The Preparatory Document for the 2021–23 Synod, addressing the need to promote inclusion and dialogue in the church, refers to two women, the Canaanite and the Samaritan, and it affirms, “Jesus accepts as interlocutors all those who come from the crowd”.
These are the only two explicit references to women in the document, although it is clear that women must be included in everything that concerns laypeople and religious. Similarly, in the International Theological Commission’s document Synodality in the Life and Mission of the Church, we find only two brief explicit references to the participation of baptized women in the life of the church and to the competent contribution they can make (105, 109d); there are also four generic references to “men and women”.
What do the words and actions of women signify for the understanding and development of an authentic synodality? This question is undoubtedly central to the reform of the church, for it emerges in every context – from diocesan synods to pastoral councils, from the German Synodal Way to the Amazon Synod – in which women contribute to reflection on the future of the church, bringing their own experience and delineating the serious challenges.
Since the beginning of his pontificate, Pope Francis has been particularly attentive to and aware of the issue of women, and he has urged the church to listen to the just claims for women’s rights because of the challenges and questions they pose to the whole church.
What is at stake today is proper recognition of women, after centuries of marginalization and undervaluation in the life of the church (albeit with some splendid and memorable exceptions, such as Hildegard of Bingen, Teresa of Avila, Catherine of Siena, and others). Indeed, what is at stake is nothing less than the effective proclamation of the gospel and the prophetic witness of the church itself.
The Vision of Vatican II
Reflection on the contribution of women to a synodal church finds light in Vatican II, both in the event itself and in its ecclesiology of the people of God, as outlined, above all, in Lumen Gentium.
For the first time in the second millennium, twenty-three women auditors, both religious and lay, participated in the work of the Council during its third and fourth sessions. It was Cardinal Suenens who, together with some male auditors and a few bishops, had asked for the presence of women. The women contributed significantly to the work of the commissions and were always available for consultation, but they were never allowed to speak in the council hall.
Nonetheless, many elements since the Council—the vision of the church as the people of God, the recovery of the subjectivity of the laity in the church based on their baptism, and the reading of that great sign of the times that is the entry of women into political, social, and economic life – have led to the affirmation and recognition of the subjectivity of women in churches all over the world.
The change that took place is undeniable, and it has obvious repercussions on our understanding of synodal dynamics: as noted earlier, since Vatican II, the subjectivity of public, competent, and authoritative speech of women has become more recognized.
Mothers and grandmothers have always passed on the faith and educated their children and grandchildren in the experience of Christian life, and women religious have offered the church the faithful word of prayer and wisdom. For centuries, however, the word of women believers remained confined and delimited within the spaces of the home, the monastery, and the convent. Women in the church were faithful listeners, but they were also the subjects of “unheard words”.
Their voices were not heard in the aisles of the churches, in the public square, or in the university lecture halls in which theology and morals were debated. They were not recognized as bearers of an essential and constitutive element for the construction of the ecclesial member.
In a church that considered itself to be “neutral” with regard to the differences between the sexes, the presence of women, always faithful and generous, was considered as something “obvious.” For centuries, women were “the forgotten partners, ”the “invisible subjects”, though they were always present and active.
The great shift brought about by the Council was prepared for throughout the nineteenth century by the extraordinary development of women’s associations and women’s religious life. In those contexts, women began to form themselves and to experience autonomous management in work, voting, and ecclesiastical service.
There is no doubt, however, that the Council gave women words with which to speak for themselves as women and as believers; to express themselves in the denied language of theology. Women’s words are increasingly being recognized in ecclesial life as meaningful and authoritative, especially in the everyday contexts of community life such as parishes, dioceses, and lay associations and movements.
The transformative role of women reinvigorates the entire ecclesial structure, and it derives precisely from this new public recognition of their competent discourse as a valuable resource for developing further and more profound changes.
The word of women has shaped the post-conciliar church in countless ways: in the proclamation of the faith; in the pastoral services in which women’s diakonia has been realized; in all the local churches; in the renewal of religious life; in the word of the women theologians who, after Vatican II, began to study and teach in the pontifical universities; and in the various roles of responsibility they have assumed (especially in the last two decades) in the Roman Curia, in dioceses, and in national pastoral offices.
Recognition
Now that the recognition of a membership proper to women is emerging in the ecclesial sphere (long after it happened in civil society and in most cultures), the synodal church must be conceived of as a church of “men and women,” and the remaining cultural and structural resistances to women’s speech must be overcome.
It is not enough to talk about women or to women, nor is it enough to discuss women’s issues, isolating them from the rest of ecclesial reform. The task now is to activate synodal dynamics and to consider from a synodal perspective the changes that are needed.
This task involves listening to all those involved – first, women with their questions, challenges, desires, efforts, and experiences – while recognizing all subjectualities or memberships (those of men and women as partners) and projecting an inclusive, just, and participatory ecclesial face.
A Church of Men and Women
In a truly synodal church, without prejudice to the specificity of charisms and ministries, the contribution of all members is rooted in the recognition of their equal dignity and common responsibility by virtue of being baptized, as affirmed in Galatians 3:28 (“There is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus”). We walk together in a communion that is born and nourished by the communication of faith, where every- one is a co-constituent member and the bearer of a unique and irreplaceable word.
