Sarah Peraud on Being a Feminist and Being a Catholic

Sarah Peraud is a senior Justice and Peace Studies Major with minors in Women and Gender studies and French. This past year Sarah has served as one of our Peer Education interns. 


I grew up with Mary as an idea woman for me to strive to be more like and so I understand the tension she felt in having Mary portrayed as a subservient woman, as well as being told that subservient ideal by angry white men. I read some of the  work of Elizabeth Johnson (a prominent female Catholic theologian) in my Women in the Bible class and I felt her interpretation of Mary allowed me to reclaim a faith that had made me very disgrunteled and was able to keep me connected to the women and mothers who taught that faith to me, while still being very empowered in my own right.

Throughout my time at Creighton I have really journeyed away from the understanding of my faith I grew up with and moved toward Liberation Theology throughout my time in JPS and THL classes, as a way to understand not only my own faith, but my world as well. Feminism, similarly, has been a way for me to grow and understand both my own experiences and the injustices around me.

One idea I have struggled a lot with in the way religion was taught to me growing up is the idea that our bodies are our spirits are inherently different and that our bodies are inherently sinful. Although, I’ve learned, this is technically a heresy, it is a very common narrative in the way I was raised and the churches I was raised in. I’ve loved learning about both Feminist and Liberation theologies because they have given me words for the feelings of discontent I had with the way I saw the bodies around me being treated, and called me into the world in a real and faithful way.

            One way I think the Jesuit mission has really played into my understanding and practice of feminism is through the Jesuit value of cura personalis—care of the whole person. This value includes bodies, women’s bodies, abused bodies, the bodies and minds of people on this campus. I think just embracing this value in its fullness and its call to protection is a godo first step way to use common Catholic/Jesuit language in our context to talk about and present feminism to a conservative audience.