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Pope Francis’ Preface to the book: “Women and Ministries in the Synodal Church”
Published by the Pauline Sisters (Milan 2024, 104 pages, 12 euros),
The book follows the previous “Smasculizing the Church” and opens with the preface — which we publish below — signed by the Pontiff. The Pope’s preface to a volume on the theme developed during recent C9 sessions
“Women and Ministries in the Synodal Church” is the book with five signatures that is proposed, according to the subtitle, as “an open dialogue” between the authors themselves, who are three theologians and two cardinals:
Sister Linda Pocher, of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, professor of Christology and Mariology at the Pontifical Faculty of Educational Sciences Auxilium in Rome, who also signs the introduction;
Jo B. Wells, Bishop of the Church of England and Under-Secretary General of the Anglican Communion; and
Giuliva Di Berardino, consecrated of the Ordo Virginum of the diocese of Verona, liturgist, teacher and head of spirituality courses and spiritual exercises;
and cardinals Jean-Claude Hollerich, Jesuit, archbishop of Luxembourg and relator general of the XVI Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, and
Seán Patrick O’Malley, Capuchin, archbishop of Boston and president of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors.
The texts collected are the result of the meeting on 5 February between Pope Francis, the Council of Cardinals (C9) and the three theologians.
Published by the Pauline Sisters (Milan 2024, 104 pages, 12 euros), the book follows the previous “Smasculizing the Church” and opens with the preface — which we publish below — signed by the Pontiff.
The following is Pope Francis’s Preface to the Book
The Reality is more important than The Idea: this is one of the principles that have guided my reflection and discernment over the years and that I wished to entrust to the reflection and discernment of ecclesial communities at the beginning of my pontificate (Evangelii Gaudium 231-232).
I am pleased to note that the programme proposed by Sister Linda Pocher for the formation of the Council of Cardinals on the theme of Women in the Church is guided by this same principle, even with regard to a theme as important and delicate as that of ministries in the ecclesial community.
Christian thought, in its theological, juridical, magisterial and cultural dimensions, in its legitimate effort to transcend the contingency of the present, can never be completely estranged from the context in which it is formulated.
Throughout the modern era, which has been particularly marked by the fascination with “clear and distinct” ideas, the Church too has sometimes fallen into the trap of considering fidelity to ideas more important than attention to reality.
Reality, however, is always greater than the idea,
and
When our theology falls into the trap of clear and distinct ideas it inevitably turns into a Procrustean bed, which sacrifices reality, or part of it, on the altar of the idea. (Editors Note: A Procustrean bed involves forcing someone or something to fit into an unnatural scheme or pattern).
A certain suffering of ecclesial communities regarding the way in which ministry is understood and lived is not a new reality.
The drama of abuse has forced us to open our eyes to the scourge of clericalism, which does not only affect ordained ministers, but is a distorted way of exercising power within the Church into which anyone can fall: even the laity, even women.
Listening to the sufferings and joys of women is certainly a way of opening up to reality.
Listening to them without judgment and without prejudice, we realize that in many places and in many situations they suffer precisely because of the lack of recognition of what they are and what they do and also of what they could do and be if only they had the space and the opportunity.
The women who suffer the most are often those closest to them, those who are most ready, willing and able to serve God and his Kingdom.
This small volume, which collects the provocations that three women offered to the Council of Cardinals regarding the ministry and ministries in the Church, has the merit of starting not from the idea, but from listening to reality, from the sapiential interpretation of the experience of women in the Church.
And the synodal process, as a process of discernment, starts from reality and experience, in open dialogue and creative fidelity with the great tradition that has preceded us and accompanies us.
I want to entrust the ongoing discernment on the theme of ministry and ministries in the synodal Church to the intercession of the saints who have seen, heard, and touched with their hands the way of service of Jesus and who have formed with him the ecclesial body in its original configuration:
Mary, Peter, John, Magdalene, to name but a few, together with their companions whose stories and names we know, and to many other anonymous disciples and missionaries of the Gospel, so that they may help us to be faithful and creative interpreters of the Lord’s intentions.
Vatican City, 25 March 2024
