Stay or Go

Brexit has fascinated me since a small majority of the British population decided to leave the European Union, without knowing really what it meant or how it would happen. Do the voters want to have a do-over: to vote again, with more knowledge?

BBC radio was where I first heard about the resignations of Lucetta Scaraffia and other staff of Women Church World, a monthly supplement to the Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano.

“We are throwing in the towel because we feel surrounded by a climate of distrust and progressive de-legitimisation,” said Ms Scaraffia, in a letter addressed to Pope Francis. She said later that there were 11 women on the magazine and they had all quit.

Does this not get your attention? Legitimacy is the issue when women report their truth and the truth of their sisters.

Literally, their sisters. Women religious. Colleen Dulle of America has the most in-depth reporting about what she thinks has gotten under the skin of Vatican insiders, based on an interview with Scaraffia in February, before the letter to the Pope. Women Church World reported extensively on the exploitive working conditions of nuns in the Vatican and around the world that are worthy of #MeToo, #CatholicToo, #ChurchToo. Sisters who are deeply frustrated by expectations of “unconditional obedience.” The manipulation of financial resources both to keep communities poor and to bind sisters because financial assistance is provided to their families. Then they published “A Manifesto for Women in the Church.”

The sin of this abuse bothered Pope Francis enough to speak out, as reported by Jason Horowitz in The New York Times in a coupe of articles that trace many prior incidents.

“It’s true,” Francis said. “There are priests and bishops who have done that.”

Whether this is only an off-the cuff airplane remark is the crucial question.

It is clearly not enough for Scaraffia and her crew:

“It is a return to clerical self-referentiality and renounces the parrhesia so often called for by Pope Francis,” she states, using a Greek term for speaking without fear. “Consequently, we can only declare our work concluded, interrupted abruptly even though there are still ongoing projects.”

I love that Scaraffia throws out the kind of theological term so often thrown out by those trying to intimidate. Most of the photos show this professor surrounded by books. These women are not to be trivialized.

And they decided to quit and make that quitting public. I enjoy reading the various responses of the editor, just appointed in December amidst roiling Vatican press office resignations. I see Andrea Monda as a man trying to defend taking over without admitting it, being flummoxed by women who don’t stay. He’s not attempting to control – just taking over the editorial role. He’s not selecting more compliant writers – just making some suggestions.

Now it’s up to the Pope.

Maybe by the time this blog appears he will have requested a meeting with Scaraffia and all those who resigned, as he finally met with Juan Carlos Cruz and other Chilean survivors of sex abuse to get their point of view.

Maybe he’ll realize that the problem of women who quit working in a corrupt system is not their problem; it’s the church’s problem.

Right now, women in France are organizing a petition. Women in Germany are calling for a strike. And just like Brexit, getting everyone to understand the complexity of the issue starts with getting the people at the top to understand what’s going on.