' while writing 'The Marian Option.' This acknowledgment of Mary's influence and significance in healing and redemption is examined throughout the discussion.
• 35:00 - 48:00: Audience Questions and Answers The chapter discusses the influential roles of Mary and Christ in the world, particularly in religious contexts. It draws a parallel between Mary and Christ being seen as the 'new Eve' and 'new Adam', respectively, similar to the biblical figures of Adam and Eve. The chapter alludes to this concept being brought up during discussions, possibly during a presidential election cycle.

Coredemptrix, Heart of Our Mother - Dr. Carrie Gress - CONF 452 Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 [Music] [Music]
• 00:30 - 01:00 my name is Carrie Gress I have a PhD from Catholic University of America and philosophy I've also written several books I think I have five currently out but the most relevant one for our purposes is the book called the Marion option God's solution to a civilization in crisis I want to talk about the Heart of Mary and our lady's role in the world
• 01:00 - 01:30 today obviously we're living in really remarkable times and as I wrote in the Marian option Our Lady is it's truly the antidote to what is what we're seeing in the world dr. Mary Valley I liked his lying about the more the merrier I think you could probably call this talk the more the merrier and and you'll see why in a minute so in
• 01:30 - 02:00 talking about the heart of Our Lady today I want to do three things the first is is roughly roughly outline what has what has happened to women I think that there's a lot of angst and irritation frustration all kinds of awful feeling towards women in general because of what has happened to women and I want to kind of go into that a
• 02:00 - 02:30 little bit but I also want to talk about why this has happened it's no accident that women have been attacked in these last 50 or 60 years and much of this has to do with who women are and what our relationship is to Mary and then finally I want to talk about the Heart of Mary as the antidote to all that ails us in this current situation as our as the
• 02:30 - 03:00 cover Deemer in in the world today so what what's happened to women when I was writing the Marion option I was in I was really struck by the fact that so many people both secular and religious talk about our Lady as the most powerful woman in the world and it occurred to me that she is powerful that she has so
• 03:00 - 03:30 such an incredible influence in in the world but I was also noticing that whenever there was discussion about Mary and Christ it was usually put in the context of them as the new Adam and the new Eve they had Adam and Eve and then Mary and Christ as the new Adam in the new Eve so at one point during the election cycle the presidential election
• 03:30 - 04:00 cycle I was really struck by the fact that another woman could potentially become the most powerful woman in the world where she to be elected and it struck me that everything about her was diametrically opposed to who Our Lady is that all of her values were directly contrary to Mary's hearts so it I saw you know we have this idea of an antichrist that st. John talks about
• 04:00 - 04:30 both as a person but also as a spirit John speaks of a spirit of the Antichrist and so I realized I wonder if there's a spirit of the Anti Mary that's alive in the world today I wonder if we as a culture have been swept away by this anti Marian spirit that is directly targeting Mary and all that she represents so I started really looking into this and you know some people would
• 04:30 - 05:00 say well women have always been some of them vicious some have been virtuous this is just the way things have always but if one statistic really has had stuck with me and that of course is abortion and the abortion numbers if you look at history and who usually killed whom it's usually soldiers killing other soldiers strangers killing other
• 05:00 - 05:30 strangers you have maybe instances of Civil War where it's Brother killing brother or cousins killing cousins family feud's those kinds of things where you may have people that were family members killing each other but somehow in the 1960s and 70s that all changed and even as the Vietnam War is ending abortion was legalized the
• 05:30 - 06:00 Vietnam War I think the u.s. total of casualties was 58,000 u.s. servicemen were killed in Vietnam we currently kill 3,000 babies a day we in three weeks kill same number or more than more people than were killed in the Vietnam War and not only is it that we're killing them but it's mothers are killing their own children so the moment you know the most tender wonderful of
• 06:00 - 06:30 relationships known to man and yet that is the relationship that has really been torn asunder and is has become so culturally pervasive so that alone was enough to get me looking okay is there more to this anti marryin spirit so I started looking into celebrities and and different things that people were doing in the culture and sure enough there's a
