"In Search of Healing: Confronting Rape Culture and Spiritual Violence" Wednesday, April 24 1 PM - 2 PM (EDT) Gina Messina-Dysert, Ph.D., will begin her new appointment as Dean of the School of Graduate and Professional Studies at Ursuline College this July and is currently serving as Visiting Assistant Professor of Theological Ethics at Loyola Marymount University and Director of The Center for Women’s Interdisciplinary Research and Education at Claremont Graduate University.  She is also Co-founder and Co-Director of Feminism and Religion, an international project that explores the “F-word” in religion and the intersection between scholarship, activism, and community.

Where are the Catholic women as the Cardinals meet in secrecy to elect from among themselves the next leader of the Catholic Church? Where is the other half of the Conclave?Where are the Catholic women as the Cardinals meet in secrecy to elect from among themselves the next leader of the Catholic Church? Where is the other half of the Conclave? Some women are protesting in St. Peter's Square demanding an equal part in the institutional church. Other women are in the parish pews praying for the next pope. But the vast majority of young and seasoned Catholic women are making their own choices about their faith and their lives. They are working to eradicate injustice, ministering to those in need, and celebrating the goodness of creation. They are exercising their moral authority despite the exclusionary ways of the hierarchy.