There is already much discussion about Pope Francis’ latest 50,000 word document, Evangelii Gaudium, Joy of the Gospel. His strong encouragement that Christians take seriously the Gospel mandate to care for the poor and marginalized, as well as his clear example of what caring looks like, is a breath of fresh air in a church that had become an embarrassment of pomp and finery during the last two pontificates. There is much to be grateful for in this amazing shift of papal priorities. And yet there is a continuing sadness among women who stand on the ecclesial sidelines waiting to be seen and heard, waiting for their moral agency and vocational callings to be respected and welcomed in the sanctuary of public worship and witness.
A Gospel interpreted so as to exclude women from sacramental ministries to which they are called is not a Gospel of Joy nor does it speak to the continued marginalization and oppression of one half of humanity. Some say Francis is just laying the groundwork for farther-reaching changes he plans to make in the months and years ahead. Some say he is trying to unite left and right into one, unified church, and must take his time confronting litmus-test issues of the two former popes. The “hottest button” in the church, as it is in all traditionalist and fundamentalist groups, is that of women’s rights, agency and power. There is no escaping this issue, and merely calling for a “theology of women” without listening to the Holy Spirit as She summons women into pastoral and sacramental leadership roles within the church is an evasion of that issue. We have a right to expect more from the Church into which all are baptized as full members of the Body of Christ in which, Paul says, there is neither Jew nor Greek, male nor female, slave nor free.
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