• 06:30 - 07:00 new prevalence of goddess worship that is has made its way into the culture Beyonce presented at the Academy Awards dressed as goddess performed that way Madonna of course which you know she might be the poster child here given her name and all that she has done for the anti Mary but nevertheless she's performed at the Super Bowl were wearing orange horn helmet appearing as a goddess all kinds
• 07:00 - 07:30 of satanic symbolism in in her presentation so I started looking at more what are these goddesses representing even Wickham there's a rise in Wicca and a lot of the women that are practicing Wicca are are calling on the goddess Diana also the name our to meet us and Greek so there's a lot of movement going on that I think we have been not paying attention to but the one
• 07:30 - 08:00 name that I found repeatedly was Lilith Lilith is a name of a goddess that goes all the way back to ancient history she's mentioned in the epic of gilgamesh she is in the Middle Ages it was one of the the rabbi's and that she was actually the first wife of Adam he was trying to fix some discrepancies in
• 08:00 - 08:30 scriptures so he said lilith was the first wife of adam and she was cast out of Eden but even the word lullaby is Arabic for Lilith keep Lilith away Lilith is considered a night terror she is also and James Joyce has called her the patron demon or the patroness of
• 08:30 - 09:00 abortion and she's lauded in a lot of feminist literature there's poetry written for her there was a music festival called Lilith Fair last year when the Houston floods happened a fund was put together called the Lilith fund so that abortions could be performed on babies that were conceived during the storms and
• 09:00 - 09:30 Michelangelo has painted her George McDonald Victor Hugo and CS Lewis have all written about her Jadus who is the White Witch in in the Narnia tales his name or is supposed to be a figure meant of Lilith so what then does Lilith do well one commentator I read characterized her simply as her goal is
• 09:30 - 10:00 to seduce men and kill babies so it's it shouldn't strike us as unusual then that this woman would be invoked in the current culture spoke with an exorcist father Ripa ger about her and he said in fact there is a demon named Lilith that she's one of the five hardest to actually exercise and that he said all
• 10:00 - 10:30 demons are genderless but they manifest as male but she actually he manifests it's a woman when he's trying to trick feminists so it's it's a remarkable thing to look into this and just how long of a history Lilith has culturally but there's also a spirit of Jezebel then another Exorcist told me exists this is a woman that flaunts Authority
• 10:30 - 11:00 and it she's referred to she's given this symbol of being more like a spider where she captures her prey and then she devours it and Tolkien uses this imagery in his own book in in the the two tower or two towers and in the Lord of the Rings series so in both cases we can see that that these demons
• 11:00 - 11:30 are are abusing the gifts that women have and turning them into something where they can become powerful but what's fascinating about this I mean for put the exorcists aside put aside all of the the scary demonic piece of it I think what these stories have done because these Lilith and stories about her and others have been myths that have
• 11:30 - 12:00 been teaching tools for cultures for centuries and millennia really and what they have taught women is that when you grasp at power in this way it's not going to work there's a there's an incredible book called the great mother that I read recently german man named Erich von Neumann and he goes through and analyzes every matriarchal culture he analyzes all of these
• 12:00 - 12:30 different goddesses from the myths throughout history and every single case when they're the matriarchal culture happens and the women are grasping at power that is rightly masculine power terrible things happen he describes von Neumann describes the woman and these goddesses as the terrible mother's because they end up reducing men to
• 12:30 - 13:00 nothing or to sort of mere passivity and it just never works out so we can see that these stories were told again as a teaching method and they were great for centuries and then of course when the Catholic story starts when Our Lady comes on the picture suddenly you have this sort of things to avoid well now have this news story of Our Lady things that we should take up how it is what
• 13:00 - 13:30 the woman that we were supposed to emulate and von Neumann in this great mother book talks about how there's no one like Mary in all of the stories of history and all all of the goddesses have old had flaws they were vengeful there was they were angry they were jealous there was something about them that was flawed and so the fact that we have our ladies showing up who was
