The flutter of a butterfly’s wings

There is a sign coming from the Synod. In the Instrumentum Laboris, theologian Serena Noceti notes, the phrase “men and women” is used 22 times, “employed to define the identity of the disciples of Christ, recipients of the evangelical message, and missionaries, as well as those engaged in pastoral life”. For the theologian, this is both an innovation and symbolic, which suggests an explicit recognition of the shared responsibility of men and women within the Church.

In the month in which the second session of the Synod on synodality takes place, Women Church World returns to the issue of women in the Church, a topic that has progressively emerged in the synodal assemblies. The magazine features contributions from theologians, sociologists, religious women, liturgists, historians, leaders of Catholic organizations, and lay faithful. In a debate that looks to the future while rooted in the past, the contributions this month are diverse perspectives, not homogeneous.

On September 25, 1964, almost sixty years ago to the day, a historic event took place when twenty-three women entered a Council as auditors for the first time. The first among them to  step into the hall was a laywoman, the Frenchwoman Marie-Louise Monnet among them, which perhaps was not by chance. These women entered as the result of the flutter of a butterfly’s wings—a change generated by that universal event—sparked by the famous question posed by Belgian Cardinal Léon-Joseph Suenens to the other 2,500 bishops at Vatican II October 22, 1963, “Where is the other half of humanity?”

Today, since then, there has been progressively more women, which is not just about having space or power at any cost. At the Synod, in various roles, there are nearly one hundred women, many of whom, for the first time, have the right to vote. 

What is needed instead is a different way of thinking, writes Chiara Giaccardi, a sociologist and member of the editorial board of Women Church World, because the debate on the issue of women “seems to be trapped in an epistemological error that is reflected in the broader contemporary discussion on gender: male and female as separate and opposing elements. A ‘binary’ framework that leads only to polarization, grievance, and conflict, both inside and outside the Church”. 

Giaccardi also argues that the ideal of “complementarity” is a trap; instead, the key word is reciprocity. This acknowledgment would lead to an understanding that the issue is not resolved simply by an equal division of spaces or powers, but through a dynamic and transformative interaction, where men and women are involved with one another and enrich each other. Together, we change the Church.