Rita Salerno (courtesy)  

Italian version

The recent reflections of the Pope on the role of women in the Church and the encyclical on charity, which has climbed the classification of books, are some matters of actuality on which we have asked the opinion of Stella Morra. This theologian, national counsellor of the Catholic Action and animator of the cultural association "L'atrio dei Gentili", is a member of the Board of the World Union of the Women Catholic Associations since 2001.  From 1990, he holds a seminar on the Creed for the third year of B.A. in the faculty of Theology of the Pontifical Gregorian University. She is working for the doctorate in Theology on Michel de Certeau and the mystical word.

For the presentation of the Encyclical "Deus caritas est" in the Printing Press Hall of the Vatican, they spoke much of it as a programmatic manifesto from the pontificate of Benedict XVI. Would you give us an evaluation of this?

"Of course, we always expect the first Encyclical of a Pontiff to be a programmatic manifesto, as an indication of the lines and themes dear to the heart of one who has assumed such a special responsibility from a relatively short time. In the case of Benedict XVI, we have been in advantage because of his being a well-known theologian.  He had already published a lot of books before his Roman years, for which it is possible to know his reflections, his journey and the evolution of his thought from a farther distance. However, it is obvious,  that a thing is to write as a theologian, as a Prefect of the Congregation of the faith, and another thing is to do it with the responsibility of the Bishop of Roman and Pastor of the Universal Church.

The Encyclical Deus caritas est shows this difference well. Those who expected learned lucubration are disappointed and, though much reading and study are evident in its deep background, I think that Benedict XVI has been able to find a tune devoid of intellectualism, rather he has sought more  a seriously pastoral tune than that of teaching. The choice of the theme and its approaching type goes straight to the heart of essentiality and simplicity of the Christian experience: God is love and he who dwells in love dwells in God.

In this sense I think that it is a programme indicator, which seeks a pastoral tune and which wants to concentrate on the essentiality".

One of the most intense pages of the Encyclical is dedicated to Mary. The conclusive reflection is centred on Mary "Mother of the Lord and mirror of every holiness. Her soul magnifies the Lord, that is, makes Him great". This is "the programme of her life -the Pontiff adds: not to put herself at the centre, but to make space for God met both in prayer and in the service of neighbours- only then the world becomes good. We must say that Mary is great just because she does not want to magnify herself, but God".  This reminds us of another document of Pope Wojtyla "Ecclesia de Eucaristia", in which a whole chapter is dedicated to Mary, "the Eucharistic Woman".

"Mary cannot help being the journey companion of the Christians, particularly the companion of those who have their responsibility in the Church, like the Popes. She has received the gift and the responsibility of generating the Word for the world. She has carried the weight and the grace of a decision, which concerns all of us, she is the one to look at, the one the shepherds looked at, offering her to us as an icon of the believer.

The Encyclical impresses me also for this essential and traditional approach. Mary is great because she is simply what each of us is called to be; she is great not because she is not reachable or special, but because her "yes" drags us with her, introduces us to the style of the "yes" which we are requested to say".

On the occasion of the meeting with the Roman clergy, Benedict XVI had very tender words for women, starting from the mothers who have given life to their children. "We must give thanks to the mothers because they have had the courage of giving life - he said- and we must beg the mothers to go on giving life in the friendship with Jesus".  I would like to have your evaluation of this.

Do we need to say more?  Pope Benedict XVI on that occasion was in dialogue with his Presbyters as Bishop and wanted to find with them, and for them, concrete words which, starting from the questions of his Priests, concern the ways of life as it is, of the real life. I think that the attitude expressed about the mothers, but more generally on all the answers, stands always from the viewpoint of thanking and rejoicing for what exists, for what is done, for what is lived and offered. There is no reproaching tune, no negative or desperate tune. It could be called a tune of blessing, of saying good about what men and women live. We know quite well (it suffices to reflect on the text of the Way of the Cross written by the then Ratzinger for John Paul II) that as a person of study and as pastor, this man is not ingenuous, nor blind before the difficulties and problems. He is capable of using hard tunes and perhaps, at least in some texts, he tends to some pessimism.

