Church needs more women theologians

Church needs more women theologians says Pope

Tuesday, December 9th, 2014

According to Pope francis, the Church needs more women theologians.

The Pontiff made the comments on Friday during a meeting with the International Theological Commission; it is the beginning of the Commission’s new five-year mandate.

Noting the contribution women bring to the “intelligence of faith”, Francis described the five women now serving on the Commission as “the strawberries on the cake.”

“But there is need for more,” he said.

Only two women served on the Commission in the past 10 years.

“In virtue of their feminine genius, … female theologians are able to take up… certain unexplored aspects of the unfathomable mystery of Christ.”

He invited the Commission “to draw greater profit from this specific contribution of women to the understanding of the faith.”

Not all Francis’ comments specifically concerned women theologians.

The Holy Father explained the mission of the Commission as, “to study doctrinal problems of great importance, especially those which present new points of view, and in this way to offer its help to the Magisterium of the Church.”

This mission, he said, requires not only “intellectual competence, but also spiritual dispositions.”

He called the Commission’s particular attention to the important spiritual disposition of listening to the “signs of the times”.

The theologian is “called to hear, distinguish and interpret the many voices of our time, and judge them in the light of the Word of God,” the Pontiff told the Commission.

Pope Francis said that theologians must believe and hear the word of God, and humbly listen to the Spirit talking in the Churches through the various manifestation of lived faith of the Church.

The International Theological Commission is made up of 30 theologians the pope appoints from around the world.

Founded in 1969 to study important doctrinal issues, it helps the pontiff and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Sources