The role of women in a Synodal Church – Building the Civilisation of Love

The following is an extract from CCSJ’s Consultant, Leela Ramdeen’s presentation as the feature speaker at the Growing in Grace Women’s Ministry’s Annual Women’s Conference 2023, November 26, on the theme: Embracing our Dignity, Vocation, and Mission in the World Today. The entire presentation can be viewed here 

Love of God and neighbour requires us to promote the…dignity of each person, including each woman, each of whom is made in the image and likeness of God; each with gifts which he/she must use to build the common good and the civilisation of love.

Our Scriptures tell us that many women were dedicated followers of Jesus during His ministry. Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Susanna, and Salome had accompanied Jesus during His ministry and supported Him out of their private means. He was friends with Martha and Mary also.

Women were the first to discover the Resurrection of Jesus and played an active role in spreading the Christian faith. So, from the very beginning, women have been involved in the mission of the Church.

In 2015, I was invited by Cardinal Peter Turkson,  then President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace (PCJP) to attend an International Conference at the Vatican (from May 21 – 24) entitled: ‘Women and the post-2015 development agenda – The challenges of the Sustainable Development Goals’.

The World Union of Catholic Women’s Organisations (WUCWO) and the World Women’s Alliance for Life and Family (WWALF) partnered with Cardinal Turkson and his team (PCJP) to organise the Conference. This followed two Conferences organised by the PCJP in 2005 and 2009.

I had represented our Archdiocese at those Conferences which were entitled: 1. ‘Women, Development and Peace’, and 2. ‘Life, family, and development: the role of women in the promotion of human rights’. I share this to highlight the fact that issues relating to the role of women in our Church continue to be of importance.

Pope Francis often talks about the “service” of women and the feminine genius. In 2015, he said women can be appointed heads of some offices of the Roman Curia, but that will not be enough to recover the role women should have in the Catholic Church.

Women should be promoted but assigning a certain number of women to leadership positions “is simply functionalism”. What is important is to ensure that women have a voice and are listened to, he said, because the Church needs their specific contributions… “the feminine genius is needed in all expressions in the life of society… and in the Church”. And we must not only focus on the contribution of laywomen.

In May 2016, he met with the International Union of Superiors General – over 800 Superiors of women’s religious institutes of apostolic life from 80 countries. There are more than half a million consecrated women throughout the world. The meeting focused on the role of women in the life of the Church, also considering the obstacles they continue to face; the role played by consecrated women and by the International Union of Superiors General (UISG) in the life of the Church.

He has said that “women see things with an originality different to that of men; and this is enriching, in consultation, and decision-making, and in practice.”

In an audience in Rome last April (2022), Pope Francis stated that women’s voices “must have real weight and recognized authority in society and in the church.”

And in his apostolic exhortation The Joy of the Gospel (Evangelii Gaudium) he said that “we need to create still broader opportunities for a more incisive female presence in the Church”.

In a podcast ‘Pope Francis’ beautiful affirmation of the Feminine Genius’, he said: “… the ‘genius of woman’ is seen in feminine styles of holiness, which are an essential means of reflecting God’s holiness in this world. Indeed, in times when women tended to be most ignored or overlooked, the Holy Spirit raised up saints whose attractiveness produced new spiritual vigour and important reforms in the Church. We can mention Saint Hildegard of Bingen, Saint Bridget, Saint Catherine of Siena, Saint Teresa of Avila, and Saint Thérèse of Lisieux. But I think too of all those unknown or forgotten women who, each in her own way, sustained and transformed families and communities by the power of their witness.”

In the podcast, Pope Francis not only affirms the writings on Saint Pope John Paul II on the feminine genius, but encourages women specifically in their specific, feminine style of holiness. He calls this feminine holiness essential to reflecting the goodness and love of God into today’s culture. Precisely in the moments of history where women were overlooked, the Catholic Church saw the rise of incredible women saints. But holiness is not just for these amazing women, it’s for us, too. Pope Francis affirms that each woman, in her own, unique way, is called to transform today’s world with a beautiful life of holiness.

Archbishop Jason, representing the Antilles Episcopal Conference of Bishops in our Region, attended the 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, which took place at the Vatican October 4–29, 2023 on the theme For a Synodal Church: Communion, Participation, Mission.

Over 450 bishops, priests, women religious and lay Catholics gathered for this first sitting of the Synod on Synodality: 363 people were able to vote; 82 women participated in the Synod. As the National Catholic Register said: ” In an historical first, 54 of them had the right to vote.”

The second sitting will take place in October 2024.