Yet in the dialogue with life we start with blessing, above all with the blessing of simple and real things, of things recognised by many. Only from this "positive a priori" we can seek a true dialogue".

Replying to a solicitude from a Priest, Pope Ratzinger, on the same circumstance spoke about the role of women in the Church: this is a point amply echoed in all mass media.  Though firm on the belief that "the priestly ministry is reserved by the Lord to men", the Pope said: "It is right to ask ourselves whether more space, more positions of responsibility may be offered to women". How do you evaluate these statements?

I find them realistic and concrete. Too often we are taken on one side by a pessimistic and over-critical analysis of women in the Church, on the other side by generic announcements of a great recognition of values (theoretical) and, in reality, Church praxis, which repeat simply the existent state of things.  At times it seems that an excessive verbal exaltation serves to cover a certain inertia  in the reality.

Here, instead, we find ourselves before a precise and realistic indication: if the position on the ministry is clear, we are not to repeat only this "no", but also to re-affirm the will of finding concrete forms and places of collaboration and of structural, not only charismatic, recognition.

Of course, we need the capacity of individuating forms, places and ways. However, I am personally convinced that today this is the true problem: to overcome the phase of enunciation of the principle and to create ordinary and structural places, where the ordinary life of the Church may be "more plural an plenary", not only for what concerns the role of women.

On quoting the prayer for Priests from the Canon in which seven women appear surrounding the Priest, Benedict XVI has brought to memory that "the Church has a big debt of thanskgiving for the Women". Many remembered the Letter of John Paul II to the women. According to you, are the times mature enough for an improved evaluation of women within the Church, particularly of the Religious?

"I don't know well what "the times are mature" may mean. From a given point of view is in things, it is not a choice. For instance, in my teaching in a Faculty of Theology of a Pontifical University, the number of women students, particularly of women religious, is in a slow constant growth. Often women, as students, are largely more motivated, more invested in study, more determined. We verify this at all level of theological studies. Now, more women (and more laypersons), prepared also academically, are and will be evermore a datus of fact we have unavoidably to deal with.

On the other side, it is true that the resistances do exist (it is human!), that there is always somebody who tries "not to see" and to "act as if" all remained always equal. The recall of Jesus in the Gospels, about the blindness before the signs of the time, is always of actuality!

Starting from these two elements, the problem of the value of women in the life of the Church becomes always less a question of principle and evermore a question of concrete and specific ways. I think that we must pay a particular attention to the life of women religious. On one side, especially in Italy, it would be necessary more investment in study and preparation, on the other side, new and concrete ferments cross a thousand lives and events.  I think that in this moment, a vital, innovative tentative and experiences live together, as well as some weariness and slowness are difficult to overcome.

"The women do a lot for the government of the Church at charismati level, starting from the Sisters, from the sisters of the great Fathers of the Church, up to the great women of the Middle Age and Mother Theresa". These are also words of the Pope which sound as a homage to all women, religious, lay and of special consecration. With their indispensable and little known contribution, they have supported the mission of the Church in the world.  According to you, must we re-think this contribution in the light of the social changes and of vocations crisis in our old Europe?

"Every contribution is connected with the times and places in which it happens. I think that today the central question is that the women, with their history of emancipation and desires, are (represent) truly the cultural and historical "other", the other half heaven, as we once used to say.  With their very existence, they pose the question of a non-reducible and blessed "alterity" (the unique difference preceding the original sin). Now, the other is always a challenge, a complexity, richness and at the same time, a potentiality of conflict.

The existence of another denounces my own particularity, makes me partial. This is the fruitfulness, but also the difficulty of our relation with the other,

I think that we should start reasoning again from here: women need the self-awareness of a difference, men the exercise of partiality".

What is the role of the theologian in the European context?  This is a theme on which the debate of the imminent congress on the co-ordination of the Italian women theologians will be centred.

"We are going to see what the Congress is going to say! This congress is a true challenge: it is the first time that we try to meet and to speak among us. Perhaps this is the first step: to know one another, to speak, to acknowledge our differences and the various urgencies of our churches. From this exercise, we must try to give voice to all and to the "others" of the complex Europe, at times somehow old and tired, but a common and lively house of us all.