The Role Of Women In The Church

The role of women in the Church

Today despite the progress we have had in the rights of equality between women and men, in the Catholic Church there is still inequality in the participation of women in the Church. It may seem that in today’s society, women have more and more rights and responsibilities in society, but for the Church they are still far from such equality. 

Although the Church is not a democracy, it is necessary to demand a change. In the case of a divine-human society, sometimes the participation of women is justified as ‘nature’ that depends on faith and not on the outside world. As a member of the Catholic Church, I know that baptism and vocation are the beginning of which religion embarks. 

When you receive the sacrament of the baptism, be a man or woman, you join to be part of the Church and become a member with duties and rights in the vocation in holiness. There is a prayer that reminds us that there must be equality among the members of the Catholic community. The woman and any member has the right to participate in the Church from baptism, which is why we talk about baptismalness.¨ 

Pope Francis spoke of this issue in one of his speeches in 2016, stating that the role of women in the Church is not feminism, it is a right.¨ With this speech it made it clear that it is important not to confuse the right of women in participation in the Church with feminism. This speech did not give rise to any change in the Church. According to the article The Role of the Woman in the Life of Church, written by Fides Dossier, this type of inequalities come historically since the period after the Second Vatican Council, where there was a great explosion of the feminist culture.

This movement caused great changes in society and families, but did not have much success in women’s rights. This would take more time to provide more rights to women regarding the church.     

It was after the decision to raise the party to the memory of María Magdalena, that Pope Francis brought a "Secondary and Submissa" woman model that the Pope indicated as a model and a method of discernment style. This discernment is to discover the dogmatic impulses left in the past that are the basis for a reflection on the role of women in the Catholic Church. 

The objective of this is to discover the heritage that belongs to women in the church today, the Pope mentions in the Apostolic Charter of Evangelii Gaudium, which was necessary to expand the spaces to include the female presence in the Catholic Church. For the Pope there are no easy answers to answer. It is important to take different aspects into account. Although for many the role of women in the church is not as important as that of man, it is a secondary and significant theme. This need for change in gender equality in the Church is urgent.     

To give a little more argument, I will speak from the galas 3:28. People who have the belief that women and men have fundamental rights, their belief comes from Galatians 3:25 ¨ There is no Jew or Greek;There is no slave or free;There is no man or woman;because you are all in Christ Jesus.¨ On the other hand, others believe that we are all the same but everyone has a role given by God. 

This leads me to mention Will Roscoe’s article ¨Strange Country This¨ An Introduction to North American Gender Diversity, where Roscoe talks about the different roles between the genres. Each man and woman had a specific role that at the same time share together with unique features to their state. In the case of the Church, on the contrary the role of women does not compare, and is belittled since it is not sufficiently valued in the Church. Roscoe explores the functions of women and men who do not identify as a woman or man;In other words that are characterized as gay or lesbians among the American tribes. 

This comparison of the article by Roscoe and Galatas is to make it clear that the role of women is not always important in some societies no matter how much you want to see like this. In American tribes, the role of women is equally important as that of man, but in the Catholic Church it is not so. From the beginning of the Scriptures we can realize that God created the woman and man in their similarity. With his wisdom he created two bodies that are the same of value but with their individual role. This creates conflict, since for what we realize, it is misunderstood in the church. 

Although he assigned us the role in such a way that man is the head and spiritual leader and woman as his help, biblical femininity is intrinsic to the call of equality. The idea that "Humans use religion as to the ritual to Help Them ‘Make Sense’ of Their Mysteries, Challenges, and Paradoxes of Their Lives" by Mark Auslander at How families work, "helps us understand that religious manifestations have to bevisible in every aspect of our lives, in this case in the church and home. As women we are destined to build and nurture households with wisdom and much love yielding before God for our attitudes, and facts. In n the church, we serve as columns to the body and be models in the society of the ideal of women. 

In his article The Adaptive Value of Ritual Religious, Richard Sosis Said “If People Are Linked By A Common Set of Beliefs and A Common Set of Ritual Obligations, The they are theyCollective.”This specific part of the introduction of its article made me think that if there were equality between both sexes in the Catholic Church, the community would be more united. It can be understood that women cannot take the role of priest, but given the role we have as women on earth in the eyes of God, it is important to mention that the Bible emphasized the importance of women in Genesis. Genesis 1:27 tells us that the woman was created in the image of God and 2:18 helps us verify that women were created as the right hand. 

The idea that we were created as ideal help complete the idea of equality between both sexes. Maybe for many our role on earth is not just as important as that of man, but before God, we are both equal. At the time I enter the Church, the difference number between women and men is remarkable. 

Usually, when I attend Mass, there are more women who attend God than men. Given the previous information, we can realize that the role of Catholic women is of the utmost importance and most of the time we do not appreciate the importance or value of those that give their lives to serve God. During this investigation, I learned much more than I knew about the role of women in the church. There are different roles that women can exercise in the church such as teaching the gospel, doing charity, giving matrimonial talks, teaching or children, among others, among others. 

Although for many people it is not so, apart from serving God as a family guide, they can serve God with charitable works inside and outside the church. Each woman brings or has something to benefit the Church. They can not only serve by praying. God made the woman to help the man, to motivate them, and provide generosity those who deserve it. 

After all, God made the "man" referring to the woman also to her similarity. For him, we are both equal, therefore we deserve the same equality before the Church.