The USCCB statement resourcing lay ecclesial ministry relies on two biblical images; a mixed metaphor pairing an historical reality of the Pauline ecclesial co-worker and a Matthean parabolic narrative of day laborers. Examining this combined metaphor discloses how their tensions mirror the statement’s theological and pastoral divergences on the scope and authority of lay ministry leadership. The metaphor’s meaning and the statement’s text reinforce one another’s ambiguities enough that they can both highlight the vital ecclesial importance of lay ministry, or allow it to be interpreted in a clericalized way which undermines lay ministers’ value. This analysis is contextualized by pandemic-era stresses on lay ministers, even as there are new recognitions of their importance and value by Pope Francis and the synodal process. The status of these important ministers as true co-workers in the Pauline sense remains largely unrealized, highlighting the need for renewed theological and pastoral efforts to encourage their proper agency in the life of the Church.

Science and technology are not enough in addressing the climate emergency. In his critique of Western Christianity, Lynn White challenged to rethink our religion. Pope Francis in Laudato Si’ underlined the importance of ecological education in ecological conversion. I propose that a change in the way we read, interpret, and teach biblical, religious, and other authoritative texts will help us in meaning-making amid the planetary crisis. In this contribution, I will first examine the interrelation of climate change, psychospiritual health, and meaning-making through the Scriptures. Second, I will succinctly present some simple methodological advances in ecological biblical hermeneutics that can facilitate generating new ideas on the interrelationships between and among the divine, the humans, and the nonhuman/beyond-human creation in biblical and other texts. Finally, I will apply these methodologies on Romans 8:18-30 as a test case for alternative ecological insights and their practical implications as we navigate this post-COVID-19 world.

This article constructively examines the seeming impasse between US Catholic feminist theologies and the Roman Catholic Curia. It proposes that a possible resource for “engaging the impasse” between them can be found in the contemplative processes and practices utilized by the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) during the doctrinal investigation of the LCWR undertaken by the (then) Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in 2009. Using a Catholic feminist decolonial lens of analysis, the article argues that there are resonances between the LCWR’s contemplative processes and the “path of conocimiento” found in the work of Chicana theorist Gloria Anzaldúa. Both share the insight that careful listening to ourselves, “others” and the divine (albeit by different names) is one of the first steps toward building understanding between seemingly opposed entities. Together, they can serve as powerful resources for healing the divide between Catholic feminist theologies and the Roman Catholic Curia and, in so doing, offer hope to our often polarized and suffering world.