We the undersigned

This blog has been set up as a place where faithful practicing Catholic women may register their support for Catholic doctrine regarding women, in particular issues relating to sexuality, contraception, abortion, marriage and the male priesthood.

It is for women who accept that the teaching of the Catholic Church was revealed to us by Jesus Christ and handed down by the apostles, expressed in sacred scripture and tradition and is therefore not able to be modified or deleted. This is a place where women can joyfully testify to the freedom from oppression that accompanies an authentic God-given expression of sexuality and chastity.

If you agree with the statement below, please register your support in the comments box.

I am a faithful practicing Roman Catholic woman, who attends Mass at least once a week and who believes in and practices the Church’s teachings, specifically pertaining to matters on sexuality, contraception, abortion, marriage and the ordination of women. I believe that the Roman Catholic Church is sympathetic to and representative of the needs and concerns of women and their children, wherever they may be in the world. I would like to offer our new Pope Francis, my prayers and support and thank him for his continued protection and support of mothers and their unborn children. I fully endorse Church doctrine in relation to women’s issues.

This could be an amazing gift for the Year of Faith. Imagine if every single faithful Catholic woman were to pledge their solidarity to our new Pope and Church doctrine in one place. What a gift, blessing and comfort, not only for Pope Francis, but also for ALL the Catholic clergy, Cardinals, Archbishops, Bishops, Monsignors, Priests, Deacons, as well as those members of the laity, who are engaged in catechesis. How heartening for them to see the fruits of their work and how loved, supported and appreciated they are by Catholic women everywhere.

Also, what an opportunity for catechesis this could be, in terms of promoting the New Feminism. If you do see this and you are a Catholic women who feels in good conscience that she cannot sign up, don’t leave a comment on this post, I’ll open up some other threads, and we can get debate going there, or better still, discuss it with your priest, or someone you know who can sign in good faith.

What a message to the Pope, to the Church and to the world and media at large. We, the undersigned Catholic women, have a love for Christ and his Church burning in our hearts and we do not wish to alter or change doctrine one little bit. We are empowered by a beautiful teaching that recognises us as having an equal dignity and sets us free to live in love and hope.

Failing to always live up to what the Church asks of us is no barrier to being able to sign and publicly endorse Church teaching, but this site aims to collate as many signatures and voices of support as possible, in order to bust the media myth wide open. We accept that the ideal is something worth attaining even if at times our sinful nature means that we fall short, but that does not mean that Church doctrine should be altered in order to validate or facilitate our shortcomings and sin.

Please do register your support in the comments box as well as pray for this initiative . This could be the start of something incredible.

Update: Women from ALL Catholic rites who are in communion with the Holy See are more than welcome to be a part of this initiative and pledge their support.

Women as witnesses

Speaking in his General Audience today, Pope Francis emphasised the importance and role that women have to play within the Catholic Church, as unselfish communicators of the Gospel.

The women are driven by love and know how to accept this proclamation with faith: they believe, and immediately transmit it, they do not keep it for themselves. They cannot contain the joy of knowing that Jesus is alive, the hope that fills their heart.

Contrasting the implicit faith of the women who are the first human witnesses to the Resurrection with that of the male Apostles, Pope Francis says:

The Apostles and disciples find it harder to believe in the Risen Christ, not the women however! Peter runs to the tomb, but stops before the empty tomb; Thomas has to touch the wounds of the body of Jesus with his hands.

The very act of returning to the tomb, to anoint the body of Christ is a manifestation of this faith and also trust. Why did they return to the tomb? They would have been aware that the tomb entrance was sealed by an enormous boulder that would have been impossible for them to roll away without some assistance, as well as the fact that guards were posted at the tomb’s entrance, who were unlikely to have been amenable. And yet still they trusted.

Reinforcing the historicity of the Gospel accounts, Pope Francis reminds us of Christ’s radicalism. Women were not considered credible or reliable legal witnesses in first century Palestine, this was a role reserved to Elders or men over thirty, and yet it was to women that Christ first manifested his Resurrection, as a reward for their faith and in recognition of their love.

This is beautiful, and this is the mission of women, of mothers and women, to give witness to their children and grandchildren that Christ is Risen! Mothers go forward with this witness! What matters to God is our heart, if we are open to Him, if we are like trusting children. But this also leads us to reflect on how in the Church and in the journey of faith, women have had and still have a special role in opening doors to the Lord, in following him and communicating his face, because the eyes of faith always need the simple and profound look of love

Beautiful and inspirational. What can be more important than being witnesses to the Resurrection and the love of God? Those very first witnesses, who were so convinced by what they had seen and so determined to spread the Good News, to the extent that they would lay down their lives and suffer the most excruciating and painful deaths, played a crucial and key role in the development of the faith. Women are called to witness, whether that be as physical or spiritual mothers, to pass down and impart the joy of the faith to their children and in their families, in a way that only they know how. That the Pope has chosen to affirm and link women with motherhood should not be overlooked.