• 13:30 - 14:00 immaculately conceived and she's perfect she definitely fits into the great mother category of the book of course but what's striking about it is this is something that humanity never thought of before they never thought of a perfect woman and it was only through the incarnation of our Lord that the perfect woman comes about and so if we consider all of this backdrop they the ancient
• 14:00 - 14:30 stories of myth and the moderns are the more contemporary stories about Our Lady and how women should act what happened in the 1960s when all of this anti Marion spirit started rising up was that women didn't know these stories our lady obviously especially in America it's a Protestant country she wasn't lauded and nobody knew these stories of Lilith or Jezebel or other
• 14:30 - 15:00 demons to help protect us against what what what happens when women try to take over so you have women like Kate Millett Gloria Steinem Betty Friedan who kind of jump on the scene and they think they're doing something absolutely new and revolutionary and of course the irony is is that they weren't doing anything new but they didn't know the stories our culture had lost the thread of the stories so they were just doing what
• 15:00 - 15:30 terrible women had done asked and people had learned from so the occult then really has a foothold in the 1960s feminist movement Mallory millet Kate Millett what is a woman who wrote this book called sexual politics and it's required reading for all Women's Studies programs and it's
• 15:30 - 16:00 basically it's a lot of Marxism and gobbledygook I think is how I described it recently it's it's a horrendous book but she was put on Time magazine for it she's called one of the mothers of feminism she started helped start the national organization of women well Kate passed away about two years ago and her sister Mallory has she I've been in touch with her Mallory has started publishing some of the details about Kate's life that most people didn't know Kate
• 16:00 - 16:30 it was Mallory says that she had serious mental health issues she was in and out of mental hospitals she was a lesbian she died in in Paris with her partner and she was a very tragic figure because she just was so incredibly unhappy for most of her life but sure she was hugely
• 16:30 - 17:00 instrumental in in helping promote the women's movement and Mallory will tell stories about things that these women did and how they promoted the movement Mallory says that one night she went to dinner and she showed up it's one of these women's flats or apartments in New York and there were 12 women sitting around a table naked with a boa constrictor she doesn't know what
• 17:00 - 17:30 happened next because she ran out if the broom as fast as she could and I don't think ever went back Mallory is is now practicing Catholic and just a wonderful woman but she also Mallory was also told me about how Kate Millett and friends had this type of anti litany that they when they would get together for consciousness-raising events they would pray that pray this litany went like
• 17:30 - 18:00 this why are we here today the Chairman asks to make revolution they answered what kind of revolution the Cultural Revolution and how do we make a cultural revolution by destroying the American family how do we destroy the family by destroying the American patriarchy and how do we destroy the American patriarchy by taking away his power how
• 18:00 - 18:30 do we do that by destroying monogamy how can we destroy monogamy by promoting promiscuity eroticism prostitution abortion and homosexuality so this was about something they would chant and all of their meetings this was their real goal what's the reason I bother reading this to you is if let me read the last line to you again they've achieved everything they wanted by promoting
• 18:30 - 19:00 promiscuity eroticism prostitution abortion and homosexuality all of those things have happened because they were able to use American women as evangelists both middle class and upper class women I'm going to trickle down to lower class women as sort of evangelists for their mission and what ended up happening and of course there are a lot of Marxist tones to this it's opposed a
• 19:00 - 19:30 very Marxist program that they were presenting here but at the heart of it is this idea that you can change human nature that human nature can be changed and we can have all of these things haven't happened and still have a healthy thriving culture which of course is not the case Suellen Browder who many of you may have seen her book subverted and bodacious press published it she worked for Cosmopolitan magazine
• 19:30 - 20:00 for many years and of course she said you know we made up stories so many stories we made up to the ideal Cosmo woman and people didn't know we were lying but Sue Ellen finally got pregnant and she said you know when you worked for Cosmo you could do anything you wanted but you could not be a virgin and you could not be a mother and so she was fired so it's shocking to think about how our the
