In April, following the Pope’s Prayer Intentions for 2024, we pray “For the role of women”. “Let us pray”, asks Francis, “that the dignity and richness of women be recognized in every culture, and that the discrimination they face in various parts of the world may cease.

“However, does prayer exhibit a distinct feminine specificity?

The theologian Cettina Militello, who has written an analysis in this edition of Women Church World, disagrees. She asserts, “If women's prayer appears different, and particularly confined, it is thus owed to the men who have constructed this framework, restricting it as a means of communication between Divinity and the human collective”.