Not just a women’s issue

I enrolled in the Joint Diploma Women and the Church: Women and Men in a Synodal Community, promoted by the Institute for Advanced Studies on Women of the Regina Apostolorum Pontifical Athenaeum. I was driven both by my curiosity about a topic that concerns me closely and ties in with my studies on Christian feminism. In addition, by the prospect of confronting different testimonies, and this is what I found. Just as I found, unsurprisingly, the lack of adherence on the part of men.

I think this reveals a problem. The confrontation between women on their place within the Church is fundamental, but not sufficient, because - as Sister Patricia Murray (secretary of the UISG and advisor to the Dicastery for Culture and Education) pointed out - the Church is changed by building relationships between people.

History helps us to understand. This module of the course coordinated by Sr. Grazia Loparco (Pontifical Faculty of Educational Sciences Auxilium) and Sr. Nicla Spezzati (Pontifical Lateran University) analyzes the women-Church question from a socio-historical perspective. During the 19th and 20th centuries, women became increasingly aware of their dignity, but how much of what they conquered and brought to the fore as innovation was fostered by the ecclesiastical institution?

Although women have always been a great resource for the Church as promoters of an active faith, they have seldom seen their contribution formally recognised. It is precisely this indifference towards them that has alienated many from the Church. As Spezzati pointed out, the lack of a gender approach in studies on secularization and the consequent detachment from the Church is emblematic. Loparco also highlighted the novelty of the female apostolate, a form of entrepreneurship of religious women between the 19th and 20th centuries; while Rita Moussallem (co-director of the Focolare’s International Centre for Interreligious Dialogue) focused on women’s ability to foster dialogue as an antidote to polarisations, with particular reference to the coexistence between Christian and Muslim women in the Middle East. Finally, Nicla Spezzati invited people to listen to their own time and space, not to remain in the abstract of theory but to descend into the concrete of participation.

By Elena Esposito
Master’s Degree in Modern Philology and Joint Diploma student