The issue of women in the Catholic Church and conciliar reform.
Although the Second Vatican Council may initially come across as a
chauvinist event, nothing was quite the same after the Council, even for
women.
Like the laity, women did not participate actively in the most
important event of the 20th century: the 23 women whom Paul VI invited
to attend Council proceedings in 1964, were simply members of the
audience and had no right to speak.
But historical research has revealed
that these women, who had to wear a black veil and were called
“mothers” by the Synod Fathers, were in fact instrumental in ensuring
that the Second Vatican Council addressed issues relating to the status
of women and their rights in the Catholic Church.
It is partly because
of them that there are female theologians in the Catholic Church today:
thanks to the Council the male monopoly on theology ended.
On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Second
Vatican Council, Female Italian theologians promoted “an opportunity to
reflect on” the way in which the Catholic Church “was able to see gender
difference as a contribution of intelligence and a reserve of
enthusiasm.”
A conference entitled “Female theologians reinterpret
Vatican II. Accepting history, preparing for the future” was held on 4
October at the Pontifical University of Sant’Anselmo in Rome and was
attended by historians and theologians from across the world, including
Hervé Legrand, Gerald Mannion, Maureen Sullivan, Massimo Faggioli, Tina
Beattie and Mercedes Navarro Puerto.
On 6 October, “Tantum aurora est. Women, Vatican II, the future” was
celebrated at the auditorium in Via della Conciliazione, in Rome. It was
an occasion to reflect on the presence of women in the post-conciliar
Church. Marinella Perroni is a doctor in theology; she teaches the New
Testament at a Pontifical University has priests among her students and
is President of the association of Italian women theologians
(Coordinamento teologhe italiane - CTI). Without Vatican II her role
would simply not exist.
This is one of the greatest legacies of the Council, which admitted
23 “mothers”. Looking through the biographies of these 23 women, one
understands “the concrete contribution they gave, despite the fact they
were forbidden to speak: the Council - the CTI president stressed – gave
rise to the idea of joining theological faculties, marking the end of
the male monopoly on theology. Women became interpreting figures.”
Perroni, who was born in 1947 and lectures at the Pontifical
University of St. Anselm in Rome, clearly outlines her stance and that
of female Italian theologians on the debate over whether the Second
Vatican Council should be read as a “break” with Church tradition or as
an event showing “continuity” with this tradition.
“As theologians, we
deliberately decided – she commented – not to take part in this
“continuity-break” controversy: it is badly presented and does not
interest us. In our opinion, theological research follows other paths
and this becomes an academic diatribe.”
The presidents of the CTI recalled that when John XXIII convened the
ecumenical assemblies, “he was simply expressing a desire that has been
alive within the Church for decades, that is for the Church to keep up
to speed with a changing world and to see faith, hope and the presence
of the Church in the world in such a way that would allow dialogue
between it and the world instead of building walls around itself.”
These
efforts towards dialogue, Perroni remarked “showed the full potential
of the Church of the time. There were bishops from all over the world,
eurocentrism was over, bishops let themselves be accompanied by
theologians. In short, a certain fear of theology which had existed up
until then and had deeply conditioned the Church of Pius X, giving rise
to the struggle against modernism, disappeared.”
Trust and dialogue were
the characterising features of this ecclesial event and it would be
wonderful if this legacy was maintained – Perroni said. Being Catholic
is a conquest, an accomplishment one achieves though conciliarity,
dialogue and an effort to create consensus.”
“In a world of differences,
plurality and diversity, this is the important and qualifying element;
the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council faced an ecumene which today we
call globalisation, in order to globalise peace and trust.”
Two popes, one Council, called by Roncalli and concluded by Montini.
“I would say – she stressed – that the impact characters had was felt in
the Pontificates and the Council. John had faith and the idea for the
Council was his, we do not know whether the idea would have occurred to
Paul VI, but he inherited the Council and an immediate post-Council.”
The post-conciliar period was anything but easy: “The Council – Perroni
pointed out – came out of the Vatican and entered into the life of the
Church, with the strong pressure of the late 60’s. This pressure was a
bit extreme and all-encompassing and so followed the mentality of
“everything straight away”, it was charismatic and charged with emotion;
there were those who were already thinking about Vatican III and those
who felt nostalgia for Vatican I; hot and cold generations were mixed
together, sparking upheaval in the Church.”