• 20:00 - 20:30 feminist movement has really targeted virginity and motherhood which of course translates very easily into the Virgin Mother the these are the two specific targets that women have have really mastered so not just content to stay within their own circles in New York we have this this anti evangelization that happened in all of America and we're
• 20:30 - 21:00 still living with it I don't think I know I didn't realize just how prevalent this culture has become but if you look at our media everything is controlled by women of who love this narrative who want to see this kind of narrative play out fashion magazine is completely on board with this politics is on board with all of us Hollywood universities there are very few public places where we can go with
• 21:00 - 21:30 different values and I know all of us feel that keenly but when it was striking to me to see just how pervasive it is and even just thinking about women who aren't for abortion I can probably think of five maybe that are famous that that have some kind of national platform otherwise it's and you have to be fair abortion that's really the heart of it
• 21:30 - 22:00 is is this attack on femininity and of course it's all of these industries especially magazines are our buttressed by the birth control industry which is it's a four billion dollar industry and they're really just doing a great job of changing or blending editorial content with advertising content so the two are kind of indiscernible now to tell what's coming from the lobbyists and what's coming from the journalists so the other
• 22:00 - 22:30 piece that I looked at in addition to demons and 1960s cult members was I also looked at fairy tales and we are a culture that is awash with emotions and one of the things that has really struck me is to look at this ancient form of fairy tale you have a lot of very
• 22:30 - 23:00 unhappy women who are have some kind of power and they're afraid that they're going to lose it so they're envious of Snow White's and the Cinderella's they see these younger more beautiful women as a threat so how does this play out in our own culture well we have the same pattern happening but the negative emotions are not directed at Cinderella or Snow White they were directed at men and they are
• 23:00 - 23:30 directed at children men are really feeling the brunt of this of the Envy that women are directed at men you know this discussion of toxic masculinity of trying to destroy a good authentic manliness of the patriarchy all of that is is part of what they are trying to do and then of course you know children are in the way so we have to deal with them
• 23:30 - 24:00 we have to have some way to deal with them and it's not uncommon to hear women say things like we just can't get ahead unless we have birth control and abortion so it's it's really this sense of we want more we we have to have it and we can see this even with Eve you know Eve is tempted by the snake with the Apple and she realizes there's more that she doesn't have yet and so she's going after it and this I think what's hidden point something that
• 24:00 - 24:30 I think in the church we have not done a good job of addressing especially with women is the fact that envy and discontent are driving so much of our actions that we don't recognize the role that suffering can play in our lives what often took fruitfulness is so these are our really important pieces to understand what's motivating all of this
• 24:30 - 25:00 and I think even the Brett Kavanaugh situation we've just highlighted so much of what's been going on in the culture where it's there's so many emotions that are driving it and it's not about logic it's not about making even rational arguments it has nothing to do with evidence it's really about where the emotions are at so that's the highway as Mark was talking about earlier that the children are currently playing on so I
• 25:00 - 25:30 want to talk about next why these things are happening there's a great story I heard a couple of years ago about this man or this priest who wanted vocations and rather than start with just a young men's group he he was a farmer and he thought I need to go back to the soil I need to figure out where to start because you can't have good fruit if you don't have good soil so he started a
• 25:30 - 26:00 mother's group and in this mom's group he helped the women grow in their faith and then after that he started couples group and women and men husbands and wives then after that he started the men's group and then and then a father-and-son group mother/daughter group and then finally he started a group for young men and women discerning and what what did
• 26:00 - 26:30 this priest know well he knew and he had and he got a lot of vocations out of it but he knew that women were really the soil of a culture I was thinking about this last night as I flew in when I lived when I mentioned this once and in Washington DC and you can hear the murmuring she's saying that women are dirt you know that which you know as I'm flying in I realized they they're gonna
