The Church’s inconsistency toward women

The Vatican has seen a growth in the number of women in high roles in the Vatican since Pope Francis started his pontificate in 2013. However, some people believe there is still a degree of misogyny in the Church, resulting from recent comments the Pontiff made regarding nuns.

On January 4, 2025, Pope Francis addressed the participants in the General Chapter of the Union of St Catherine of Siena of school missionaries, saying that nuns should not keep what he called a ‘vinegar face’. He said: “Many times in my life I have encountered nuns with a vinegar face, and this is not friendly, this is not something that helps to attract people.” The Pope continues by saying that “vinegar is ugly, and nuns with a vinegar face, let’s not say! In short: holiness, preparation and friendliness. I ask this of you.”

The pontiff also addressed gossip amongst nuns. “In order to contemplate to hand down to others, speaking well and friendliness are necessary, and there is a great enemy of this, which is gossip,” he said. “Please, distance yourself from gossip. Gossip kills, gossip poisons. Please, no gossip among you, none. And to ask this of a woman is heroic, but come on, let’s go forward, and no gossip.”

Commentary on the inconsistent and conflicting views of the Catholic Church toward women have been pointed out long before these ‘vinegar face’ comments. In November 2024, We Are Church Ireland published an article titled ‘Women are a problem for the Catholic Church, an institution with ingrained misogyny – Soline Humbert’, where they commented on the Synod and the possibility of women entering the priesthood. “Women are half of the Church but end up being a category, an issue, a problem in a patriarchal institution with ingrained misogyny”, the article reads.

The first time the Pontiff spoke in public about the issue of ‘women priests’ was during an interview returning from a visit to Brazil in 2013. “The Church has spoken and says ‘no’ … that door is closed,” he said at the time.

In 2022, the Pope urged nuns to ‘fight’ back against sexism in the Church and mistreatment by priests in his prayer intentions for the month of February. “What would the Church be without religious sisters and consecrated laywomen? The Church cannot be understood without them,” the Pontiff said.

He talked about the consecrated women religious who, through their ministry, spread the “beauty of God’s love and compassion”. He encouraged them “to fight when, in some cases, they are treated unfairly, even within the Church,” he urged, “when they serve so much that they are reduced to servitude —at times, by men of the Church.”

In 2019, speaking to some 850 superior generals at a meeting during the plenary of the International Union of Superiors General which represents more than 450,000 sisters in more than 100 countries, the Pontiff said, “You did not become a religious in order to become the maid of a priest”. He encouraged the superior generals to send sisters on duties that truly serve the Church and those in need, as at the end of the day, they are the ones deciding where the sister will go to.

Another polemic comment about nuns attributed to the Pope was regarding social media use. In a document posted by the Vatican’s office for religious life in 2016 (titled Cor Orans), cloistered nuns were told to not overindulge in ‘social communications.’

“In all the variety in which it is presented today, aims at safeguarding recollection and silence: in fact, it is possible to empty contemplative silence when the cloister is filled with noises, news, and words,” the document reads.

“The use of the means of communication for reasons of information, formation or work, can be allowed in the monastery, with prudent discernment, for common utility, according to the provisions of the Conventual Chapter contained in the community plan of life.”

And continues: “The nuns procure necessary information on the Church and the world, not with a multiplicity of news, but knowing how to grasp the essential in the light of God, to bring it to prayer in harmony with the heart of Christ.”

However, even with the controversial comments, it is undeniable that women are being heard and getting more and more opportunities in the Vatican. The work of nuns and laywomen is being acknowledged and the Vatican is open to recognising it by promoting them to higher positions roles.