Pope, in book foreword, laments ‘resistance to change’ on women in the Church
October 11, 2024
L’Osservatore Romano has published the Pope’s foreword to Donne e uomini, questione di culture: Per una Chiesa del noi [Women and Men, A Question of Cultures: For a Church of Us], a book written by Linda Pocher, Regina da Costa Pedro, and Stella Morra.
The book, according to the Vatican newspaper, arose from the April meeting of the Pope’s advisory Council of Cardinals, in which Pocher and two other women—Giuliva Di Berardino and Jo Bailley Wells—took part.
The Pope wrote the foreword in April or May: he refers to the upcoming feast of Pentecost, celebrated this year on May 19. Nonetheless, the publication of the foreword was delayed until October 9, perhaps so that it could have a greater effect on the Synod.
“The synodal journey is also a journey of reform that, like every journey of conversion, can encounter external obstacles and internal resistance,” the Pope wrote. “The first disciples of Jesus, walking together through the streets of Palestine, had this experience: they clashed with him with the opposition of the powerful of their time.”
After citing Gospel passages in which women anointed Jesus, the Pope continued:
It is not easy to recognize one’s own resistance to the Gospel, because in them ideas, even those that seem good, are intertwined with emotions and habits. It is necessary to grow in the ability to listen patiently to one’s heart, to look at one’s habits and beliefs with the eyes of the Lord, and to dedicate time to contemplating Jesus’ way of acting, speaking, and feeling. Especially when it comes to cultural resistance, because culture is the mysterious root that binds us to the earth, to the family, to the religious tradition from which we were born. It is important to learn to discern, like the fisherman in the parable, within this great net, the good fish and the bad fish (Mt 13:47-48).
The Pope added:
At the institutional level, resistance to change can take the form of real strategies that are sometimes implemented to block reform: postponing decisions to an indefinite future; responding to requests with silence, that is, not responding; taking refuge behind a false need to discuss and investigate endlessly; multiplying bureaucracy; eliminating in various ways the people who are annoying, or tiring them out so as to push them to give up their requests.
The sign that a community has made a good discernment is consolation. As long as there is no consolation in the ecclesial community, discernment is not complete: perhaps it is a matter of listening more deeply and without judgment; perhaps it is a matter of arriving at a more definite decision, even if ad experimentum.
“I am grateful to the theologians who have allowed me and the cardinals of my Council to meditate on this theme and to better focus on the link between culture and the Gospel, between culture and resistance to renewal, and I am happy that, through this volume, their reflection can be disseminated and made available to ecclesial communities,” the Pope added.
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