“A Calling” portrays women’s fight to rise within church ranks

A film documenting the ongoing struggle that women face to gain the recognition and prominent roles they deserve within the Catholic church hierarchy will be screened at Salve Regina this week, and will be introduced by both the producer and one of the inspirational women featured in the work.

“A Calling” will be shown at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 17 in the Bazarsky Lecture Hall. Writer/director Nick Viscio and Sister Mary Lou Liptak will be in attendance to introduce the film and facilitate a discussion afterward. The event is sponsored by the Mercy Center for Spiritual Life.

The film focuses on the circumstances around bringing in a nun as the leader of a small Catholic parish in upstate New York. It chronicles the personal stories of several individuals that were engaged in this transformation and how they and their community evolved throughout the process. As the church pieces together its new vision, the women involved discover parallels between their own lives and those of the religious women of the church, rooted in their feminist core.

“This is a powerful untold story that will change your perspective of women in the church,” Viscio said. “Since the establishment of parish life directors by the Albany Roman Catholic Diocese these women have been leading, but are seldom held up as the prominent example of the change that they represent. Our film looks at one of these stories and explores the far reaching impact of that change, as it echoes beyond the halls of the church.”