The ordinary Catholic faithful is left stunned by what this present pope is perpetrating in Holy Mother the Church. Among other things, he is imposing participatory democracy on the Church, a form of government totally incompatible with the hierarchical government of the last two thousand years. He ruthlessly banned the traditional Mass that goes back centuries, showing an appalling lack of charity. He condemns those adhering to the traditional Church as sinful and schismatic. Now he recognises a new sin: masculinity.
He declares there is too much sinful masculinity in the Church and calls upon theologians, particularly feminist theologians, to ‘demasculinize’ the Church. It’s hard to believe these words and actions emanate from the Vicar of Christ.
To demonstrate the need to rid the Church of sinful masculinity he reminds people that “The church is woman. And if we do not understand who women are, what the theology of a woman is, we will never understand what the church is.”
One assumes that Bergoglio is referring to Ephesians 5:22-33 in which St Paul calls the Church the Bride of Christ. Is this symbolic depiction the same as claiming the ‘Church is woman.’ I suppose it is if you’re an agitating feminist theologian. For the rest of us, it shows the pope is sadly confused.
In the same feminist mode of explanation, Bergoglio goes on to refer to two principles in the Church: a “Petrine principle” and a “Marian principle” . He then asserts these two principles ‘describe the important but different roles women and men play in the Catholic Church.’ What?
Don’t the two principles rather refer to two different ways men and woman live out their Catholic faith – one based on Christ the redeemer and the other on the Blessed Virgin Mary, the way of charity and humility?
May I remind His Holiness that Mary declared in the sublime Magnificat that ‘my spirit doth rejoice in God my Savior for He has regarded the humility of his handmaid …’ Mary is a model of humility and compassion for men and women
To claim that the Petrine Principle and the Marian Principle describe roles, one exclusive to men, and one exclusive to women, is, it seems to me, to proclaim a new teaching.
But then again feminists are all about flipping things on their head. Our feminist pope is merely following their theological fantasies.
*****
Pope asks theologians to help ‘de-masculinize’ the church
Meeting members of the International Theological Commission, a body appointed by the pope and that works with the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Pope Francis noted how few members are women.
Cindy Wooden, USCCB, November 30, 2023
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Asking pardon for speaking plainly, Pope Francis told members of the International Theological Commission that “one of the great sins we have had is ‘masculinizing’ the church,” which also can be seen by the fact that only five of the commission members are women.
The pope, who appoints the 28 members of the commission, said the church needs to make more progress in balancing such bodies because “women have a capacity for theological reflection that is different from what we men have.”
Pope Francis met members of the commission at the Vatican Nov. 30. He handed them a prepared text, which he described as a “beautiful speech with theological things,” but said that because of his ongoing respiratory problems due to bronchitis, “it’s better that I don’t read it.”
But greeting members of the group, the pope said that perhaps his conviction about the importance of women theologians comes from the fact that “I’ve studied a lot the theology of a woman,” Hanna-Barbara Gerl-Falkovitz, and her work on Father Romano Guardini, a German priest, philosopher and theologian, who died in 1968.
Coincidently, Gerl-Falkovitz is one of four German women who wrote to Pope Francis about their concerns regarding the German Catholic Church’s Synodal Path. In a letter published by a German newspaper Nov. 21, Pope Francis responded to the women saying, “I, too, share this concern about the numerous concrete steps that are now being taken by large parts of this local church that threaten to move further and further away from the common path of the universal church.”
Pope Francis told members of the commission that at the next meeting of his international Council of Cardinals, “we will have a reflection on the feminine dimension of the church.”
Providing no other details, he repeated what he has said in the past: “The church is woman. And if we do not understand who women are, what the theology of a woman is, we will never understand what the church is.”
The problem “is not solved in a ministerial way, that’s another thing,” he said, repeating his belief in the concept that in the church there is a “Petrine principle” and a “Marian principle” that describe the important but different roles women and men play in the Catholic Church.
“You can debate this, but the two principles are there,” the pope said. “It is more important to have the Marian (dimension) than the Petrine,” because the church is the bride of Christ.