By Carol Glatz
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – In response to current scandals, clericalism and the need for reform, Catholic women must take the initiative and make their voices be heard, according to a series of articles in a Vatican magazine.
The October edition of Women Church World, published Oct. 1 in conjunction with the Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, dedicated its monthly issue to “Women Confronting the Crisis of the Church.”
“We wanted to give voice to a critical reflection from the point of view of women,” Lucetta Scaraffia, the magazine’s director, wrote in the opening editorial.
The first article, titled “Holy Rage,” was a Q&A with Sister Veronique Margron, a moral theologian who works with abuse victims, is president of the Conference of Religious in France. She said one major factor behind the “omerta” or culture of silence in the Church lies in the image the Church often has of itself as being a family, which, when it comes to incidences of sexual abuse, “has disastrous consequences.”
The image of a family is meant to describe the beauty of reciprocal care and love for each member, she said. However, just like when abuse is experienced in a family, that abuse is rarely talked about and finds support in sayings that warn against “airing your dirty linen in public.”
Virtue of Courage
Just being angry or upset about abuse is not enough, she said. “Courage is a virtue” and is needed to get people to do something about what they hear and know. “A holy rage is needed,” she said.
Sister Margron spoke about the problem of abuse of power and conscience, which affects men and women equally. A kind of “incestuous environment” can affect a religious community, she said; it distorts and abuses the vow of obedience as one person puts another under his or her control.
Scaraffia, a historian, wrote in the article “Feminism and Clericalism” that women have to be given more leadership roles if their voices are ever to be heard.
“It is true that women, even the most obedient, do not truly feel part of the Church, but at most (they feel like) obedient daughters,” she wrote.
If they did feel they were a welcome part, then they would fight no matter what their role “with all the weapons they possess, which are not trivial things,” for the Church to follow Christ’s teachings.
French biblical scholar Anne-Marie Pelletier, who won the Ratzinger Prize for her contributions to theology, advocates for a church guided by the “two voices.” In 2017 Pope Francis chose her to write the Way of the Cross meditations.
The Church needs two voices, male and female, if the Church is to “rediscover a truly evangelical intelligence of power as service” and for change to really happen, she wrote.
