The Cause of Women

The cause of women is advanced in two surprising ways this week. A priest in Hoboken uses his religion column in the local newspaper to suggest that women’s ordination may not be impossible. And Pope Francis encourages religious and consecrated women to “fight back” if they are exploited.

Rev. Alexander Santora, pastor of Our Lady of Grace and St. Joseph, does not mind being provocative in the Jersey Journal. “He’s a reader,” as one of the children in our small faith community said to me long ago. I’m sure Santora read Jill Peterfeso’s new book, WomanPriest. He even links to photos, mostly from the book. Find your favorite woman priest or advocate! He summarizes Peterfeso:

Their credo, she writes, could be: ‘We have not walked away from Rome. We offer a new model of ordained ministry in a renewed Roman Catholic Church,’” and quotes her: “If male priests’ bodies inspire fear and distrust, womenpriests’ bodies represent new potential.

“Advocacy” is the word Santora uses to describe efforts of WOC and others. He goes beyond the book to find Kate McElwee on the most recent newsworthy event, the inclusion of WOC’s Synod manual on the Vatican’s resource page, and he goes back to the 2016 COR program “A Church for Our Daughters,” noting “young women will continue to walk away.” And then he goes back even further to the ordinations on the Danube and of Ludmila Jararova in Czechoslovakia in the 1970s.

I’d say this paragraph summarizes Santora’s position:

And there’s the rub: Women’s ordination may be way off in the future. But some commentators believe that Francis’ small, incremental moves, like the WOC inclusion and regularizing the roles of lector and eucharistic minister for women, can make it easier for his successor to eventually ordain women though Francis has never acknowledged this objective.

To see this under a headline that clearly involves Francis in the possibility of women’s ordination is so fair it takes my breath away. Santora includes the official position (negative on ordination) and some statistics, but notes that his own bishop, Cardinal Tobin of Newark, “who serves on the Vatican Synod Committee,” has “praised the accomplishments” of my pal, Sr. Nathalie Becquart. And his quote from a friend is so profound I must include it:

Charles Carr, my seminary classmate now in Philadelphia who left before ordination, said, “My personal vote would be for ordaining women as priests. If Eucharist, or union with Christ, is foundational for Christians to experience rebirth into a new life, then why would we not imagine the power of women to play this transformative sacramental role?” [emphasis added]

I appreciate this article so much because Santora is a voice from the field, among the sheep, not from the heady confines of those debating Vatican politics. I looked at his biography on the parish website, and note that he “instituted the annual FunFest, Flea Market & Used Book Sale, Spaghettiaoke, and musical concerts,” as well as a young adult ministry and a Sunday evening Mass, which “is popular with people of all ages.” “Be specific” is always the advice to journalists, and that’s the kind of things that a parish should do to build community, which includes all the regular ministries as well as task forces and councils. Santora concludes:

And while most polls show Catholic overwhelmingly support ordaining women, Peterfeso reveals that more would prefer the institutional church ratify the change. As I approach 40 years as a priest, I have met many women who can lead.

If we had a $100 for every priest who says to us privately “I support women’s ordination, I just can’t do it publicly,” we’d be a rich movement and a lot nearer to that institutional ratification. This is a very careful article that tells the truth, without the kiss of death. I appreciate the courage to do so. The only thing he leaves out is ordaining trans people.

Now, to Pope Francis and heady Vatican politics. Not only do I include the photos from RCWP, I am adding to the multimedia extravaganza by linking to “The Pope Video,” his talk about February’s prayer intention: religious and consecrated women. It’s good. The focus is on ministries I support, like “catechists, theologians, and spiritual guides.” There are images of women working against poverty and human trafficking (which Francis emphasizes) teaching everyone from children to a priest at a college desk, to confronting soldiers. You may even see some Mercy “nuns in blue jeans,” to quote Mary Gauthier and link to another medium, which so fits the Pope’s call to serve those on the margins.

What’s gathered the most attention, however, is this:

I invite them to fight when, in some cases, they are treated unfairly, even within the church; when they serve so much that they are reduced to servitude, at times, by men of the church.

Do not be discouraged. May you keep making God’s goodness known through the apostolic works you do. But above all through your witness of consecration.

Francis drops back quickly from that fighting image, but I’m glad he said it, and made it so gender-specific. Certainly being treated unfairly happens to all women who work for the church, not just those who have taken vows, most often by clerics.

This is another stand against clericalism by Francis. Loup Besmond de Senneville explains in La Croix International what’s behind this prayer intention, in addition to its affirmation of all the positive ministries.  “In reality, he’s addressing one of the most sensitive issues in the Vatican – the untold number of nuns and consecrated women who work as domestic help for seminarians, priests and bishops.” He goes on to describe the “bombshell report that appeared in 2018 in “Donne-Chiesa-Mondo“, the monthly supplement of the official newspaper of the Holy See, L’Osservatore Romano,” which I think I wrote about at the time. There have been editorial changes at the paper and this report is no longer on the Vatican website.  It contained the anonymous testimony of many sisters who work for free or very little, including some “only while completing their studies in Rome, since some congregations force their members to find a way to finance their stay in the Eternal City.” How to radicalize theologians!

Besmond de Senneville quotes Dr. Maryanne Loughry, a Sister of Mercy who teaches at Boston College: “There are people or congregations that are still being exploited in the absence of contracts. This can lead to situations such as when nuns lose their jobs for a diocese or for a parish priest, they lose their housing and are basically homeless, without notice.”  This “Australian born religious sister” continues: “we are very generous, we are able to innovate when there is something special to do. I don’t want to give up that characteristic, but I think it’s sometimes exploited.” Much of the innovative work in the church is done by orders of sisters; think of the environment!

Claretian Sister Jolanta Kafka, president of the International Union of Womens’ Superiors General (UISG), is a bit more guarded: “As women religious, we feel very encouraged and called by Pope Francis, both in our community life and in meeting the challenges of mission today.” Besmond de Senneville says:

She does not explicitly mention the situation of the sisters in domestic service, nor has any of the leaders of this organization ever explicitly done so. But for years the UISG has been putting an emphasis on the intellectual work of women religious and their involvement in social and political issues. This is a way of getting the message across, without breaking the taboo.

So the Pope is breaking another taboo, much more explicitly than the ventures towards women’s ordination that Santora describes. He says in the video, “What would the Church be without religious sisters and consecrated laywomen? The Church cannot be understood without them.” Understanding all these ministries of women as the Church is a far cry from many of the other things Francis has said. Let us hope, as we advance toward the Synod, that we get more ordained men advancing the cause of women.