From left: Teresa of Avila, Catherine of Siena, Therese of Lisieux - Doctors of the Church; the Theotokos; modern saints Edith Stein, Josephine Bakhita and Blessed Teresa of Calcutta.
The face of the female
Translated from
12/2/10
In the past two weeks, I have been struck by the death of two strong women, two women of the People of God, who have crossed my life in different ways. Both died too early and unexpectedly, filling the hearts of many with mystery and questions.
One was the German theologian Jutta Burgraff who had settled in Navarra, whom I had read and interviewed with pleasure on many occasions.
The other was Manuela Camagni, a Memor Domini, who with three colleagues, had been taking care of the Holy Father in the papal apartment. I was struck by the sight of Benedict XVI kneeling in front of her casket, praying silently, probably keeping back the tears.
For several weeks now, in his Wednesday catecheses, the Pope has been presenting the figures of women like them, women in the bosom of the Church. He has so far presented ten of them, whom he has masterfully profiled, but there will be more because these women were no mere accidents of history.
Virgins or wives and mothers, globetrotters or cloistered nuns, in the corridors of power or in the silence of monasteries, they have all been women of culture, of prayer, of governance and authority, mystics as well as reformers. And we are just beginning.
The subject of women in the Church has been recurrent lately. It hasn't lacked for a platform in the media, for a spot in reformist agendas, for a wiseguy parish priest or feminist association advocating the cause, all seeking to discredit the Church by accusing it of condemning women to secular prostration.
And even if this concern has been for the most part even more false than Judas, neither has the response been always appropriate. Sometimes, the response to the frivolous claims is nothing but platitudes, said too lightly.
But one must go deeper into the issue. It's no longer enough just to say that women are important and have always been so from the start, because they are usually the ones who render actual services, who are most responsible for transmitting the faith to their children, and of course for being mothers.
The other side answers that all that is fine but ultimately, in the Church, men govern and make the decisions. A facile description of the power structure... But once more, Benedict XVI has taken the bull by the horns.
In the first place, this idea of power is wrong which considers action to be the domain of men and contemplation that of women, governance (management) to be for men alone, while women are 'relegated' to works of charity and transmission of the faith.
History easily belies this, but moreover, governance in the Church is not just ministry, nor can it be separated from witness.
The Pope refers to this subject in the new interview-book
Light of the World, distinguishing the question of priestly ordination from that of the essential protagonism of women in the life of the Church.
On the one hand, Benedict XVI explains, the Church - and the Pope - do not have the faculty to authorize ordination of women because the Lord himself set the constitutive model with the Twelve Apostles and their successors, the bishops and priests.
On the other hand, the Christian experience has been the most potent factor in history for women's 'liberation', and if one looks at the history of the Church, "the importance of women since Mary, through Monica, and down to Mother Teresa, is so eminent that in many ways, women have shaped the image of the Church much more than men".
This is the whole point. Who can say that Catherine of Siena, Teresa of Avila, Brigid of Sweden or Teresa of Calcutta had little real and concrete impact in shaping the face of the Church, pushing for its renewal and revitalization far beyond what the plans for reform by bishops in their time could accomplish?
Obviously, the Church cannot live and achieve her mission without the feminine genius, to which John Paul II had paid great tribute. As he explained, woman is especially endowed for hope, for welcome and acceptance, for patience, and to care for life. After all is said and done, that is what Christianity is - life that must be generated and protected, educated and transmitted.
I don't think either Julia or Manuela were concerned about the ordination of women. In thought and in service, in teaching and in charity, day by day they helped to build the hearth and home that the Church is. The Church was in their heart, as well as in their mind. Thank you, amigas!
I am very gratified that Restan has written about this, because it re-states some of what I expressed in a brief commentary on 11/25/10 - Excuse my self-indulgence that I re-post it here:
A brief comment on some synchronous events:
Surely when the Holy Father prepared his catechesis on St. Catherine of Siena for yesterday, he could not have known that one of his housekeepers would die an untimely death the same morning. And yet, when he spoke about how the Church continues to benefit from the spiritual maternity of so many women, he would have thought of Manuela and her three colleagues, of his sister Maria and his own mother, and so many shining examples of spiritual maternity, past and present.
Yet all the misguided women who insist that their 'mission' in the world is to become 'priests' have never stopped to consider the example of Catherine and of all the women saints, who did not aspire to the unlikely role of priest, but performed great and holy deeds, nonetheless, whatever station or occupation in life they found themselves in. Like Asia Bibi, condemned to death in an intolerant Muslim country for defending her Christian faith, providing a lesson in spiritual maternity to all persecuted Christians.
The second reflection is on the Holy Father's touching tribute to Manuela, expressing his grief and sorrow so publicly and in a precedent-setting way; and the beautiful example set by L'Osservatore Romano in today's issue (11/25/10), by giving equal play to the death and obituaries of Manuela as to the papal eulogy and funeral rites for Cardinal Navarrete; and of course, by the Secretariat of State, the Swiss Guard and Comunione e Liberazione, for their own tributes to Manuela.
Another reminder to would-be priestettes, if they could only take off their blinkers and shed their ego, that in the eyes of God, a consecrated laywoman's humble daily service is not any less than an eminent cardinal's lifetime of achievement, because both lived for the greater glory of God and in the service of their fellowmen.
I would like to add that obviously the unspoken thrust (or maybe they have expressed it elsewhere, except that I avoid reading feminist tracts of any kind like the plague!) of all these women priest-pretenders is that if there were women-priests, then a woman could be Pope! Not that to say "I want to be Pope" has any meaning at all, compared to the more normal ambitions such as "I want to be a doctor'!
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 06/12/2010 00:50]