This afternoon, during the final session for today of the Meeting concerning The Protection of Minors in the Church, the Holy Father, Pope Francis spoke in the Hall after having listened to the report presented by Doctor Linda Ghisoni, Under-secretary for the Section for the lay faithful of the Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life and following her response to one of the questions raised during the Meeting.
While listening to Doctor Ghisoni, I felt the Church speaking about herself. That is to say that we all spoke about the Church. In all the interventions. But this time there was the Church herself speaking. This is not merely a question of style: the female genius that is reflected in the Church who is a woman.
To invite a woman to speak is not to enter the mode of an ecclesiastical feminism, because in the end every feminism ends up being a machismo with a skirt. No. Inviting a woman to speak about the wounds of the Church is to invite the Church to speak about herself, about the wounds she bears. And this I think is the step that we must take very strongly: the woman is the image of the Church that is a woman, she is a bride, she is a mother. A style. Without this style we would speak of the people of God but as an organization, perhaps a trade union, but not as a family born of the Mother Church.
The logic of Doctor Ghisoni's thoughts was just that of a mother, and they ended with the story of what happens when a woman gives birth to a child. It is the female mystery of the Church that is bride and mother. It is not about giving more functions to the woman in the Church - yes, this is good, but this does not solve the problem - it is about integrating woman as a figure of the Church in our thinking. And thinking also of the Church with the categories of a woman. Thank you for your testimony.
Unscripted remarks of the Holy Father, Pope Francis
While listening to Doctor Ghisoni, I felt the Church speaking about herself. That is to say that we all spoke about the Church. In all the interventions. But this time there was the Church herself speaking. This is not merely a question of style: the female genius that is reflected in the Church who is a woman.
To invite a woman to speak is not to enter the mode of an ecclesiastical feminism, because in the end every feminism ends up being a machismo with a skirt. No. Inviting a woman to speak about the wounds of the Church is to invite the Church to speak about herself, about the wounds she bears. And this I think is the step that we must take very strongly: the woman is the image of the Church that is a woman, she is a bride, she is a mother. A style. Without this style we would speak of the people of God but as an organization, perhaps a trade union, but not as a family born of the Mother Church.
The logic of Doctor Ghisoni's thoughts was just that of a mother, and they ended with the story of what happens when a woman gives birth to a child. It is the female mystery of the Church that is bride and mother. It is not about giving more functions to the woman in the Church - yes, this is good, but this does not solve the problem - it is about integrating woman as a figure of the Church in our thinking. And thinking also of the Church with the categories of a woman. Thank you for your testimony.
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