It's one of my favorite subjects: In 2019, when I traveled to Rome to report on the Vatican's historic summit on preventing sexual abuse, I carved out time to interview Lucetta Scaraffia (pictured) the firebrand historian and journalist who founded Women Church World, the Vatican women's magazine, and who, just weeks after our interview, resigned her position—along with the entire editorial board—in protest of alleged censorship.

The stories Ms. Scaraffia shared with me, both at the time and in an interview last year, were disturbing: She described nuns who moved to Rome from faraway countries and who were made to work in the homes of bishops and cardinals with little to no pay; in some cases, they were sexually abused.

Ms. Scaraffia said that when she tried to report on this, a senior Vatican official told her not to publish the story. So she resigned, and her reporting was pulled from the Vatican website.

I've often said that as a Catholic feminist covering the Vatican, I cannot wait until it is no longer newsworthy when women take on greater leadership roles in the church, but it is de rigeur.

What allegedly happened to these women exemplifies the most abhorrent ends of the church's centuries-long clericalist culture, the result of centuries of sexism that erased St. Mary Magdalene's role in three of the four Gospels as the first messenger of the Resurrection and made proclaiming the Gospel at Mass a right exclusively held by men.

It's a culture that has been slowly chipped away at by female mystics like Teresa of Ávila, who told the women in her reformed Carmelite communities facing the Inquisition, "Since the world's judges are sons of Adam and all of them men, there is no virtue in women that they do not hold suspect."

In more recent years, reforms that recognize the power of women to evangelize, lead communities and even govern church offices have gained pace.

Only a hundred years ago, the first lay woman was employed at the Vatican; this week, the new Constitution for the Roman Curia declared that "any member of the faithful may preside over a Department or Body, given their particular competence, power and governance or function," which has widely been interpreted to mean that a woman could run any Vatican office, except perhaps the Dicasteries for Clergy and Bishops.

Previously, many top roles of prefect and secretary were limited to priests or cardinals; the new constitution bears no such limitations.

Clarifying the document at a Vatican press conference March 21, one of its writers said that the "power of governance in the church does not come from the sacrament of [Holy] Orders" but from a mission given by the pope.

It remains to be seen, of course, how this plays out and who is actually appointed to such posts.

Source

• America Magazine
• Image: La Voce del Popolo

Xaviere Missionary Sister Nathalie Becquart, from France, will have voting rights in the body, which advises the pontiff. The Synod debates some of the most controversial issues in the Roman Catholic Church.

Sister Becquart will not be the first woman undersecretary of a major Vatican office, but she will be the first woman with a right to vote at a meeting of the Synod of Bishops.

The pope made the appointment on Feb 7, while also naming Father Luis Marín de San Martín, a 59-year-old Augustinian friar from Spain, to the same position. The priest will also be ordained a bishop.

The new co-undersecretaries will share the No. 2 post in the Synod secretariat. The body is headed by Maltese Cardinal Mario Grech, the 63-year-old secretary-general.

"During the last Synod assemblies, numerous Synodal Fathers emphasized the need that the entire Church reflect on the place and role of women within the Church," Cardinal Grech told official Vatican Media.

"With the appointment of Sister Nathalie Becquart, and the possibility that she will participate with the right to vote, a door has been opened. We will then see what other steps could be taken in the future," the cardinal added.

He noted that the decision reflects the Pope's desire "for a greater participation of women in the process of discernment and decision-making in the church".

The news comes less than a month after Pope Francis formally changed the Church's law to allow women to administer communion and serve at the altar. However, the decree stressed that ordained priesthood would remain open to men only.

In 2020, the pontiff appointed six women to the council which oversees the Vatican's finances.

Sources

BBC

Catholic News Service

La Croix International

"The countries with women as presidents or prime ministers have on the whole reacted better and more quickly than others, making decisions swiftly and communicating them with empathy," he says.

By way of example, Francis cites the success in New Zealand, Germany, Iceland, Taiwan and Finland.

This observation has led him to increase the number of women in decision making roles in the Vatican. Women are "much better administrators than men," he writes.

In his new book, Francis suggests "the perspective women bring is what the world needs at this time."

"Allowing women's perspectives to challenge existing assumptions" in the Church, is something he has tried to focus on as Pope, he writes.

Throughout his pontificate, Francis says he has sought to appoint women to leadership positions - in the Roman Curia and in advisory, board level positions on Vatican bodies.

"I chose these particular women because of their qualifications but also because I believe women in general are much better administrators than men," he says.

"They understand processes better, how to take projects forward."

Francis is often criticised for not doing more to include women and for using outdated or non-inclusive language.

He makes it clear that female leadership in the Church cannot simply be equated with what happens in the Vatican or on "specific roles."

Leadership should not be equated with inclusion into the ranks of the clergy, he says.

"Perhaps because of clericalism, which is a corruption of the priesthood, many people wrongly believe that Church leadership is exclusively male," he writes.

"But if you go to any diocese in the world you'll see women running departments, schools, hospitals, and many other organisations and programmes; in some areas, you'll find many more women than men as leaders."

"To say they aren't true leaders because they aren't priests is clericalist and disrespectful."

Francis' new book is his latest attempt to try and influence the world's post-pandemic response.

In his view, the worst reaction to the passing of the pandemic would be a return to "feverish consumerism and forms of selfish self-protection" instead of protecting the environment.

He offers an alternative future - one of people-focused politics concentrating on communities, with new inclusive forms of globalisation and a Universal Basic Income.

He also has sharp words for cultural warrior Catholics who "turned into a cultural battle what was in truth an effort to ensure the protection of life."

He also calls out anti-maskers, labelling them as "victims only in their own imagination."

Regarding the debates about pulling down statues during this year's antiracist riots in the US, Francis writes that he applauds the defence of human dignity in the protests, but objects to attempts to "purify the past" by "amputating history."

Better to learn from the shame of the past than to try to "cancel" it, he says.

Source

• The Tablet
• Image: Los Angeles Times