Dear Readers,

It’s officially been a year. One whole year since FemCatholic was launched.

A lot has happened.

Back in 2016 when I was accepted to the GIVEN Catholic Women’s Leadership Forum. FemCatholic was an idea - a vision - of something I could give back to the Church. Something to educate, encourage, and empower women.

A place where Feminism + Catholicism could meet.

I was given the opportunity to share my story on Aleteia and with the ladies of Catholic Women Now.

You wrote in with your Dear Edith questions - on veiling, being ‘maternal’, and struggling to relate to Mary. And you responded to each others’ Dear Edith questions with gusto and grace.

It was time to expand the voices on FemCatholic, and almost 50 of you applied to be FemCatholic Contributors. It was incredibly challenging to choose among the talented, passionate women - to get down to just 15 women to write regular posts and form our Feminism + Catholicism “think tank.”

Catholic Link picked up our post on 3 Good Reasons for Catholics to be Feminists.

And we started conversations on contraception, submission in marriage, purity culture, divorce, equality in NFP, just to name a few.

We created a tote bag to celebrate the legacy of women in the Church, and a mug reminding women who work that St. John Paul II says “thank you.” We gave one of each away at this year’s Edith Stein Conference at Notre Dame.

Chloe from Letters to Women podcast and Claire from The Catholic Feminist podcast chatted with me about Feminism, and why Catholics shouldn’t be afraid of that word. (These were so fun! I love podcasts).

We created a closed Facebook group for women to discuss, too.

And were excited to see other Catholic publications are starting to talk about feminism in the Church.

This year has been absolutely incredible.

So what’s next for FemCatholic?

Only the Holy Spirit knows for sure ;)

Here’s what I do know:

We have some fantastic Contributor posts in the pipeline. I hope you’ll consider submitting a pitch or draft post, too.

I hope we can dive deeper into what the Church actually teaches about women - from the Vatican, from the USCCB, and from both male and female scholars.

I hope we can dive deeper into how feminism is influencing our culture, and how new feminism should be influencing it.

I've started giving talks on podcasts and events around Chicago. Contact me if you want to chat!

Update: We're starting a book club!

You can find out all about it and how to join, here.

Update #2: We're planning a conference!

Stay up to date and be the first to hear when tickets go on sale, here.

So how can you stay in the loop?

Subscribe to get an email when a new post goes live.

Follow FemCatholic on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

Who knows what Year 2 will bring for FemCatholic!

Have specific comments, ideas, or suggestions? Comment below or email me at info@femcatholic.com

For Women + For the Church,
Samantha