Prayer and Reflection
March 2023
The mission of women in the Church and society
Dear Brothers and Sisters in the Pallottine Family!
Write something pertaining to women; that was the assignment ... One cannot just talk about the great personalities among women in all eras and pretend that there is no problem. It would be shortsighted and above all dishonest. As a theologian who has spent her life in various church roles, I see and experience incessantly that the church, like all the great religious traditions of this world, is male-dominated. Religions are predominantly men's business. Men assume the sovereignty of interpretation over contents and norms.
This is not only a mirror, a consequence of social situations, but also a motor and supposed justification for marginalization and discrimination in society. The reality of women is bleak - not only in Afghanistan - sometimes pitch black, sometimes in nuanced shades of grey, always dark in any case. Women are still often treated as second or third class human beings. Roman Catholic canon law is no exception, as lawyers can confirm. The fight against female mutilation and child marriages remains subdued, and the Codex Iuris Canonici still sets the marriageable age for girls at 14, which is far too young. The Black Book on the Status of Women presents repeatedly the most striking injustices worldwide. They are globally widespread, even if they are expressed differently in different cultures.
And quite honestly: When you read "Apostles today", do you not think only of the twelve men under this heading and thus narrow the term "Apostles" to the circle of twelve. Yet, women are presented to us in the Gospels as the first witnesses of the resurrection of Jesus, as the first messengers. In the meantime, Pope Francis has also recognized Mary Magdalene as an apostle and raised her feast day in the liturgical calendar to the status of a feast of the apostles. - What do you know about the prophetesses in the Hebrew Bible? Or are you as familiar with Junia, Thekla, Hanna, Phoebe, Susanne, Johanna as you are with Peter or Paul?
Nowadays, when "religious leaders" meet at large inter-religious conferences with inflationary frequency, they almost go into overdrive in declaring their intention to work for human rights and peace. They are almost exclusively men belonging to religious communities who are often very hesitant to demand or implement human rights in their own country and in their own ranks, sometimes quite the opposite. The issue of gender justice is particularly affected by this. Incidentally, the Vatican as a state has not adopted the Declaration of Human Rights.
What does "justice" between women and men actually mean? They are different, after all. Can they then have the same dignity and rights? The Christian answer is a clear "yes". The reason is the presence of God within every human being. Here there is no difference. Whether old, young, woman, man or diverse, healthy or sick, all are equal in God and before God. The contingent diversity does not detract from the equality.
Walking the path of following Jesus then means becoming all things to all people, as Paul puts it. Moreover, God is also present in criminals and sinners, and their dignity and rights must always be respected. - This fundamental equality does not mean ignoring diversity. All human beings have feminine and masculine sides within them, some more, others less.
There are no two identical women and no two identical men, not even in identical twins. This dissimilarity with all similarity is called analogy: the more similarity, the greater the dissimilarity. There is great freedom and strong dynamism in this realization. The persons in God are also similar and yet also dissimilar.
Likeness and dissimilarity belong together. Vincent Pallotti, who was a great mystic of the Trinity, was very aware of this.
One of his great themes was the "collaboration" of all people. He wanted to include everyone, whether baptized or not, women or men, religious or clergy - simply everyone. He recognized this cooperation, for which he strove, as a "gift" from God. He calls it "the most divine of all gifts". In it, this simultaneity of similarity and dissimilarity is realized. Pallotti sees human beings as capable of such collaboration, which reflects the togetherness of the three divine persons and draws its strength and dynamism from this. This collaboration is less a human achievement and more a gift from God. With this confidence we may dare and build this gift - women and men, in the Church and elsewhere....
If out of our commitment, our dedication then becomes the gift of our life, our life becomes and is allowed to become a gift for others, then the life "in persona Christi", to which we are all called, women and men, is realized in reality. Such liberation and freedom is reflected in the following Psalm, which I place at the end of my reflection:
Psalm 124:
If the LORD had not been on our side -
let Israel now declare -
if the LORD had not been on our side
when men attacked us,
when their anger flared against us,
then they would have swallowed us alive,
then the floods would have engulfed us,
then the torrent would have overwhelmed us,
then the raging waters
would have swept us away.
Blessed be the LORD,
who has not given us as prey to their teeth.
We have escaped like a bird from the snare of the fowler;
the net is torn, and we have slipped away.
Our help is in the name of the LORD,
the Maker of heaven and earth.
I would like to invite you to a dialogue, a digital exchange. Whatever themes you would like to share, please write to the Center for Spirituality - Pallotti Institute in Vallendar/Germany.
My Email address is
Proksch(at)pollittiner.org –
Take my best wishes for a blessed Easter season
Brigitte M. A. Proksch (Vallendar/Germany and Vienna/Austria
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