2013-06-25 15:18:15

The authority of women in the Church and in society: challenges and ideas


(Vatican Radio) "Female Authority" is the title given to an unprecedented encounter taking place on Tuesday at the Pontifical University Regina Apostolorum.

Organized by Marta Rodriguez, Head of the University’s Institute of Superior Studies on Women, the encounter aims to provide an open space of discussion and ideas stemming from the idea, first expressed by Pope John Paul II, when he exhorted women to employ their “feminine genius” to build a culture of life.

Participants at the encounter are the philosopher Luisa Muraro who will focus on the concept of “Authority and female excellence”; the journalist, author and blogger Marina Terragni who will speak on the theme “Authority: male and female?”; the journalist and President of ACMID- donna, an association that offers support to Arab women in Italy presents a talk on “The Authority of woman in Islam”; and the obstetrician Flora Gualdani who is also the founder of Casa Betlemme, an association that helps mothers in difficulty who focuses on “Authority and suffering”.

Just a few days before the encounter, Vatican Radio’s Linda Bordoni spoke to Marta Rodriguez about her expectations and her hopes for the event, and asked her where the idea stems from…

Listen to the interview… RealAudioMP3

Marta Rodriguez is Spanish. She is a consecrated laywoman who has been in Rome for 13 and a half years. For the past 3 years she has headed the Institute of Higher Studies on Women at the Pontifical Regina Apostolorum University, a reality she herself helped to found in 2003.

Marta explains that the inspiration that led to the setting up of the seminar has its roots in the fundamental role of women in the Church. “It’s not a matter of power” she says “in the Church we do not speak of power – of course the very existence of a hierarchy implies a certain amount of power, but” – she points out – “power is not the focus and that is why we decided to talk about authority because we women have a lot of authority in the Church and we should do much more with that authority that we have, and give more value to that contribution, not in terms of power”. That’s because in the Church, Marta explains, “we talk about service, not about power – it’s a different language”.

Referring to the “feminine genius” that Pope John Paul II described in his 1995 Apostolic Letter to Women, Marta says “that was exactly the inspiration that led to the founding of the Institute because we wanted to embrace this challenge, and to deepen our understanding of what this feminine genius means”.

Marta explains that the encounter dedicated to “Female Authority” is part of an initiative called the “Officina delle Idee” – “Workshop of Ideas” in which “we want to have an open platform and create an encounter, a dialogue. In these encounters what we want to do is to invite people with different approaches” with the aim of sharing points of view and exchanging ideas and perspectives. “We want to open our window as Pope Francis invited us to do. We don’t want to listen only to our own voices, but to other voices as well so that we can really enter into dialogue and be able to offer a much richer message to culture”.

That’s why she says, the “Workshop of Ideas” was created. It is part of the more fundamental part of the Institute. It’s where a group of researchers can really look closely at what “feminine genius” really means, “what is the specificity of women hood if there is a specificity of women hood, what does motherhood have to do with that…”

That’s why – Marta says – Flora Gualdani, the founder of an institute that supports motherhood – was invited to speak at this encounter. “We were very interested to hear of her experience of suffering. We gave her an interesting title: “Authority and suffering”. We think that maybe women have a special capacity to suffer, to resist, enduring. And this could be a characteristic that gives her a special authority within the family, and we wanted to look to that and to her experience”.

Of course men are welcome guests at the encounters. Marta says in this occasion she has invited a group of seminarians, because “we are very interested in talking with priests because they are the first ones that have to understand our role in the Church and in society”. She tells of a recent experience entitled “ethics of sexual differences”. She says it was very interesting because “we had a group formed by moms, women students and 18 seminarians – and for them it was very important because they knew nothing of women”. And Marta says she believes it is important for future priests to listen and enter into a culture of exchange: “they must be aware that the male perspective is not the only one!”











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