Gossip

Remember when Pope Francis warned us not to gossip? “Gossip is war. Poor Holy Spirit! (Imagine) the work He [sic] has with us with our habit of gossiping!”

That was in 2020, and a not-infrequent complaint from Francis in his first years as Pope. He’s not bringing it up so often now. I wonder if that’s because he’s too busy accomplishing his agenda.

Case in point: this week, I got an alert about an article in one of my least favorite sources: National Catholic Register, the news operation of the late Mother Angelica. Don’t rush to look up Sister Nicoletta Vittoria Spezzati and Sister Mary Melone unless you want to know more about the latter, who is on the new deacon commission. I wondered to myself whether conservatives were putting these hats, or veils, in the ring.

Within a day, I had a press release from WOC, welcoming the three women actually appointed to the dicastery that recommends bishops:

Sr. Raffaella Petrini, F.S.E., Sr. Yvonne Reungoat, F.M.A., and Dr. Maria Lia Zervino

So much for gossip. WOC’s release was picked up by many news sites like the Daily Mail, which examined the social media response as well as the irony WOC identified: women choosing men for a role not open to women.

Gerald O’Connell in America explains the dicastery: “These three highly qualified and dynamic women will join some 30 cardinals and bishops for regular meetings at the Vatican, roughly every two weeks, to select, vote upon and present to the pope the names of the persons they consider as the most suitable candidates to be bishops in Europe, North and South America, Oceania and several countries in Asia.”

I am especially enthusiastic about Maria Lia Zervino, though I was uncertain when I first read La Croix International’s characterization of her as “a member of the Association of Consecrated Virgins ‘Servidoras.’” The Daily Mail says “laywoman,” and both identify her as a consultant to the Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue. Apparently “servidoras” means “women servants” in Spanish; there are many orders with that name which I did not pursue. Because…

Christopher White in NCR quotes from an open letter Zervino published in March 2021. I like different quotes from her letter because she presents a much more activist sensibility than White suggests. She is president of the World Union of Catholic Women’s Organizations.

Zervino begins by reminding Francis that she’s also Argentinian, saying “he ‘put all the meat on the grill’ (he gave everything he has).” For a long time, I have felt that Francis shows sympathy and understanding of LGBT+ issues because he knows gay men as members of the Jesuits. Until recently, he has not given evidence of a similar understanding of women’s potential, and what I have wished for is that he would know women who would be his equals and his friends, in his inner circles. Maybe Zervino fills that bill; O’Connell notes that “Francis has known her since he was archbishop of Buenos Aires.”

Zervino summarizes Francis’s writings and accomplishments, including healing “the violations of the dignity of women” and ending with “Thank you above all for trying to give the Church the feminine face that identifies her for her tenderness, closeness and mercy.” While she may be essentializing, she is placing in the language of women the power shift Francis wants to make by reducing clericalism. She dismisses the theology of women “already…with multiple elaborations.” Instead, she’s inspired by “brave” Mary Magdalene to be much more practical:

I dream of a Church that has suitable women as judges in all courts in which matrimonial cases are dealt with, in the formation teams of each seminary and for the exercise of ministries such as listening, spiritual direction, pastoral health care, care for the planet, defense of human rights, etc. For which, by our nature, women are equally or sometimes better prepared than men. Not only consecrated women, but all lay women who in every region of the world are ready to serve!

Not exactly ordination, but definitely priest-like ministry.

And I dream that, during your pontificate, you will inaugurate, together with the synods of bishops, a different synod: the synod of the people of God, with a proportional representation of the clergy, consecrated men and women, laymen and laywomen. We will not be happier just because a woman votes for the first time, but because many prepared lay women, in communion with all the other members of that synod, will have given their contribution and their vote which will add to the conclusions that will be put in your hands. Probably, Holy Father, you already have this “card in your deck” to put synodality into practice and are just waiting for the right moment to play it.

“Probably, Holy Father,” indeed. Zervino enlists Francis in a more radical vision. Maybe she’s thinking of the dropped conclusions of the Amazon synod.

Perhaps the two sisters also appointed are also ready to frankly address the Pope.

In 2021, French Salesian Sister Reungoat was named as a full member of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life. Before that, all of the members of that dicastery had been priests and bishops. She was the first-ever non-Italian superior general of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians and is head of the International Union of Women Superiors General (UISG).

Reungoat finds “complementarity…interesting in the work of appointing bishops” in an interview in La Croix International, but then says, “I don’t want to absolutize the differences…I believe it’s important to give women their place in the Church. And on the other hand, that they dare to take it – that we are not affected by a kind of inferiority complex, as can sometimes happen in the Church.” We’ve all seen that!

Finally, Italian Franciscan Sister of the Eucharist Petrini “has been the highest-ranking woman in the Vatican since Francis appointed her as Secretary General of the Governorate of the Vatican City State in 2021,” according to O’Connell. She’s a former university professor and since 2005 a member of the Congregation (now Dicastery) for the Evangelization of Peoples. Maybe we’ll soon hear what she thinks about her new position as well.

Before I did any research, I pulled together some other examples of name-dropping gossip. Maybe the Register’s candidates would have been as satisfying as I find these three women. Let’s hope they dare take their place and influence the selection of bishops who will genuinely support the vocations of people of all genders who are called to ministry.