Pope hopes for ‘faithful’ and ‘creative’ interpretation of Lord’s intentions for women and ministry

July 12, 2024

» Continue to this story on L'Osservatore Romano (Italian)

CWN Editor's Note: Pope Francis has written the preface to Donne e ministeri nella Chiesa sinodale [Women and Ministries in the Synodal Church], an anthology written by Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich of Luxembourg, Cardinal Seán O’Malley of Boston, and the three women who addressed the Pope’s advisory Council of Cardinals on the topic in February.

“Christian thought, in its theological, juridical, magisterial and cultural dimension, in its legitimate effort to transcend the contingency of the present, can never completely distance itself from the context in which it is formulated,” the Pope wrote. “Throughout the modern era, particularly marked by the fascination for ‘clear and distinct’ ideas, the Church has also fallen, at times, into the trap of considering fidelity to ideas more important than attention to reality.”

“Reality, however, is always greater than the idea, and when our theology falls into the trap of clear and distinct ideas it inevitably transforms into a Procrustean bed, which sacrifices reality, or part of it, on the altar of idea,” he continued. “Listening to the suffering and joys of women is certainly a way to open ourselves to reality.”

“Listening to them without judgment and without prejudice, we realize that in many places and in many situations they suffer precisely because of the lack of recognition of what they are and what they do and also of what they could do and be if only they had the space and the opportunity,” he added. “The women who suffer the most are often the closest, the most available, prepared and ready to serve God and his Kingdom.”

Pope Francis concluded:

I want to entrust the ongoing discernment on the theme of the ministry and ministries in the Synodal Church to the intercession of the saints who have seen, listened to, experienced firsthand the way of serving Jesus and have formed with him the ecclesial body in its original configuration: Mary, Peter, John, Magdalene, to name just a few, together with their companions whose stories and names we know and many other anonymous disciples, men and women missionaries of the Gospel, so that they may help us to be faithful and creative interpreters of the Lord’s intentions.

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