This Assembly falls as the International Network of Consecrated Life Against Human Trafficking celebrates the 15th anniversary of its establishment in 2009 under the International Union of Superiors General (UISG). Delegates will gather outside Rome at the Fraterna Domus in Sacrofano from 18-24 May 2024.

Member congregations of UISG have been involved in ministering to the victims of trafficking since 1998. Their first contribution was the production of training materials by a study group formed under the Commission for Justice and Peace.

The materials produced were translated into about 11 different languages and were instrumental in raising awareness about the challenge of human trafficking at that time.

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Leadership positions within the Church are important, a pre-International Women's Day gathering near the Vatican said.

"It's so important that the Catholic Church be engaged in this issue, not just internally but also externally given the contribution they make in the education sphere and the health care sphere" says Chiara Porro, Australia's ambassador to the Holy See.

Porro agrees the Vatican has taken significant steps forward during her four years in Rome. Catholic women have been appointed to many high-ranking Vatican positions.

There are now 40 women ambassadors to the Vatican - and they often talk about the issue of women's influence.

"We come all over the world. We support each other, we share ideas, we network" she says.

Porro works closely with the International Union of Superiors General.

Besides highlighting their work, especially with the poor, the Union also works with women of other faiths, she says.

Interfaith effort

Last week the Australian, French and Netherlands embassies sponsored and attended a "Women Sowing Seeds of Peace and Cultivating Encounter" conference.

Attendees were Christian, Jewish, Buddhist and Hindu female faith leaders.

"When we talk about interfaith dialogue, when we talk about religious leaders coming together. We find that a lot of the religions around the world are led by men, so it's really important to bring female faith leaders together" Porro says.

One day at the conference was set aside for women theologians, experts and leaders to discuss female leadership. Here, ordained missionary and theologian Maeve Louise Heaney questioned Catholic theology that attempts to "essentialise" women.

"They speak of complementarity and name the contribution of women as essentially different to that of men, pitching love, spirituality and nurturing against authority, leadership and intellect."

Catholics should reconsider their idea of God and the Holy Spirit as neither male nor female.

Survey

A 2022 Catholic Women Speak survey of 17,200 women in 104 countries found two-thirds of Catholic women support "radical reform".

Almost 30 percent said they would consider leaving the Church if women aren't given more prominence.

Heaney is encouraged by the Synod on Synodality which will hold its second session at the Vatican in October. The Vatican is already discussing allowing women to be ordained as deacons, she says.

"What if we allowed spaces for women to preach? Under the authority of the bishop, in collaboration with the parish priest, with the proper formation like all the rest of the ministry. You might find that the issue of priesthood changes in colour if we have different kinds of leadership."

Patience needed

While many women want change and while Catholic charity Caritas is urging its 162 affiliated Catholic charities to create spaces for women's leadership dialogue, Pope Francis is not on board.

He continues to use language that reinforces the role of women as mothers and caregivers.

"The Church is female" he says. Women have a "unique capacity for compassion" that allows them "to bring love where love is lacking, and humanity where human beings are searching to find their true identity."

• Religion News Service

The "Talitha Kum," network of women religious under the direction of the International Union of Superiors General (UISG) is to help nearly 40 million people trapped in modern-day slavery through their "The Care Against Trafficking" campaign ahead of World Day against Trafficking in Persons July 30.

Talitha Kum will use its Twitter, Instagram and Facebook accounts to promote the initiative.

With the hashtag #CareAgainstTrafficking, Talitha Kum plans to strengthen its effort to eradicate human trafficking, described "an open wound on the body of contemporary society" by Pope Francis way back in 2014.

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Women religious and Catholic organisations who serve others every day are "our best hope for safe and fair distribution of vaccines.

"They are also the best tool for convincing people of the safety and importance of taking the vaccines," said Sr Carol Keehan, a nurse and Daughter of Charity.

The Church also has clear teachings about the need for more ethical ways to produce and test vaccines.

It has said that receiving vaccines is not participating or cooperating with the evil of abortion, she said during a recent online meeting sponsored by the Rome-based International Union of Superiors General.

The event was dedicated to how women religious can be leaders in bringing Gospel values to new models of the economy and health care. It was part of a series of meetings looking at ways sisters can empower other women and support those most affected and marginalised by the pandemic.

Sr Carol is the chair of the Vatican Covid-19 Commission's health task force.

She gave the more than 300 participants online an overview of the two main goals of the taskforce.

These are an equitable distribution of vaccines and treatments, and reducing the resistance to taking the vaccine.

People have been showing resistance to the vaccine for a number of reasons, she said, and so the taskforce created a "resource kit" for Church leaders and families, available in multiple languages on the commission's website.

"For years we have known that most vaccines are made and/or tested using stem cells grown in a laboratory that originated from a fetus aborted over 40 years ago. Almost all of us have had a vaccine made in this way," Sr Carol said.

