About

About the Program

Cultivating Catholic Feminism is a free self-paced video program that includes 21 educational video lessons, five mini-documentaries, and accompanying journaling prompts and prayers.

Faithfully Catholic

How would an authentically Catholic feminism both dialogue with and meaningfully differ from secular feminism? That is the focus of this program, which seeks to establish a framework for Catholic feminism through lesson and story and, from that framework, to engage with secular feminism on a range of important topics.

Cultivating Catholic Feminism was created primarily as a response to Pope John Paul II's call for women to bring about a new feminism. All that said, our proposed framework for Catholic feminism arises – rather than deviates – from and is faithful to the teachings of the Catholic Church.

Meet Your Instructor

Cultivating Catholic Feminism includes 21 video lessons that were written and presented by Dr. Abigail Favale. Abigail Favale is Dean of Humanities at George Fox University, and the author of Into the Deep: An Unlikely Catholic Conversion. Her latest book, The Genesis of Gender, will be published by Ignatius Press in early 2022. In addition to writing and presenting the educational material of this program, Abigail also wrote our program prayer Heroines of the Faith.

Featured Stories

Beyond the educational content, this program features a series of mini-documentaries, where women from different walks of life illumine various dimensions of Catholic feminism through their personal stories. The women featured in the mini-documentaries are Samantha Povlock, Shannon Ochoa, Justina Kopp, Krista Corbello, and Sister Josephine Garrett. You can watch their stories in the program or you can preview them here.

Because those featured in the mini-documentaries were not involved in the development of the educational content, out of respect for each of them, we want to note that the ideas proposed in this program do not necessarily represent every single belief or viewpoint of those featured in the stories.

A Look at the Content

To give you a sense of what topics are explored in the program, here is the full list of our lesson and story video titles: welcome, (story) discovering Catholic feminism, introduction to the Church's vision on woman, scriptural context, Tradition and history, why does this matter today, a short history of feminism, (story) spiritual maternity, a framework for Catholic feminsm, what is gender, the sacramentality of the body, purity culture, making sense of toxic masculinity and femininity, (story) a Eucharistic life, Mary as the icon of the New Feminism, a different kind of complementarity, a Catholic feminist perspective on contraception, the feminine genius and rethinking gender roles , all are called to say yes to life, (story) a culture of life , women and the priesthood, why call God Father, spiritual preparation, shared ground, sentinels of the invisible, and (story) the unruly word of God.

Who Is This Program For?

Cultivating Catholic Feminism was created primarily for young adult practicing Catholic women who are drawn to feminism and are interested in living it out as faithful Catholics. We hope this program provides a space for them to explore what a Catholic feminism could mean and look like in their lives.

Do I have to be a woman to do the program?

Nope! Full disclaimer though: the content was written to a female audience (as you will certainly notice). That said, the material itself is deep, theologically rich, and most definitely not just for a female audience.

If you’re a man who’s planning on enrolling and feels the call to be a Catholic feminist, thank you for being here and for listening to the wisdom Catholic women. We are grateful to have you.

I am not Catholic. Do I have to be Catholic to do the program?

If you are not Catholic: hello and welcome! Thanks for being here.

To answer the question, you do not have to be Catholic to do this program. Just as a heads up however, this program was created with a Catholic audience in mind, so the content generally assumes some basic level of knowledge about the Catholic faith and draws specifically from the teachings of the Catholic Church for its ideas.

That said, if you're still interested, check it out, see what you think, and pray with it, if you are someone who prays. And hey, if you’re not someone who prays, maybe try out prayer and see what happens! For prayer commitments ideas: check out the introduction on the course itself for inspiration on spiritual practices that could go with the program.

How the Program Works

Individual or Group Study

You can work through this program personally on your own or it can be easily adapted to a small group setting. It's up to you!

Self Paced

You can binge-watch all 26 videos of Cultivating Catholic Feminism in a weekend or watch it in random chunks over the course of a few weeks.

That said, if you want a more immersive experience with the program: we recommend that you work through it at a 5 to 6 week pace. This means you would aim to watch 4 to 5 videos each week. This recommended pacing is for someone who would want to write with the lesson journaling prompts and make a commitment to daily prayer alongside the program. If this sounds good to you: we recommend planning to take 30 minutes a day over the course of the program for videos, journaling prompts, and daily prayer.

Video Lengths

Lessons are generally 4-6 minutes long and mini-documentaries are 5-7 minutes long.

Lesson Journaling Prompts

We have journaling prompts accompanying each lesson with Dr. Favale that we encourage you to use. These prompts were written to help you process the program content, and imagine the implications of a Catholic feminism in your own life. Please note that there are no journaling prompts with the story videos.

If you're planning to write with these prompts, feel no pressure to work through all of the prompts for each lesson. Choose one or a couple of questions that resonate with you to write about and pray with. Bottom line: do what will be most fruitful for you.

Daily Prayer Commitment

If you are planning to work through this program at the 6 week pace, we invite you to make a commitment to daily prayer.

Each day, we encourage you to pray our program prayer Heroines of the Faith. This prayer can be a great starting place to enter into deeper prayer with God. For prayer commitments ideas: check out the introduction on the course itself for inspiration on spiritual practices that could go with the program.

Program Prayer

What This Program Intends & Does Not Intend

Do we think that this program says everything that needs to be said about Catholic feminism? No, definitely not. So much more could be said and needs to be said about the implications of cultivating a Catholic feminism. What we do hope this program achieves is giving women (perhaps like yourself!) who are faithful Catholics and drawn to feminism – seeing "in the women's movement the working on the Spirit for a clearer recognition of the dignity and rights of women", to quote Pope Francis – the space to explore what a Catholic feminism could mean and look like in their lives.

Ultimately, we hope that this program is a starting place for you to bring about a Catholic feminism in your own life — in your home, community, and city. As we share in the program, to be a Catholic feminist means “to become a channel of Christ’s love, and direct that love toward women, children, and those who are most vulnerable." So see to it! We hope this program guides you in your walk with Christ and empowers you to promote the dignity and equality of women in your corner of the world today.

Produced by The Catholic Woman Nonprofit

Cultivating Catholic Feminism was produced by The Catholic Woman, a nonprofit media platform dedicated to illustrating the many faces and vocations of women in the Church to inspire and empower young women to live out their faith in their particular realm of influence. For more resources on women and Catholicism, check out our website for a collection of diverse stories from Catholic women of all different walks of life.

Our Sponsors & Donors

Special thanks to the donors of The Catholic Woman and their support of this initiative for the past several years, and to our sponsors: The GIVEN Institute, The McGrath Institute for Church Life, and Louisiana Right to Life.