What About Me? Women and the Catholic Church
by Sharon Tighe-Mooney
Foreword by Mary T. Malone

Available from bookshops nationwide and online at www.mercierpress.ie and amazon.co.uk

In 2010 the Vatican upgraded the ‘crime’ of ordaining women to Catholic ministry, rendering it one of the most serious crimes against Church law. But how can the institutional Church be so certain that women priests were never to feature in Catholicism? Why is the Catholic Church so determined not to discuss the issue of women priests? Where does the implicit antipathy expressed towards women in the institutional Catholic Church come from? How are women in the Catholic faith supposed to digest and understand such views? This book sets out to answer these questions.

What About Me? Women and the Catholic Church is the author’s exploration, as a woman born into the Catholic faith, of the arguments given against the inclusion of women. It is a personal quest to uncover the story of women in the Christian movement from its earliest days to the present.

Sharon Tighe-Mooney grew up in Co. Roscommon and now lives in Co. Meath. She has an MA in English, Sociology and Theology and a PhD in English from NUI Maynooth. She is co-editor of Essays in Irish Literary Criticism: Themes of Gender, Sexuality, and Corporeality (2008).

Reviews:
‘It is the 21st century and the Catholic Church’s hierarchy remains wilfully deaf to the entirely reasonable question explored brilliantly here. They need to read this book and respond before a lot of women (and men) stop bothering to care about the answer or the Church.’ – Mary McAleese

‘The question of full equality for women, in ministry and decision-making, is a major challenge facing the Catholic Church. Sharon Tighe-Mooney’s meticulous research makes this an essential read for anyone who wishes to fully understand the question and how the Church can move forward. I would love to think it will find a place on the desk of all the men in positions of leadership in our Church.’ – Fr Tony Flannery

ISBN: 978 1 78117 540 8
Format: Paperback
Price: €14.99 / £12.50
Size: 215mm x 135mm
Extent: 224pp
Publication Date: March 2018

For further information, please contact:
Deirdre Roberts
Unit 3B, Oak House, Bessboro Road, Blackrock, Cork, Ireland
Tel: +353 21 461 4700
Email: deirdre.roberts@mercierpress.ie
@IrishPublisher