OFFICIAL ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF TEXT AND REMARKS
Turning then to your more specific task, in my Letter addressed to the new Prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, I emphasized that today “we need a way of thinking that knows how to convincingly present a God who loves, who forgives, who saves, who liberates, who promotes people and summons them to fraternal service” (1 July 2023). You are required to address this need in a qualified manner, through the proposal of an evangelizing theology, which promotes dialogue with the world of culture. And it is essential that you theologians do this in tune with the People of God, I would say “from below”, that is, with a privileged gaze for the poor and the simple, and at the same time “on your knees”, because theology is born kneeling, in adoration of God.
But there is something about you that I do not like; pardon my sincerity. One, two, three, four women: poor women! They are alone! Ah, excuse me, five. We must advance in this.
The Church is woman. And if we do not know what a woman is, what the theology of a woman is, we will never understand what the Church is. One of the great sins we have had is to “masculinize” the Church. And this is not solved by the ministerial path; that is something else. It is resolved in the mystical way, the real way. Balthasar’s thought has brought me so much light: Petrine principle and Marian principle. This can be debated, but the two principles are there. The Marian is more important than the Petrine, because there is the bride Church, the woman Church, without being masculine.
He explicitly says that demasculinizing the Church is not solved by admitting women to ministry! His mystical way is in fact just another version of masculine/feminine cultural polarity made popular by a theologian Balthazar, which has influenced JP2 and B16.
Personally, I do not think that imagining ourselves as brides of Christ, whether we are men or women is very helpful. A young woman religious at ND said that while she often imagined herself as the bride of Christ, she wondered how men could. I responded that I usually do not think of Jesus as either Lord, King, or Spouse but as my Teacher and Friend.
Of course, I think that women could also see Him as Teacher and Friend. We might also see Jesus as our Brother, and each other as Children of God. I think this is the practical way forward if we wish to have a less masculine Church. In today's culture we can imagine both women and men as teachers, friends, and siblings while Lords and Kings are male. The spousal imagery which is present in both Old and New Testaments is simply confusing. The spouse of the Old Testament was simply another version of a Lord and King.
The International Theological Commission is part of the Roman Curia and advises the Vatican doctrinal department on theological issues. The pope appoints its members, and women have been allowed to become members since 2004.
I get the impression that most cradle Catholics were catechized by nuns and lay women; that women do the vast bulk of decorating, cleaning, and food prep in the parish; that women are the backbone of music efforts; etc etc.
ReplyDeleteSo the Church has plenty of demasculization (terrible word choice that is far too similar to emasculation) at the lay level under the tyranny of the Church Ladies.
Francis is, of course, talking about bringing women into the theological arena and policy making, not just making bologna sandwiches on white bread for funerals and dictating First Communion dress codes to nervous mothers.
But given the women I see who are most eager to boss everybody around at the local level, I cannot get excited about more of the same running committees in Rome and helping clergy understand "what a woman is."
We men have alone shouldered the burden of messing up things long enough. It's about time we share that task with the women.
DeleteI am not sure Pope Francis is talking about giving women actual power on par with bishops and cardinals, just giving them advisory positions within whatever shakes out of the synodality movement he's trying to get off the ground.
DeleteBut women will certainly mess things up as well as men in whatever roles they're given. Original Sin extends to us all.
Jean, I agree with you that demasculization is too close to emasculization; at least that is the way some people are going to see it. Of course it is a translation from either Spanish or Italian; not sure if it would sound different in those languages? Some people are awfully tetchy that we are devaluing men in our society (though I think that concern is overblown).
DeleteYes, women are quite as capable as men of screwing things up.
Given my last 13 weeks or so of nonstop presence in 3 hospitals I can say this - lots of male nurses. Some are great, some not, but in general we’ve liked more of the male nurses than the female. Lots and lots of female doctors - maybe more than the male docs. Same story - some better than others. But studies have indicated that women docs listen to their patients more than male docs.
DeleteIf the medical and legal professions, among others, have survived with women as equals who don’t emasculate their male colleagues, the RCC should be able to pull it off too.
Women won’t be equal until they are allowed to screw things up just like men do
Thé majority of te staff. - medical and support - were minorities - we might not have many doctors if immigrants were shut out. The majority of the students at UCLA are Asian Americans. The hospital is part of the campus.
DeleteI don't find female docs and nurses more or less likely to listen to me or hand out warm fuzzies than men. I get the best results as a patient, regardless of gender and ethnicity of staff, if I keep questions down the three biggest concerns, don't go into a long history about whatever ails me, and stay emotionally detached. It's always nice if they have a sense of humor appropriate to the situation. I figure if they're joking, I'm not too bad off.
DeleteI have to admit that I did a double take when I read the name Hanna-Barbara Gerl-Falkovitz in Jack's post. It brought to mind Hanna Barbera, the producers best known for classic cartoons such as Yogi Bear and The Flintstones.
ReplyDeleteI agree that "demasculinize" the Church was a bad choice of words for the pope's theological project.
ReplyDeleteFor me, the best word is to "de-clericalize" the Church. Theology needs to be done for the benefit of all of the people of God rather than of the clergy.
In terms of clergy I am taking about a much larger group of people including women religious and the church ladies whom male clergy have empowered.
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DeleteThis episode reminds me that there is the Francis who says things more or less off-the-cuff to journalists, which sometimes triggers headlines and much excited discussion and argument, as when he famously said, about gay Catholics, "Who am I to judge?"
ReplyDeleteAnd then there is the Francis who writes (or directs to have written on his behalf long and dense documents, usually on other topics than his off-the-cuff remarks.
"Who am I to judge?" is the former. Climate change is the latter. Without wishing to disparage his off-the-cuff remarks, and without suggesting that they are anything but sincere, I have to think that the ideas and reforms he is most committed to are the ones to which he has committed time, energy and barrels of ink. I think he's really, really committed to combatting climate change, and to synodality. I think he sincerely thinks women have been subordinated and snubbed in theology and more generally in the church, but at least so far, he hasn't so strongly committed himself to the set of issues that he's pursued any reforms.
I think Francis "off the cuff remarks" are the real Francis and are having great effects upon many Catholics but not much effects upon the clerical establishment. I personally am much more likely to speak positively of gay people and negatively about clericalism since Francis. I don't think that will change when he is no longer Pope.
ReplyDeleteWhile his writings on climate change and synodality have been extensive, I am not sure they are changing the minds and hearts of that many people. I am not sure the next Pope will have these priorities.
Jack, re: "the real Francis" - yes, they reveal the real man - the real person.
DeleteRegarding the clerical establishment: there is a lot of clerical resistance to Francis - really, an astonishing amount. I wish people could me more open-hearted and open-minded about the reforms he is trying to bring about.
I think the next generation of Catholic scholars, leaders and clergy, rather than the generation currently in the chancery, the classroom and the NGOs, are the ones who will have immersed themselves in Francis's thought and help bring it to fruition.
I see Colleen Dulle at America has written a news analysis piece on this topic.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2023/12/07/pope-francis-demasculizing-church-women-246661?utm_source=piano&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2928&pnespid=6bw3EH5WLv4b1fDfpyntA42VvRn_BYR_JrinkLEz9gRm3L_K3wPSW84cRdsoK8nHpEeVNHFp