Christ called Mary Magdalene by name in the garden in acknowledgement of her simple and uncomplicated love, faith and trust. Furthermore Mary Magdalene is no plaster saint or unrealistic model of womanhood. Her lack of inhibition and emotive displays are often embarrassing or discomforting and yet Christ loves because of her innate feminine authenticity and total lack of guile and self-awareness. Whilst Our Lady set the pattern of motherhood, in the encounter in the garden, we see Christ conferring a vital vocation upon St Mary Magdalen as the first female missionary.

Traditionally depicted as beautiful, sensuous and possessing an unrestrained yet totally pure love of the Lord, she accepts her vocation through a direct encounter with Christ, with no thoughts as to what may be in it for her in terms of status, earthly or material reward, and neither does she stop to compare herself with the Apostles. She has no need. Christ has already reaffirmed her equality, as St Mark awkwardly relates. Not only does Christ make his first appearance to a woman, but one who was once demonically possessed.

St Mary Magdalene allowed herself to be won over by Christ and gave herself over to him whole-heartedly and he rewarded, affirmed and entrusted himself to her in all of her femininity.  This is the message for contemporary women today.

Listening

A comment has suggested that the Catholic Church does not listen to the voices of women, thus this site will not receive much support.

The statement raises many issues, namely what is commonly understood by the Catholic Church and in what way does she not listen? The Catholic Church does not merely consist of the Vatican or the CDF, but it is the mystical body of Christ, here on earth. The church came into being when Christ died on the cross, but was formally instituted at Pentecost when Christ sent the Holy Spirit as He had promised. The Catholic Church is then, the society of those who have been baptized, and who profess the faith of Christ, and who are governed by their bishops under the visible head, the Pope, the Bishop of Rome, as Pope Pius clarified in his encyclical, Mystici Corpus Christi.

If we say that the Church is not listening to women’s voices, this needs to be defined further, is this on a local level or this this more a perception about church doctrine not reflecting the concerns of women? The Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith (CDF) in Rome does not formulate Church doctrine, which has already been revealed to us by Christ and passed down by Apostles. The job of the CDF is not to formulate doctrine, it is not a political party think-tank, rather its role is to promote and safeguard the doctrine on faith and morals in the whole Catholic world; so anything that falls into this sphere such as for example, priests or religious who may, even unwittingly, be spreading confusion, dissent and heresy amongst the faith, comes under the remit of the CDF.

Church doctrine, which is what this site is set up to promote and defend, is what we believe as faithful Catholics, doctrine is the truth of our faith which cannot be changed – it transcends temporal notions of identity politics. Whilst our understanding of a doctrine might develop, this is always organic, in sympathy and in accordance with what has gone before, it never changes the key belief or teaching.

In the light of this then, it’s difficult to ascertain how the Church may appear not to be listening, given that its role, when it comes to doctrine, is to protect, defend and promote what Christ gave us.

Whilst there may well be a case for more suitably qualified women to be appointed to prominent lay roles within the Curia, which may well do much to change the public face of the Church which can sometimes appear predominantly male, that is not quite the same issue as suggesting that the church is not listening as has been suggested by female liberal Catholic theologians.

It may be that the Church is not listening or appointing certain women to dicasteries, Pontifical Councils or influential positions, not because of the sex of these women, but simply because their voice is one of dissent.

Here is a list of some of the women who hold positions of influence and authority within the Holy See:

• Sister Helen Alford, Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the Angelicum University.
• Sister Jane Livesey, Superior General of the worldwide Congregation of Jesus – the Mary Ward Sisters.
• Sister Eugenia Bonetti, runs the human trafficking network of the Union of Italian Mothers Superior.
• Dr. Francesca di Giovanni – works in the Secretariat of State
• Prof Jane Adolphe – on special assignment in the Secretariat of State
• Dr Flaminia Giovanelli, Under Secretary in the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace
• Philippa Hitchen, one of the key anchors of the global Vatican Radio service.
• Professor Donna Orsuto, Director of the Lay Centre.
• Dr Martina Liebsch – Policy Director, Caritas Internationalis development and aid network
• Ana Cristina Villa Betancourt, Head of Women’s Section, Pontifical Council for the Laity

Furthermore women run schools, abbeys, charities, church departments all around the globe. They take a lead role in parishes, teaching, managing, organising, administering and ministering. In dioceses we see the presence of women on direct commissions, in charities, and Higher Education Institutions. There are literally thousands of women headteachers or pincipals in Catholic schools around the globe. We are the key voices in Catholicism.

When Pope John Paul II chose new patron saints for Europe – rulers, prophets and academics – half were women who had a profound impact on the era they lived in: St Bridget of Sweden was a formidable mystic and leader; St Catherine of Siena publicly admonished the Pope; St Edith Stein was a leading German philosopher of the early twentieth century. The Church is not afraid of the abilities of women; it was the Church which first set up schools in Europe to educate them. And looking at the Church across the globe, it is hard not to conclude that women drive the great Catholic enterprises which witness to Christ’s love for humanity.

More recently Pope Benedict XVI declared St Hildegard of Bingen a doctor of the Catholic Church, stating that

Various female figures stand out for the holiness of their lives and the wealth of their teaching even in those centuries of history that we usually call the Middle Ages.

So, if the Church is not truly listening to or does not value the voices of women, unless one defines the Catholic Church as being solely about priesthood, or as priesthood as being the most important role to play within the Body of Christ, how is this manifested?