Today’s post is a guest post from Elise, one of the members of the Catholic Working Mothers Facebook group. A couple of months ago, a young mom confessed to me: “Since I came back to work, being vulnerable after maternity is one of my biggest challenges. Being a mom really impacted my confidence at work. I find it troublesome to feel, look and sound confident … and troublesome to play the role of the strong woman in a suit, too.... Read more
This past April, I bought a “Women Who Work” mug from FemCatholic’s Zazzle shop. Sadly, less than two weeks later, my kids knocked the mug off the table and broke it. When I lamented the fate of my mug some time later, Samantha very graciously offered to send me a new one, free of charge! (By the way, did you know that Samatha also contributed content to my book? It’s true! She’s such an amazing person!) It arrived last week... Read more
Ugh, it hasn’t been a good week. A nasty virus hit me and most of the kids. My husband doesn’t get sick time so I’ve had to struggle along the best I can. Thankfully I seem to be on the mend, but my throat is still really sore. Please pray that we all get healthy and stay healthy this next week — my husband and I are taking a trip out of town for our 17th wedding anniversary over Labor... Read more
My friend and fellow Catholic working mother Kelsey L. has an interesting proposal for the U.S. bishops (shared with permission): In the wake of the McCarrick and PA grand jury scandals, Catholics are divided on the subject of tithing. Some have decided to never give another dime to a Catholic organization, even their home parish (as a percentage of what you give will eventually be paid to the local diocese via cathedraticum). This is causing suffering on the parish level.... Read more
On Wednesday, I called my diocese’s headquarters and asked when a statement about the latest abuse crisis would be issued by our bishop, but the person I spoke to in the communications office could only tell me that one was in the works; he did not know when it would be released. As it turns out, the statement was issued this morning. I have mixed feelings about it. Quite frankly, I had hoped for better. It starts out with the... Read more
Like many, and I daresay most, Catholics in the U.S., I am reeling from the one-two punch of abuse scandals that have rocketed the Catholic Church in American in the last few weeks. First, the revelation that Cardinal Archbishop McCarrick was a longtime predator of young boys and men, whose behavior was an open secret to the Vatican and Church hierarchy, and who was still elevated through the ranks of the Church despite being an utter disgrace to Catholicism in... Read more
My Catholic Working Mothers Facebook group just celebrated its fourth anniversary on August 8. I remember thinking at the time I started it that I’d be pretty happy if the group ended up with five hundred members. Today, we have over five thousand. I’ve learned so much from my fellow members. As I’ve read about their struggles, their failures, their triumphs, and their many successes in their quests to be good Catholics, good moms, and good employees, I’ve come to... Read more
The Catholic social media sphere has been abuzz this past week due to Pope Francis approving a edit to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, per the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, that articulates development of doctrine regarding Catholic teaching on capital punishment. Unsurprisingly, although sadly, this change has wrought much angst and anger among some Catholics. They claim that the prior teaching on the death penalty was infallible (not true), that the Pope is changing infallible teaching... Read more
Daisy Patton is an artist who has created an agenda-driven work titled, “Would You Be Lonely Without Me?” which is “a series of oil portraits depicting women whose deaths were directly caused by a lack of access to safe reproductive care” (i.e., abortion). I have no objection to the piece itself. These women deserve to have their stories told, and I think we can learn a lot from them. As a society, we must work to give women more practical... Read more
One of the members of the Catholic Working Mothers Facebook group, Elise at Oh Contraire, posted the following in the group this past Friday. I loved it so much that I asked her if I could post it to the blog, and she graciously assented. Thank you for your words of wisdom, Elise! Dear New Mom Going Back to Work: I remember vividly the day I went back to work after maternity leave for my first one. I was crying... Read more
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