Finding a way forward that creates space for all voices

A report published by the Diocese of Limerick this week found “that challenges arise from the absence of formal ‘official’ recognition of the roles played by women in the Church and states that opportunities need to be created for women’s voices to be heard in our liturgies, in Church leadership and in Church life” (see page 6).

The former Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin often remarked that he believed the alienation felt by many women within the Church was the biggest issue facing Irish Catholicism. It’s not something his remaining colleagues are unaware of. In fact, of the bishops who have commented most enthusiastically about the ongoing synodal process, all have mentioned the need to hear the voices of women.

And yet, I can’t help but wonder that by focusing the discussion exclusively around gender we are missing something deeper. You might even say we’re missing something that is missing: men.

Report

RTÉ News carried a report on Monday night from Cork about the re-opening of Mass. Perhaps the most striking comment was from a woman who when asked what it means to be able to attend again replied simply: “it means everything”.

I was struck by the sincerity and how succinctly the woman expressed it, and so I wanted to write it down. So I paused the television and re-winded to see the report again in full. It was only then that it struck me that all of the people interviewed about the return to Mass were women. Everyone except the priest, that was. As the camera panned the congregation, there were a couple of men – but I would estimate that the congregation was 90% female.

Replicated

I’ve seen this replicated in parishes up and down the country where the vast majority of Mass-goers are women. It’s often made me think: where are the men?

Are men less inclined to be religious than women? Do men not feel the same spiritual urges as women? I don’t know if there is a simple answer. If there is, I don’t know it – but I think it is a discussion worth having.

I can already hear some people – not without reason – cry “but all the priests are men”.

But, to see the priesthood as meaning that all men are included and heard in the Church is to hold to a very narrow view that sees gender as the only distinction.

I think a wider vision would help us understand that part of the chasm that exists in terms of leadership and responsibility in the Church now is between those who are ordained and those who are not. Some will say, well men are free to be ordained. But, this amounts to what Pope Francis calls the tendency to clericalise laypeople – to hold to the idea that to have any meaningful role within the Church one must become a priest.

Mission

Surely at this moment in our history we are being called to a broader vision of mission, ministry and co-responsibility within the Church?

In his apostolic exhortation, Querida Amazonia, Pope Francis proposed that the real reform that is needed in the Church is transcending traditional divisions and “finding other, better ways, perhaps not yet even imagined”.

There is a piercing need for women to feel heard and included in the Church, there is the same need for men and we must resist the temptation to fall back on clichés which mean by trying to address one sense exclusion we create another.