Pope Francis has said he suffers when he sees women in a role of servitude in Church organisations, instead of the servanthood to which all Christians are called.
“I suffer — speaking truthfully! — when I see in the Church or in some ecclesial organisations that the role of service that we all have, and that we must have — but that the role of service of the woman slips into a role of ‘servidumbre’ [servitude in Spanish],” he said.
“I see women that do things out of ‘servitude’ and not out of service. And that it is not understood well what a woman ought to do.
“Can she be valued more? It is a reality that is close to my heart,” he said.
Pope Francis made his comments when he departed from his prepared address to about 100 women from 24 countries in a seminar marking the 25th anniversary of Pope John Paul II’s apostolic letter On the Dignity and Vocation of Women.
“Let us move this forward together!” the Pope told the women. “May most holy Mary — a great woman, eh? — the Mother of Jesus and of all God’s children, accompany us.”
Pope Francis said it pleased him to think that “the Church is not ‘il Chiesa’ [‘the Church’, masculine]: it is ‘la Chiesa’ [feminine].
“The Church is a woman! The Church is a mother! And that’s beautiful, eh? We have to think deeply about this.”
The Pope also warned of “two extreme opposites that degrade woman and her vocation”.
“The first is to reduce motherhood to a social role, to a task, however noble, but in fact sets apart woman with her potential, not fully valuing her in the construction of the community,” he said.
The second is that of “promoting a type of emancipation that, in order to occupy the space stolen by the masculine, abandons the feminine with its priceless elements”.
The Pope said women can help provide better insight into the nature of God.
“Woman has a particular sensibility for the ‘things of God’, above all in helping us to understand the mercy, the tenderness, and the love that God has for us,” he said.
Sources:
Pontifical Council for the Laity
Image: Catholic World Report