• 26:30 - 27:00 know what soil is out here but good how important good soil is for a real crop and I think this is what Satan is doing what he recognizes is if he gets women he gets everybody and it's because of this because of this anti marion spirit that the soil has become decimated women have become decimated so the evil one whispers to us sterilize yourself don't
• 27:00 - 27:30 don't let seeds get planted and if they do get planted make sure you get rid of the fruit because you're not supposed to nurture this somebody else can take care of that you have a career to nurture so where does that leave us other than just thinking about this awful highway well I think it always all these things lead us back to Our Lady of course because if Satan gets rid of good women it's really
• 27:30 - 28:00 hard for people to wrap their mind around who are the ideas and it this is his attempt Satan's attempt to get to Our Lady through women to have to cut off that relationship that men might have with women because they had a bad mother or they had a bad experience with wives or they had about any experience with a boss or who knows but unless we as individuals experience tenderness kindness love
• 28:00 - 28:30 purity all of these ideas that are so countercultural them it's going to be incredibly difficult for us to understand who Mary is I know I went through this in my own life just being raised as kind of nominal Catholic and having to reestablish why didn't I feel this connection to Mary well I didn't know what it meant to be meek I didn't know that it was good to be humble I didn't know that these can actually be virtues
• 28:30 - 29:00 and weren't just vices so I think the big thing is just to even recognize I think I spent a long time meditating it on the idea of Mary at the foot of the cross and it always confounded me why does everybody why are all the women named Mary wouldn't it be more less confusing and one day it finally struck me they're all named Mary because all
• 29:00 - 29:30 women are called to be like Mary at the foot of the cross this is really the call that we all have and so as a result if we can erase that image if Satan can erase that image of Mary in the lives of everyday women then nobody knows how to get to Our Lady which given the fact that she's so tightly connected to our Lord if they don't know who she is they
• 29:30 - 30:00 won't know who he is and vice vice versa I love this quote from st. Brigid of Sweden our lady says my son and I redeemed the world as with one heart so if we can get rid of one of those hearts then the world really is truly lost truly lost so now I want to move on to looking at Mary's heart as the antidote to all that we are struggling with it occurred to me
• 30:00 - 30:30 you know looking at all this damage that's been done by the sexual revolution and much of it is because people don't know how unhappy they are women are incredibly unhappy based on all the statistics that we have divorce rates depression drug abuse all of these things going to some incredibly happy unhappy women but there's women have to nurture something we all nurture something even if we don't realize we're
• 30:30 - 31:00 nurturing something a lot and we see in the women's movement women are nurturing their victimization and this is one of the things magazines have done is promoted us as victims so you see women who don't know how to get healed from that they're angry they're bitter they're frustrated they're scapegoating and it struck me you know if somebody wants to be a victim our lady could have been a victim she watched her son be tortured and
• 31:00 - 31:30 killed and yet there's not only is there not victim mentality in here not only and she doesn't come at us with rage and say look what you did to my son she comes to us as a mother and I'd never thought about that that I I should be afraid to approach her because she might be mad because I had a part to play in killing her son I never thought that because that's not who she is anymore she didn't let this this wound
• 31:30 - 32:00 in her life destroy her she didn't nurture it she didn't feed it she didn't let it consume her and so as a result she offers us an incredible model to deal with our own wounds I recently had a friend of mine who passed away she had been we had known her since we were four and she had bend daughter of an alcoholic and had been views terribly by her father and then he committed suicide when she was 13 for 33
• 32:00 - 32:30 years this woman went through she was in counseling and she could never find God part of it was because of the fact that she couldn't relate to a male Trinity that was part of her struggle but what my great consolation was as I got her to go to Our Lady and she died of alcoholism this summer but her friends when they they cleaned out of her
• 32:30 - 33:00 apartments and we found rosaries everywhere and she held on to this rosary all the time and I truly believed that she she at least made it to purgatory because of this connection with our lady but our lady offers us a way out of this victimization by pointing to her son and yes I'm not decrying the role that that counseling and psychology and psychiatrists their important work but we have to have she's
