In a frank assessment of the complex role of women in the Catholic Church and its leadership, a Vatican study group called for broader access to positions of authority for Catholic women worldwide and for the church to confront what it described as persistent patterns of clericalism and “machismo.”
The unsparing analysis, rare for a Vatican document, came from a study group created as part of the Synod of Bishops on synodality tasked with examining women’s participation in the life and leadership of the church. Its final report was published March 10.
The church must move beyond a view of women limited to certain characteristics “such as motherhood, tenderness or care” that can “leave little room for other equally important feminine qualities, such as leadership, counsel, the capacity for teaching, listening and discernment,” the report said
“An obsession with ensuring that everything becomes structure, rule, rite, or norm is not faithful to the free dynamism of the Spirit.”
The group, established by Pope Francis and whose work was carried out by the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, said the church must grapple honestly with cultural and institutional obstacles that continue to affect women’s participation in ecclesial life.
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With thanks to the National Catholic Reporter (NCR) and Justin McLellan, where this article originally appeared.
