This article constructively examines the seeming impasse between US Catholic feminist theologies and the Roman Catholic Curia. It proposes that a possible resource for “engaging the impasse” between them can be found in the contemplative processes and practices utilized by the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) during the doctrinal investigation of the LCWR undertaken by the (then) Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in 2009. Using a Catholic feminist decolonial lens of analysis, the article argues that there are resonances between the LCWR’s contemplative processes and the “path of conocimiento” found in the work of Chicana theorist Gloria Anzaldúa. Both share the insight that careful listening to ourselves, “others” and the divine (albeit by different names) is one of the first steps toward building understanding between seemingly opposed entities. Together, they can serve as powerful resources for healing the divide between Catholic feminist theologies and the Roman Catholic Curia and, in so doing, offer hope to our often polarized and suffering world.