• 33:00 - 33:30 got to gently bring us to the Father and and really bring divine healing through that so our lady then offers us a she gives us an incredible way to get beyond ourselves beyond her own wounds but also beyond the culture where she can teach us slowly what what these virtues are
• 33:30 - 34:00 what these tools are we know that God always sends antidotes to the problems and I talked about this a great deal in the Marian option he sends an antidote to the problems of age so Saint Benedict came as Rome is crumbling the Saint Francis the little poor man comes as the church is choking and riches st. Ignatius and the Jesuits come during the Reformation so all of this
• 34:00 - 34:30 background information that I just gave you about women and this idea of an anti woman is to point to the fact that the antidote is truly our lady she is the one that can bring healing to us and this is one of the reasons why it's this timing of this idea of co-redemptrix is so important because of the fact that she has the capacity to conquer this anti Mary I'm writing a new book on this
• 34:30 - 35:00 idea of an anti Mary and in and I have all chapter about the different ways that she has conquered demons and goddesses in the past and other crises but no more is it more as the crises more specifically directed at her than our age and this is why she's she wants so much to intercede for us she wants so much to teach us to take us as her children in her hand and to teach us and
• 35:00 - 35:30 show us her son and to give us a true freedom happiness joy and peace once again thank you [Applause] [Music]
• 35:30 - 36:00 [Music] [Music] very stories of leads that everywhere traditional details can never marry and I say my mother the stepmother is one that shows us that
• 36:00 - 36:30 [Music] as mothers Sally Hansen grows level and aromas that mother complaining or really work and what Cinderella really won
• 36:30 - 37:00 [Music] great thank you for that question yeah I think fairytales are fascinating because they have that moral element I mean this is the beauty of storytelling and the importance of it and suddenly we became too sophisticated for it and that's when
• 37:00 - 37:30 everything kind of fell apart was you know if you think about feminism it's aloof sophistication is really what they're promoting so I think that yes story tales are incredible tools and really uh all these stories alasdair macintyre whom I wrote my page might my dissertation on for my PhD had done some amazing work about the importance of storytelling and how because we've lost it we need so much of a culture and how
• 37:30 - 38:00 it really can be a teaching tool but you know and the other reality is we had stories but we also had the example of a lot of women and I tell this story about a woman that I passed away about ten years ago her name was ma'am ooh and ma'am ooh she was a large woman she had a large family she had like a hundred great grand challenge us huge family six kids and it just kept growing from there really
• 38:00 - 38:30 devout and lovely and she had a home on the Chesapeake Bay where she would welcome with people for retreats she had a chapel in her home and she was just the epitome of this grandmother that I would go and spend days with her it would just be the two of us and she'd not we would just sit and talk and I would just listen to her story after story but she offered advice to everybody that she knew and she was just this amazing woman and I think what's happened because of
• 38:30 - 39:00 the fact and the book that I wrote called ultimate makeover the transforming power of motherhood goes into this because we shirk motherhood this a really vital piece and and I would say all women are called to motherhood were all called to nurture in different ways spiritually or physically so I'm not just talking about physical motherhood but because of that shirking of motherhood major pieces of our personality just don't develop so I have
• 39:00 - 39:30 friends one friend she said and I have to tell my mother-in-law and I'm pregnant you know we already have four kids she's gonna be mad and it's not like I'm 17 and unmarried she said I have a great husband we have plenty of money but in this future grandmother of a fifth child doesn't get it she doesn't want children any more children and so it's it's this dynamic that also is missing is a generational piece of what
• 39:30 - 40:00 great women mothers and grandmothers and spiritual directors look like I think the people are missing that's the other piece of the story that's that's missing is the real icon of lived life [Music] my question is why
• 40:00 - 40:30 that's a great question I think what happened with the Cavanaugh situation is what's been going on for 30 years you have media and the producers they are the gatekeepers of who gets to speak they're the ones that have the rolodex and they say I want to talk to this person this person this person and it's all the same people with the same message so yeah I think that's been the
