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Catholics across the world want full and equal participation of women

Almost all submissions to the synodal process initiated by Pope Francis raise the issue and want to see debate about ordaining women to the priesthood

Members of We are Church and Catholic Women's Council protest over the status of women in the Catholic Church outside the Apostolic Nunciature on the Navan Road, Dublin, on International Women's Day in March 2020. Photograph: Alan Betson
Members of We are Church and Catholic Women's Council protest over the status of women in the Catholic Church outside the Apostolic Nunciature on the Navan Road, Dublin, on International Women's Day in March 2020. Photograph: Alan Betson
Gina Menzies
Mon Jan 02 2023 - 00:30

“Enlarge the space of your Tent” is the title of a document published by Catholic bishops’ conferences all over the world summarising the progress of the global synod initiated by Pope Francis in 2021. The synod itself is a response to Pope Francis’s call for a listening project for the entire Catholic Church. Globally, participation exceeded all expectations. It orientates the Church to the frequent call of Pope Francis to be a Church in service to humanity.

It sets out radical challenges to reform the teaching office and structures of the Catholic Church. It will be welcomed by individuals and groups which have advocated for a renewal in how the Church relates the Gospel to the world, especially in relation to women’s participation.

The submissions express a deep and energetic desire for renewed forms of leadership – priestly, episcopal, religious and lay – that are relational and collaborative. The continuation of the synodal process for the future of communal discernment requires radical changes including a process of structural renewal in Canon Law as well as challenges to the Roman Curia.

In March 2021, Pope Francis announced his plans for a synod derived from the Vatican II concept of “synodality”. The word comes from the Greek words for “together” and “way” or “journey”. Francis’s intention is clear: “Let us not soundproof our hearts, let us not remain barricaded in our certainties. Certainties often close us off. Let us listen to one another.”

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Such a process is in keeping with the Vatican II concept of a “pilgrim Church”, a continuing journey with the understanding that God has not stopped speaking to all of humanity.

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The striking, indeed surprising, consistency between the views of participants from different Catholic cultures is reflected in numerous quotations from the participating assemblies, liberally sprinkled throughout the document.

This is further evidence of consensus on the issues: the role of women, LGBTQ+ relationships, sexual abuse, sexist language, the need for structural change, and sacramental deprivation (a clear comment on exclusion of the Eucharist from practising Catholics who find themselves in new relationships). The document is clearly uncomfortable with this exclusion, making reception of the Eucharist a source of division.

Fears that local bishops’ conferences would edit or reframe these issues have proven unfounded. The document picks up the engagement with the world initiated by Vatican II and reflects the views of the secretary general of the synod of bishops, Cardinal Mario Grech, who has stated that discussion cannot be limited but must include pastoral considerations: “Let us trust in our people, let us trust that the Holy Spirit acts in and with our people. And this Spirit is not merely a property of the ecclesial hierarchy.”

Almost all submissions raise the full and equal participation of women. On the ordination of women, they honestly reflect diverse views, but there is no resistance to the need to open the question.

“In a Church where almost all decision-makers are men, there are few spaces where women can make their voices heard. Yet they are the backbone of the Church communities, both because they represent most of the practising members and because they are among the most active members of the Church.” (Korean submission)

The Petrine principle sees only men destined for sacramental ministry and the consequent exercise of authority

“This lack of equality for women within the Church is seen as a stumbling block for the Church in the modern world.” – (New Zealand submission).

In contrast to the document’s reflection of the “sensus fidelium” (the understanding of all the baptised), Pope Francis, in an interview last November given to Jesuit magazine America, falls back on weak justification for denying women’s ordination – the Petrine principle and the Marian principle.

The Petrine principle sees only men destined for sacramental ministry and the consequent exercise of authority, with women who, according to the Marian principle, are assigned to the charism of love.

Marinella Perroni, a retired professor of biblical theology commenting on the interview, says this binary Petrine principle is “seductive” because it is simple. However, it has lost all credibility because it is based on stereotypes. Francis, who wants to hear all voices, continues to be trapped in an outdated, androcentric and patriarchal bipolarity, long since discounted in academic discourse.

Francis’s stating that the Church needs “a theology of women” will be cold comfort to women who feel called to ordination to a Church that survives with the active support of women’s ministry.

Pope Francis delivers a blessing as he attends a weekly general audience in the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican this week. Photograph: Alessandra Tarantino/AP/PA
Pope Francis delivers a blessing as he attends a weekly general audience in the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican this week. Photograph: Alessandra Tarantino/AP/PA

A word that occurs frequently in this Continental Report is “inclusivity”, or in places, it says “radical inclusivity”. This is a concept which is in complete contradiction to the views of many who would like to reduce the community to the doctrinally orthodox. The document is clear: the Spirit speaks to and is present in many diverse ways and needs to be heeded by all, as seen in the quotation from the Prophet Isaiah in the title “Enlarge the space of your tent”, which continues: “Spread out your tent cloths unsparingly, lengthen your ropes and make firm your pegs.” (Isaiah 54)

In this space, the diversity of all humanity is made welcome. This image of the tent is a space of participation, expressed in the document as “radical inclusion”. The image of the tent, capable of sheltering all, but open, letting in and out, keeping in balance the different forces and tensions to which it is subjected, is elaborated: it needs to be strong, sturdy, an expansive but not homogenous dwelling.

The process continues: “This is the end of Stage 2: Stage 3 begins in March 2023 with a further response from all the local churches to this document. The next stage is the first synod of bishops in October 2023, in Rome, followed by a second synod of bishops in October 2024,” also in Rome.

Many will hope, in keeping with the open listening process to date, that other voices will also be present at such assemblies.

The full document can be accessed at: https://www.synod.va/content/dam/synod/common/phases/continental-stage/dcs/Documento-Tappa-Continentale-EN.pdf

Gina Menzies studied moral theology at the Milltown Institute in Dublin and is a lecturer in bioethics