Last evening I had my first official engagement of my US tour. I am beginning here in Washington. A group of about a dozen representatives of various different reform groups gathered at the house where I am staying, and we had a long discussion on the Church, the tour, and the sort of issues that are likely to surface here in the States. The immediate thing that strikes me as different from Ireland is the sheer size of the country.
In a few days time I fly out to the States to begin my speaking tour. This tour is organised by the network of Church Reform movements in the United States. The title they have given to the tour is The Catholic Tipping Point.
In all I will be speaking in eighteen different cities over a period of thirty days. So it will be hectic. Lucky for me, it is all organised from there, so I don’t have to worry about any of the details.
Today (Saturday) an open meeting took place in the MacWilliam Hotel, Claremorris on the topic of womens voices being heard in the Church. 247 people attended. The attendance was made up largely of women, with maybe about a dozen clergy present.
The meeting was chaired by Monica Morley (of ‘Faith Alive” in Midwest radio). The two speakers were Kathleen McDonnell of the ‘Killaloe Women’ and Gerry O’Hanlon, Jesuit.
Kathleen was undoubtedly the ‘star turn’ of the afternoon.
