Women are being given a stronger voice says the International Union of Superiors General (UISG).

The Vatican patriarchy is giving way somewhat.

Pope Francis has appointed a few women in senior Vatican managerial positions. He also gave women voting powers in this month's synod.

This is the first time women have been allowed to vote in a bishops' summit discussing church reforms.

Women priests

Although he has increased the opportunity for women's voices to be heard, Francis has ruled out opening up the priesthood to women.

Speaking to the Foreign Press Association (FPA) in Rome on Wednesday, one of the UISG nuns expressed her exasperation.

The Church is "by and large fully led by a male hierarchy" and "if you ask if I have felt frustrated, yes I have felt frustrated" said UISG associate executive secretary Sister Mary John Kudiyiruppil (pictured).

"But I really think we are making progress."

Another of the nuns, a UISG member and missionary from Ghana, Sister Maamalifar Poreku, told the FPA she doesn't need to be ordained.

She and other women are already able to make an impact helping the poor and the needy, she explained.

Ordination isn't necessary for this, she noted.

"I don't think I am interested in being a priest and I am very happy with the vocation that I have ... I don't need to be at the altar to do anything," she told the Foreign Press Association.

The 61-year-old said women priests "will happen" eventually, but "the way things move, I might not see it in my lifetime.

"We live in a patriarchal world ... it is men who dominate, whether we like it or not. This is reality so, in the church, it is men who dominate and change in society, a patriarchal society is not easy."

Enlarge your tent

One area the closed-door synod looked at was how the Church can be more welcoming - in particular to women, migrants, clerical sex abuse survivors, divorcees and victims of climate change and social injustice.

Conservatives are critical of this exercise.

Where to from here?

While Bishops completed their discussions on Saturday, they are set to begin again in October 2024.

A papal document outlining any changes in Church teaching will follow, most likely in 2025.

This means that, if there were changes in Church teaching, they would be a long way off US News reports.

Source

• US News

The International Union of Superiors General (UISG) in Rome has set up a three-year study to find ways to respond to religious sisters' needs.

Stress and burnout are major reasons many women abandon religious life.

The UISGs initiative was highlighted in the monthly women's supplement of L'Osservatore Romano, which is the official Vatican newspaper.

The article prompted Pope Francis to open a house in Rome to welcome and give assistance to former sisters.

Of the world's 650,000 women religious, it appears burnout is causing a weakening of vocations. Sisters who feel overworked and exhausted are leaving.

This has caused concern at the Vatican.

"When you are a religious, you don't listen to one another, it is still frowned upon in many congregations," says a professional facilitator who regularly works with sisters.

As work is often linked to their service commitment, failing in work is often seen as failing in their vocation.

"They are so profoundly dedicated to their mission, that they sometimes neglect personal needs such as sleep or even food and recreation," a psychotherapist says.

"They have an extremely high and even unattainable ideal, they work for Christ, follow him with their whole being, and not to achieve this any more calls into question their faith."

Commenting on the sisters' situation, a priest who is also a medical doctor says burnout is a "disease of giving".

Burnnout is therefore particularly hard on social or service professions.

When the vocation involves "giving one's life", there are no limits, he says.

A man who set up a shelter for people suffering from burnout three years ago aims to get residents - which include vowed religious - back on their feet.

"Some people can't set limits. There is a kind of headlong rush to excess, which is accentuated by a misguided spirituality," he explains.

A literal reading Saint Ignatius of Loyola's prayer for generosity is an example of this:

"Teach us, good Lord... to give and not to count the cost, to fight and not to heed the wounds, to toil and not to seek for rest, to labor and not to ask for any reward," it says.

Whether nuns are more susceptible to burnout than others is a matter of opinion.

The answer seems to be "not necessarily".

Normally sisters benefit from spiritual accompaniment, which can help them accept their fragility and human condition.

However, "God's call can get buried under an agenda. 'Doing' can make us forget the reason why we follow Christ," says one sister.

"Religious life is not primarily about 'doing', but being with God," she says.

Source

• La Croix
• Image: Flickr