How Pope Francis is looking at ways to feminize the Church

When Pope Francis met members of the International Theological Commission last November, he wasted no time telling them what was on his mind.

"There's something I don't like about you, excuse my frankness,” he said as he entered the small lounge adjacent to the Paul VI Audience Hall. "One, two, three, four women – poor women! They are alone! Ah, sorry, five," the pope said. "On this point, we must move forward! Women have a capacity for theological reflection different from that of men," Francis insisted, as he began to address the theologians.

He could obviously sees the perplexed look on their faces, so he drove home the point. "You will wonder, where does this discourse lead? Not only to tell you that you need more women here – that's one thing – but also to help you reflect. The Church as woman, the Church as a bride. And this is a task that I ask of you, please. Demasculinize the Church," the elderly pope said.

Acknowledging the "discomfort" of Catholic women

With this task in mind, Francis then initiated reflection on the "feminine character" of the Church during meeting a week later (December 4) with his nine top advisors who make up the Council of Cardinals. He even invited three theologians who specialize in the role of women in the Church to come and speak to the C9, as the council is commonly called.

The pope has put two concepts that the late Swiss theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar (1905-1988) developed in the 1940s at the center of the reflections on women in the Church: the Petrine principle and the Marian principle. The former, referring to Saint Peter, the first of the Apostles, is linked to ministries in the Church. The latter is linked to the Virgin Mary.

"The pope wanted the question to be addressed from various perspectives," said Linda Pocher, a Salesian sister and theologian who specializes in the Balthasar's thought who was one of three scholars invited to address the C9. "The Balthasar principle can be a very useful paradigm for thinking about the difference between the institutional and spiritual. But it also has its limits," she told the cardinals. "It isn’t really suited for expressing a difference between men and women in the Church."

Luca Castiglioni, a priest-theologian from Milan agreed. "This principle cannot be used to hermetically separate men and women," he said, emphasizing that the Church cannot ignore the "discomfort" regularly expressed by female believers – "that is, half of the Catholic population." "We will only get out of this by truly taking into account the viewpoint of men and women in order to move forward," Castiglioni said.

Pocher said the reflections, which the C9 members continued during their meeting in early February, are in line with the reflection the Synod assembly on synodality has initiated concerning the female diaconate.

"In the Council of Cardinals, the majority of members understand the urgency of reflecting on the issue of the female diaconate, to see if this possibility should be opened to women, and in what form,” the Salesian theologian said.

An Anglican female bishop at the Vatican

Pocher also said this was a way to prepare for the next Synod assembly in October, where the female diaconate will be one of the major issues. Because of this prompting, she invited Jo Wells to speak, and Anglican woman bishops, to address the pope and the cardinals at the February session of the C9. Wells shared his experience of women's ordination -- the prebyterate and episcopate -- in the Anglican Church.

"When I see that the Catholic Church has only recently opened ministries (of lector and acolyte) to women, it sends me back decades," she said, before noting that she is "used to working in contexts where women work and hold responsibilities".

Wells particularly emphasized the ability of Anglican Church members to "manage their disagreements". "Some in our Church cannot stand the ordination of women. We have arrangements to preserve them from that," she explained. "Throughout the meeting, the pope remained silent. It seems to me that he wanted to encourage the cardinals to speak."