Pro-Choice Catholic Testimony

I first became aware of Catholics for a Free Choice before I was a Catholic. It was 1974 or ’75. I was a student at the University of California, San Diego, and a member of the Young Socialist Alliance. I soon became disenchanted with the YSA, but not before a woman from Catholics for Choice came to speak at one of our meetings focused on educating ourselves about feminist activism. This woman had such heart, such goodness, and such courage! I was so deeply moved by her description of crying as she walked back to her pew after being refused Communion, and yet she refused to leave her church or her faith, and she equally refused to stop speaking out for choice and birth control. She also described bravely passing out pamphlets after Mass at the same church where she’d been refused communion. I’ve forgotten her name, but I’ve never forgotten her powerful witness. A decade later, when I began my teaching career at a Catholic institution, I wished to be both respectful and assertive in continuing to live my feminist commitments. I remembered that woman and began making donations to Catholics for Choice and distributing their materials to my students, telling my classes about the organization, and assuring pro-choice students that they could have their faith and their feminism both. I was ethically and professionally protected by academic freedom so long as I confined this message to the classroom, so I did it throughout my career. I also came to deeply value the Catholic expression of Christianity, and in mid-life, I was received into full communion in the Catholic Church (from the Episcopal Church). My catechist assured me that I could retain my feminist commitments if I held them in good faith. And, ever since, Catholics for Choice has supported me in both faith and feminism.