The Wild Reed: Out and About

Thursday, May 01, 2008

Out and About - April 2008

Above: A snowy first day of April in the Twin Cities.

Above and below: The weekly Wednesday morning vigil outside of the corporate headquarters of Alliant TechSystems - April 2, 2008.

Alliant TechSystems, now headquartered in Eden Prairie, is the largest Minnesota-based weapons manufacturer and the primary supplier of landmines, cluster bombs, nuclear missile rocket motors, and depleted uranium munitions to the U.S. Department of Defense.

Above: Theologian Elizabeth Johnson, CSJ, Ph.D., at the Carondelet Center, St. Paul - Wednesday, April 9, 2008.

Johnson is a distinguished professor of theology at Fordham University in New York City and the author of numerous books, including the groundbreaking She Who Is: The Mystery of God in Feminist Theological Discourse and Quest for the Living God: Mapping Frontiers in the Theology of God.

To read excerpts from a January 2008 U.S. Catholic interview with Elizabeth Johnson, click here and here.

Above: Some of the folks who braved snow and sleet to attend the April 10 “Extreme Makeover - Church Edition” Resource Fair at Gloria Dei Church in St.Paul. From left: Christine, Senator D. Scott Dibble (DFL), David Lohmen, and Barbara Satin.

The event was sponsored by aMaze, the Faith, Family, Fairness Alliance (of which the Catholic Pastoral Committee on Sexual Minorities is a member), and the Institute for Welcoming Resources, a program of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, and home of the inspiring Shower of Stoles Project.

At this resource fair I staffed an informational booth for both the Catholic Pastoral Committee on Sexual Minorities and The Progressive Catholic Voice online journal - two local “welcoming resources” for LGBT Catholics.

Above and below: Visiting my friend Eduard in Chicago, April 11-15, 2008.

Above: Eduard standing next to Cloud Gate, artist Anish Kapoor’s intriguing 110-ton, highly polished steel monolith popularly referred to as “The Bean.”

For more images of my time in Chicago, click here.

Above: OutFront Minnesota’s annual Lobby Day at the Minnesota State Capitol - Thursday, April 17, 2008.

For more images of Lobby Day, click here.

Above and below: On Saturday, April 19, theologian Richard R. Gaillardetz, who currently holds the Margaret and Thomas Murray and James J. Bacik Endowed Chair in Catholic Studies at the University of Toledo, spoke at Call to Action Minnesota’s Spring Conference.

Gaillardetz’s two presentations focused on “Renewing the Baptismal Priesthood” and “Rethinking Hierarchy: Building a Community of Holy Conversation.” Both were very interesting and insightful, and I plan on writing more about them in the near future.

In the meantime, some of Richard Gaillardetz’s theological writings can be found at the following Wild Reed posts:
The “Perfect Papal Visit” Will Require a “Listening Pope”
Reading the Documents of Vatican II (Part 1)
Reading the Documents of Vatican II (Part 2)
Reading the Documents of Vatican II (Part 3)

Above: Richard R. Gaillardetz with members of Call to Action Minnesota leadership. From left: Brian Willette, Connie Aligada, Richard R. Gaillardetz, and Judy McGuire.