"The Church has decades of theology and ethical teachings, asking that better ways of testing and producing vaccines should be a goal.

"But that taking these vaccines, or administering them to children, is not participating or co-operating with the evil of abortion," she said.

"In spite of this, a number of voices immediately started refusing to take the vaccines that had been made and or tested this way. Some of them were bishops in various dioceses, as well as priests and other teachers of the faith," she said.

Several Vatican dicasteries stepped in to clarify the Church's position on vaccines acceptability when no others are available.

And, she added, "Pope Francis has been very clear that it is a moral responsibility to take the vaccines to protect oneself, one's family and one's community from this deadly disease."

The church "cannot and must not remain on the sidelines" in building a better world, she said. This global problem must be faced "as a global family".

Sources

The Tablet

Catholic Universe

The Rome-based International Union of Superiors General, which represents more than 500,000 sisters worldwide, is urging nuns who have been abused to report the crimes to police and their superiors.

They have promised to help nuns who have been abused to find the courage to report it. They have also promised to help victims heal and seek justice.

The Superiors General' statement was made the day before the UN-designated International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.

News reports earlier this year claim the Vatican has known for decades about the problem of priests and bishops preying on nuns, but has done little to stop it.

The Superiors General' statement condemns the "pattern of abuse that is prevalent within the church and society today."

It notes sexual, verbal and emotional abuse are all types of mistreatment that festers in unequal power relations and demeans the dignity of its victims.

"We condemn those who support the culture of silence and secrecy, often under the guise of ‘protection' of an institution's reputation or naming it ‘part of one's culture.'

"We advocate for transparent civil and criminal reporting of abuse whether within religious congregations, at the parish or diocesan levels, or in any public arena."

An Associated Press (AP) investigation says it found that cases of priests abusing nuns have emerged in Europe, Africa, South America and Asia. AP says its findings emphasise the way sisters' second-class status in the church has contributed to a power imbalance where women can be mistreated by men "with near impunity."

While some nuns voices are being heard via the MeToo movement, many victims remain reluctant to come forward.

Sisters fear they won't be believed and will instead be painted as the seducer who corrupted the priest.

AP says often the sister who denounces abuse by a priest is punished, sometimes with expulsion from her congregation, while the priest's vocation is preserved at all cost.

Source

• AP
• Independent
• Image: VOA News

As part of an international umbrella organization, the International Union of Superiors General, the superiors from orders in Austria, Germany, Switzerland and Luxembourg want women to be admitted to all offices in the Church, including ordained offices.

The German-speaking superiors general, who met last month in Innsbruck, Austria, have called for a new "culture of dialogue, of participation, and of gender equality."

The Church's teaching should be adjusted to "new scientific findings in the theological and other academic disciplines."

The superiors general say an increase of qualified women in the Church would bring "diversity and an enrichment on all levels."

One could learn from religious communities "how men and women have fruitfully worked - and still work - together for the people."

They have also requested that women have voting rights at future synods of bishops.

"In the future, more women are to be included at synods of bishops - of course with voting rights. That is the only way they can influence decisions," they explain.

The Union consists of 2,000 representatives of apostolic women's communities worldwide with more than 900,000 members.

It was at their initiative in 2016 that Pope Francis established a commission on women deacons.

Source

• Lifesite News
• Association of Catholic Priests
• Image: UCA News

The Union of Superiors General for priests and brothers and the International Union of Superiors General for sisters and nuns are working on a proposal "to consider how, in future synods going forward, we can get more voice from the sisters."

At their annual joint meeting in November, the two umbrella groups will be moving the issue forward, Father Marco Tasca, the minister general, says.

"I think the correct path is to present this together, not 'we men' or 'we women' like children, but together.

"Consecrated life is made up of priests and laypeople, so it is only right that there also be lay superiors general at the synod."

World leader of the De La Salle Brothers, Robert Schieler, who is one of two non-ordained religious brothers serving as members of the synod on young people, says the umbrella groups are planning to ask Pope Francis to consider their proposal.

They will also ask Francis about the possibility of giving the women who take part in the synod the power to vote in the discussions.

While rules for the Synod of Bishops provide for the men's union of superiors to elect 10 voting members for the synod, there is no such provision for the women's union of superiors.

"It's a Synod of Bishops," Bruno Cadore, master of the Dominican order says.

But he points out the synod rules allow for "representatives" of religious life to participate, and they should be both men and women.

He also notes 80 percent of consecrated people in the church are women.

The seven women religious allowed to take part in the current synod on youth are serving in non-member roles: they can participate fully in the month-long discussions but they are not allowed to vote on the synod's final document.

However, Schieler says the Church's theology says brothers and sisters have analogous roles. They are each non-ordained, professed members of religious orders.

The difference is, they, as non-ordained men, may vote and women may not.

Source

• National Catholic Reporter
• The Tablet
• Image: Crux Now