Amazon Action

I seem to be compiling a daisy chain of blogs. “Last week I wrote about” was the way I began the last one, and the way I am going to begin today. That’s because I want to focus again on the Amazon Synod.

Last week I wrote about the implications for all women of the needs identified in the Amazon for the Eucharist. This week I want to write about the implications for the church of having synods in which women do not vote. Even religious women – nuns and sisters.

The Women’s Ordination Conference has resumed the “VOTES FOR CATHOLIC WOMEN” campaign, and FutureChurch has joined in via Twitter.

I have gotten over the fact that 185 men and no women will vote. But I cannot get over this, from WOC’s email:

1 non-ordained, religious brother is allowed to vote. 

0 non-ordained, religious sisters are allowed to vote. 

Women who have the same ecclesial status as non-ordained men are excluded again. 

Two women religious were named as part of the pre-synodal council, orchestrating the agenda and the working document alongside 16 ordained men. All 16 ordained men on this list are voting members of the Synod. The two women religious are not, but are listed as auditors. (One lay man was also part of the pre-synodal council list, who is also named as an auditor.) 

So if you feel that this is not the way to insure a valid Synod, WOC asks you to contact:

the synod office and the secretary general of the Synod, Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, to demand the synod’s agenda is amended so that women’s full voting rights is the first topic of discussion when it opens for business on October 7th. You can copy and paste a letter to Cardinal Baldisseri from here. 

Segreteria Generale del Sinodo dei Vescovi

Via della Conciliazione 34

00120 Città del Vaticano

Tel. (+39) 06 698 84821 / 84324

Fax (+39) 06 698 83392

Email:  synodus@synod.va

Twitter: @synod_va

OK? You can make it as short as you want. Just do it. VOTES FOR CATHOLIC WOMEN!

I looked at all the articles, including an especially pointed one by Phyllis Zagano in NCR, “Women walking together away from Church.” If you want an argument from history about the equal status of leaders of men and women’s orders, look it up. You can include her examples in your letter.

I, instead, went to the list of attendees. I realize that I am looking at a list in Italian with lots of status abbreviations and categories that I can only guess at. But, fearless, I have compiled a list of thirty-three women, 20 of them religious sisters, participating officially in some way in the synod. ALL, I repeat, ALL, are from Latin America or working there, I assume as I note Medical Mission Sister Birgit Weiler.  Who better to decide on what is needed in the Amazon than these women on the ground, the sacred, threatened ground?

Many men, most ordained, are also from the Amazon countries, but a fair number are listed as Vatican City or Italy. The Curia inserts itself. They are not on the sacred ground.

I’ll conclude with another zinger from John O’Loughlin Kennedy in the fourth installment of his series:

Pope Francis’ reminder that “there is no place for selfishness in the Church” will be well tested if a Synod composed almost exclusively of ordained professional priests is to give back to the faithful the capacities and responsibilities implicit in St Paul’s description of the “priestly people.”

We will be waiting and watching. I expect many remarkable Amazon women to be all over the Catholic press – and maybe at least two of them will have a vote, thanks to you.