First, women remember that each person’s experience of faith is uniquely “incarnated” and that the words of witness and understanding of the gospel that are proclaimed and shared by all are marked by the undeniable and irrepressible difference of gender.
A church that sets out on a synodal path must create the conditions, the times, and the structures for true listening and dialogue so that the contributions of men and women are recognized regardless of gender.
A synodal church must go beyond facile stereotypes that reduce “women” (as members) to ideas of “feminine values” and spousal-maternal femininity, thus forgetting cultural differences and the specificity of lived experiences.
There is therefore a need to tackle the taboo questions of masculinity in the Catholic Church and the relationship between masculinity and sacred power; these issues have so far been given little consideration in theology and are practically ignored in preaching and catechesis.
Theological anthropology is immature and incomplete when it conceives of the human being (anthropos) as a universalized neutral “male” (aner) and then, in a second act, tries to define the “specificity of the female”.
Thinking as a synodal church involves resolving this question of the relationships between men and women, which are neither of subordination nor of simple complementarity of male and female; rather, men and women are related in a partnership of believing members.
It is time to think of ourselves as “brothers and sisters” or “believing men and women,” thus going beyond the imaginary “maternal” and “spousal” projections whereby men entrust themselves to women and their love. There is an urgent need today to overcome this biased vision, which is based on a Marian archetype, as in John Paul II’s Mulieris Dignitatem (1988), or else on a comparison between a Petrine principle and a Marian principle, which may be of Balthasarian origin but is not biblically founded.
The church is an institution that is “gender-structured”, but it does not consciously recognize itself as such. The liturgies and languages used for celebrating the faith are still apparently neutral, and theology has not been rethought from a gender perspective.
Catechesis and the teaching of the Catholic religion are conducted without paying attention to the issues of sexual difference. In these areas, the words of women and men, through synodal dialogue, must contribute to changes that cannot be postponed without seriously weakening the proclamation of the faith and the life of the church.
The Ways of Ecclesial Regeneration
The changes that have taken place in the post-conciliar church are unquestionable, but other steps need to be taken in terms of pastoral conversion, the culture of recognition, and structural reform. There is need for change in many structures and practices including educational, decision-making, and participatory systems; pastoral activities and language usage; the training of clergy; and the integration of women into theological faculties.
The fundamental resource in a synodal church is precisely the “word,” and the word always has a cognitive dimension. The word gives birth to thought, which becomes voice, sharing, transmission of ideas, motivation, and reason.
The word is testimony; it narrates the events in which one has been a protagonist and on which one has reflected. Such events can lead to denunciation because they violate the dignity of women, or they can appear as positive anticipations of the future dreamed of. The word is communication that weaves together relationships amid differences, differences that are revealed and therefore understood.
The word starts “from oneself” and goes forth to meet others and to come together to generate the “We.” The word can evoke a future that does not yet exist and thus open new paths. The word makes it possible to reaffirm what already exists – to make it visible and real for all – and at the same time to denounce the gender gap, the absence of women, the culpable exclusions, the silence imposed on so many. And when words are muted and being heard seems impossible, there remains the space of the symbol, of the silent, nonviolent appeal.
In a synodal church, the focus is on listening together to the Word of God, heard through the word of one and all, and on examining the relations between men and women to transform unequal relationships and structures so as to allow all to share in the variety of differences, according to the evangelical project of the kingdom of God.
Innovative experiences must be narrated so that others will realize that it is licit and possible for women to take on roles of authority. Exegetical and theological works written by women must be disseminated and debated; the testimonies of female figures from the scriptures and church history must motivate spiritual change and inspire the courage to speak out.
Challenge
In a synodal church, the challenge is to speak “new languages,” to speak the language of women, to speak to women, and to speak as women who understand the gospel and proclaim it. As Michelle Rosaldo states, “The place of women is decided not by what they do, but on the basis of what their activities mean in the concrete social institution”.
Therefore, no church will be synodal if the competent, public, authoritative word does not have conditions and spaces in which to resonate and be accepted as an essential, constitutive word for creating church by understanding the faith together and by deciding together for the common good.
Nor will the church be synodal if ecclesial relations are not thoroughly rethought from a gender perspective, so as to overcome the clerical-masculine culture and the patriarchal structure. Those who in this dynamic process fail to recognize one of the partners—the one that is, in fact, the most active at the ecclesial base and the most significant for the changes that have taken place on the sociocultural level—will end up weakening, blocking, and ultimately rendering impossible any transformative dynamic in a synodal key.
An excessively fearful and structured Church will be constantly critical of all discourse defending women’s rights and will constantly point out the risks and possible errors of such claims. Conversely, a dynamic Church will react by paying attention to women’s legitimate claims for more justice and equality.
It will study history and recognize a long pattern of male authoritarianism, subjugation, and various forms of slavery, abuse, and male violence. With this perspective, the church will be able to make these claims for women’s rights its own, and even if it does not agree with everything that some feminist groups propose, it will make its own whole- hearted contribution to greater reciprocity between men and women.
Accordingly, the Synod wished to renew the Church’s commitment to fighting “against all discrimination and violence with a sexual basis”.
Serena Noceti is an Italian lay theologian, a full professor at the Religious Sciences Institute in Florence, and a teacher at the Theological Faculty of Central Italy. She is a founding member of the Association of Italian Women Theologians and former vice president of the Italian Theological Association.
