Mary’s Pence Celebrates 25th Anniversary
May 11, Chicago – What do a sewing and craft co-op, a leadership training program for Latina women, an outreach program for formerly incarcerated women, and a shelter in New Orleans have in common? They are all women’s initiatives that have received grants from Mary’s Pence, a non-profit, grassroots organization that funds women’s ministries in North America, Latin America, and the Caribbean.
“Giving Thanks, Moving Forward” was the theme of the 25th anniversary celebration of Mary’s Pence. The celebration took place in Mundelein Center at Loyola University on April 28, the 25th anniversary of the first gathering of the founding board of directors.
After an opening ritual, Adrian Dominican Sister Maureen Gallagher, OP, founding director of Mary’s Pence, explained the origins of the organization. The seeds for Mary’s Pence were planted in 1989 when a group of lay women from Chicago applied to Peter’s Pence for funding for their ministry to women in prison. However, Peter’s Pence – an organization funded by Catholic collections throughout the world to support projects of special concern to the pope – turned down the women’s request for $5,000. At the same time, they granted $250,000 for a priest to enable him to begin a gang ministry, Sister Maureen recalled. On hearing the news, another woman commented to Sister Maureen about the need for a “Mary’s Pence.”
Days later, when Sister Maureen heard on the radio that girls in the Archdiocese of Chicago were no longer allowed to be altar servers, she felt a challenge from God to do something to help women in the Church. She called a group of people together to begin Mary’s Pence. After meeting for a few months, the initial group decided to form a board. The first meeting on April 28 was held at about the time of the Feast of St. Catherine of Siena, Dominican mystic and Church reformer.
The 13 board members, all of whom attended the opening meeting, “represented the Church: old, young, religious, lay, married, single,” Sister Maureen said. In her blog on the website of Mary’s Pence, she described their service as invaluable. “They wrote articles and gave speeches and in some cases were able to get support from women religious congregations,” she wrote. “I drove all over – Maine, Texas, Connecticut – meeting with groups of women, usually in their homes. I just knew that once people were given the chance to direct money to women – who had been ministering in the name of the Church for so long without recognition – they would jump at the chance.”
Sister Maureen described Mary’s Pence as a “grassroots movement to provide a structure in the Church that would allow people in the pews, Catholic people throughout the United States, to donate directly to Catholic women’s ministries. That is still the idea. Mary’s Pence is not a radical group and was never meant to be. It was meant to expand the Church’s commitment to women.”
After Sister Maureen’s address, participants in the anniversary celebration heard a presentation on ESPERA Funds, community lending pools for networks of women. The funds – which are not returned to Mary’s Pence – are used to give small loans to women in the community; to pay a coordinator to help the women to develop marketing skills; and to strengthen the partnerships among the women in the network.
Celebrants also had the opportunity to witness the action of a group that receives funding from Mary’s Pence. Still Point Theatre Collective, an organization of women who had formerly been incarcerated, gave a performance that depicted the stories of their lives and the mistakes that they had made along the way. They take this performance to inner city high schools so that the students can benefit from their experience.
The celebration concluded with a keynote address, “Women Called to Birth Hope and Healing in a Broken World,” presented by author and theologian Edwina Gateley; a closing ritual; and a reception.
More information about donating to Mary’s Pence or applying for a grant is available on their website.