The People Speak Out

Local voices connecting globally

This is important: to get to know people, listen, expand the circle of ideas. The world is crisscrossed by roads that come closer together and move apart, but the important thing is that they lead towards the Good.  (Pope Francis)

Canon Law 212 calls upon the laity to speak up:

2 - The Christian faithful are free to make known to the pastors of the Church their needs, especially spiritual ones, and their desires.

§3. - According to the knowledge, competence, and prestige which they possess, they have the right and even at times the duty to manifest to the sacred pastors their opinion on matters which pertain to the good of the Church and to make their opinion known to the rest of the Christian faithful, without prejudice to the integrity of faith and morals, with reverence toward their pastors, and attentive to common advantage and the dignity of persons.

Women in the Church articles

Down the ages men have been perceived to be the sole recipients and transmitters of divine messages. Women on the other hand, have been socialized by patriarchal religious structures and practices to passively accept religious teachings as interpreted by men.

These androcentric and patriarchal interpretations have defined and shaped the social and cultural contexts of women resulting in their disempowerment and second class status.  

The key of women’s involvement with religion is hidden in women’s bodies. Women in fundamental ways are locked in their bodies, and their exercise of power is at the pleasure of men, whether in the family or in the religious sphere. Thus, religion is not just about spirituality, beliefs and practices alone, but it is also political. These political practices however, belong to structures of the mind that are not inviolable. They can be broken by recovering the spiritual and humane. It is on this recovery that women’s survival and unfolding as humans hangs. (Extract from Statement of National Consultation, Hyderabad, 2016)

What is your experience of the Roman Catholic Church’s treatment of women?

I have been a woman religious for 55 years. During that time, with a few exceptions, the insights, gifts and prophetic voice of women have not been recognized, valued or affirmed. In contrast, a culture of paternalism, dismissal and suspicion has prevailed. I urge the Holy Father and the Synod to address this injustice and to begin to right it by opening the deaconate to women.

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Dr Trish Hindmarsh says:

 

Women are not treated with equal dignity by the Catholic Church because they are deemed unfitted for priesthood, high office and decision-making, SIMPLY ON THE GROUNDS OF THEIR GENDER. How can the Church expect to be taken seriously when it continues to officially endorse exclusion of women in this way? It prevents the Church from being a shining light of truth and justice to give hope to all those women still being brutalised, abused and ignored in many cultural settings across the world. We as Catholic Church should show the way in this, fully open to women’s vocations to serve, and not be lagging behind; Jesus would not want this.

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To say that we are created in the image and likeness of God, in a physical way, is a gross insult to the Almighty. Get over this antiquated idea, and you will have more equality between the sexes.

The clergy does not have to be a men’s club! We should not concede so much power to them by allowing them to exclude us. I look to the church in the USA to put pressure on the Synod to get real about birth control and other matters for the good of the Earth, our only home, as Francis has put it. I still have hope that he will realize this connection more fully and tell it like it is.

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I am a U.S. Catholic Sister who lived through the recent episode of “investigations” by the Vatican offices.
There is no way I would want to be an ordained clergy person and join the “men’s club” ! It’s a huge problem to me that “ordination” is tied to governance and decision-making. Just look at all the celibate male red hats doing all the decision-making for married people at the Synod on the Family ! What’s wrong with this picture? Way too much “power” is tied to ordination. It’s not the way of Jesus Christ.

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