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.
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.