• 40:30 - 41:00 big struggle and of course you know Catholics have a giant footprint in Washington DC but the footprint hasn't made it into NBC yet it hasn't made it into ABC they're not interested in promoting us because we're and we're pro-life so that's really what it comes down to is they they control it so tightly if as far as who they're gonna promote and I think that Sarah Palin is a perfect example I mean politics aside
• 41:00 - 41:30 this is a woman who was a rising star as a governor and she was flattened as far as her character careers over generally speaking as a politician and that's kind of what they do to to women so you know why isn't Helen Oliver a household name why isn't marianne Glendon a household name it's because they control all of it
• 41:30 - 42:00 [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] in darkness
• 42:00 - 42:30 right and and poor Cavanaugh - I think I mean the reality was he couldn't do anything right you know he was either too rough or it was it was a wimp because he was crying when his daughter was mentioned you know it's I really feel for men in this culture because you can't do anything right I'm sorry there's just nothing that you can do that's right because they're they're not playing by the regular rules they're playing by a logic and emotion bullying
• 42:30 - 43:00 and tantruming so yeah it's incredibly hard to make a rational argument of this at this point yeah I think that is a great place to start I think that you know one of the I'm I know John Paul's work well I wrote my master's thesis on his work I my first dissertation topic was on his concept of culture I wrote a book with
• 43:00 - 43:30 George Weigel on john paul ii so i think i can fairly say that's an important document but i think that we as women can spread out a little bit more i think we need to start exploring more different ways to communicate this to people i've just started a new project called theology of home and it's really focusing on what the home is meant to be we all long for a home we all hopefully
• 43:30 - 44:00 have a home we know when we're homeless there are a few things worse and yet no one wants to be a home maker and make an amazing place for other people where they can grow spiritually and physically and be safe and protected so i think that you know i'm hope st. Pope John Paul isn't upset with me but I think that can safely say that he want he would want women to go beyond what he's done beyond that one document and trying to find ways to reach people and there
• 44:00 - 44:30 are a lot of different movements out there and Dow is another great group that does work and all kinds of sites online but I think we can do I think there's a lot more room or we're talking about this very station you
• 44:30 - 45:00 [Music] and then that was utterly was called it revealed a Greek male beach
• 45:00 - 45:30 represented so much great question yes I think it's gone thanks be to God well almost gone there's a few pieces remaining my spiritual director when I was telling him about this book I'm writing on the anti Mary said how is this different
• 45:30 - 46:00 than that 1990s book called ungodly rage that is all about Catholic radical Catholic feminism so I went back and I read the book and there's so much in that book that is reported that has just disappeared there's so many of these angry religious that are gone their voices no longer being heard so as far as women I think that there's there's definitely a new spirit and openness and
• 46:00 - 46:30 largely because women are tired of like there's only so much time you can spend like trying to be best men or do what men can do I mean we've kind of done everything the coming down aside from physical limitations like you know frontlines the Marines or whatnot but I think women are are tired of being told that they shouldn't have children and they have to put their career first and a lot of women that have done that are now miserable because they don't have
• 46:30 - 47:00 families there's seeing this empty future so all the things that women we're reacting to have a seemingly slowly coming full circle and it's it's almost seems like there's kind of this division that it's happening where you have those who are on the left that are still incredibly angry and bitter and driven by their madness and then you have other people who are saying you know in fact there was an article in this site called the
• 47:00 - 47:30 cut which is run by I think the New Yorker and it's all about women it's not not Catholic not remotely Catholic in fact it's pretty awful but there were I read an interview with three women who were very powerful executives and they said things like I just want to go bake bread I want to go start a garden I want to go home and have a bunch of children they their machine has worn off I think this sense of you know we can do whatever men
• 47:30 - 48:00 can do kind of attitude so I think that's a step in the right direction [Applause] [Music]
• 48:00 - 48:30 you [Music]
• 48:30 - 49:00 you