Sister Christine Schenk has worked as a nurse midwife to low-income families, a community organizer, a writer-researcher, and the founding director of an international church reform organization, FutureChurch. Currently she writes an award-winning column for the National Catholic Reporter. Schenk’s first book Crispina and Her Sisters: Women and Authority in Early Christianity (Fortress Press, 2017) details original research into iconic motifs of female authority found in early Christian art and archaeology. In 2018 Crispina received a first place in the history category from the Catholic Press Association. Her most recent book, To Speak the Truth in Love: A Biography of Sr. Theresa Kane RSM (Orbis Press 2019) won first place in biography from The Association of Catholic Publishers and a first place in biography from the Catholic Press Association. She is one of three nuns featured in the award-winning documentary Radical Grace. The film chronicles the sisters’ passion to transform patriarchy and work for justice in both church and society. See https://radicalgracefilm.com She is also prominently featured in the 2017 documentary Foreclosing on Faith: America’s Church Closing Crisis which documents the pioneering canonical advocacy of the late Sr. Kate Kuenstler, PHJC which changed Vatican policy around church closings. See https://www.foreclosingonfaith.org/about-the-doc/ In October 2013, Schenk stepped down from her position as the founding director of FutureChurch, an international coalition of parish centered Catholics working for full participation of all Catholics in the life of the Church. She led the organization from 1990-2013 and worked to transform a diocesan network of 28 parish councils and 100 parish leaders into an international organization of over 3500 parish-centered activists reflecting the values of Vatican II. A Sister of St. Joseph, Sr. Chris formerly worked as a nurse midwife in Cleveland for 20 years. In 1980 she helped to organize a successful statewide coalition to expand Medicaid coverage to include low-income pregnant women and their children. Schenk credits her community organizing expertise to Cesar Chavez and United Farm Workers Union with whom she worked in the early 1970s as an interfaith coordinator. She graduated Magna Cum Laude from Georgetown University and holds two Masters degrees, one in science from Boston College and an MA in Theology "with distinction" from St. Mary's Seminary and Graduate School of Theology in Cleveland. Accomplishments. The Catholic Press Association had this to say about Schenk’s first book: "Crispina and Her Sisters is major contribution to the growing body of scholarship reshaping our understanding of the ecclesial leadership women provided in early Christianity. Using the representations of women found on sarcophagi and in catacomb frescos, the author convincingly demonstrates that women participated in roles of authority during the first three centuries of Christianity. While making no theological claims, and emphasizing the historical character of the research, this book will contribute to the accumulating evidence that women’s roles in the 21st century Church should be reevaluated, because it was not until the fourth century that women’s ecclesial authority was restricted to monastic settings. This book is very well explored, well organized and quite readable." Schenk has given hundreds of presentations and media interviews about the worldwide priest shortage, strategies for preserving vibrant parishes, women in Scripture, Jesus and women, and women officeholders in the early church. She has been interviewed by major media outlets including the PBS News Hour, World News with Diane Sawyer, CBS Sunday Morning, National Public Radio, CNN, MSNBC and Fox cable channels, and quoted in major feature stories on Mary of Magdala and women in the Bible by both Time and Newsweek. Her opinion and spirituality pieces and have been published by both secular and religious media. With the help of internationally known canon lawyers, Schenk oversaw the creation of FutureChurch’s Save Our Parish Community [SOPC] initiative that subsequently catalyzed a landmark change in Vatican policy. Since February 2011, FutureChurch’s SOPC initiative, helped Catholics from over 50 U.S. parishes in at least seven dioceses successfully win their appeals. Ever since, new diocesan reconfiguration plans do not automatically include closing and selling off churches. A Vatican trained canon lawyer, the late Sr. Kate Kuenstler PHJC , was instrumental in the success of this initiative.
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