Saturday, November 03, 2012

How the Council helped end the male monopoly on theology

Although the Second Vatican Council may initially come across as a chauvinist event, nothing was quite the same after the Council, even for women.

Like the laity, women did not  participate actively in the most important event of the 20th century: the 23 women whom Paul VI invited to attend Council proceedings in 1964, were simply members of the audience and had no right to speak, reports Vatican Insider.

But historical research has revealed that these women, who had to wear a black veil and were called “mothers” by the Synod Fathers, were in fact instrumental in ensuring that the Second Vatican Council addressed issues relating to the status of women and their rights in the Catholic Church.

It is partly because of them that there are female theologians in the Catholic Church today: thanks to the Council, the male monopoly on theology ended.

On the 50th anniversary, female Italian theologians promoted “an opportunity to reflect on” the way in which the Catholic Church “was able to see gender difference as a contribution of intelligence and a reserve of enthusiasm.”

A conference entitled “Female theologians reinterpret Vatican II. Accepting history, preparing for the future” was held on October 4 at the Pontifical University of Sant’Anselmo in Rome and was attended by historians and theologians from across the world, including Hervé Legrand, Gerald Mannion, Maureen Sullivan, Massimo Faggioli, Tina Beattie and Mercedes Navarro Puerto.

Marinella Perroni is a doctor in theology; she teaches the New Testament at a Pontifical University, has priests among her students and is President of the association of Italian women theologians (Coordinamento teologhe italiane - CTI). Without Vatican II her role would simply not exist.

This is one of the greatest legacies of the Council, which admitted 23 “mothers”. Looking through the biographies of these 23 women, one understands “the concrete contribution they gave, despite the fact they were forbidden to speak: the Council - the CTI president stressed – gave rise to the idea of joining theological faculties, marking the end of the male monopoly on theology. Women became interpreting figures.”

Perroni, who was born in 1947 and lectures at the Pontifical University of St. Anselm in Rome, clearly outlines her stance and that of female Italian theologians on the debate over whether the Second Vatican Council should be read as a “break” with Church tradition or as an event showing “continuity” with this tradition.

“As theologians, we deliberately decided – she commented – not to take part in this “continuity-break” controversy: it is badly presented and does not interest us. In our opinion, theological research follows other paths and this becomes an academic diatribe.”