Parish
CWL Annual Lecture - Women & Church History: Assumptions vs. Realities
Thu, Sep 25
|St. Mary's University
Time & Location
Sep 25, 2025, 7:00 p.m.
St. Mary's University, 14500 Bannister Rd SE, Calgary, AB T2X 3J3, Canada
About the event
Keynote Speaker: Dr. Bronwen McShea, Ph.D.
Lecture Title: Women & Church History: Assumptions vs. Realities
Date and time: Thursday, September 25 · 7 - 9pm MDT
Location: St. Mary's University McGivney Hall (M100 14500 Bannister Road S.E. Calgary, AB T2X 1Z4)
It is widely assumed that only a handful of women, such as the most famous female canonized saints and Doctors of the Church, played central roles in the development of Catholic institutions, teachings, and cultural expressions before contemporary times. Dr. McShea shows that the reality was considerably different––that a great many women, lay and religious, shaped the Church's history, including at high leadership levels, in all eras up to modern times, and that grave gaps in contemporary, Catholic collective memory about this are as much to blame for today's perceptions in this area as are the actual restrictions that were in place, in past times,…