On Women’s Day, Panel Push for More Laity in Positions of Power at Vatican

Crux ^ | 3/9/21 | Elise Ann Allen

[marshmallow]

ROME – Several prominent Vatican personalities marked International Women’s Day by celebrating the contribution a feminine touch can bring to their work and calling for more space to be created for lay people in general within the ranks of the Roman Curia.

Speaking during a March 8 panel organized by the Australian Embassy to the Holy See, Sister Nathalie Becquart, Undersecretary to the General Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops, said Pope Francis is calling the Church “to recognize the legitimate place of women” at all levels of the Church in order to achieve “greater justice and equality, and he calls the Church to respect women’s rights.”

However, she said the push to include more women in positions of leadership and authority must be done with an emphasis on “greater reciprocity between males and females.”

“Synodality is also about bringing all the voices of the people of God,” she said, voicing hope that this will form part of the discussion during the 2022 Synod of Bishops on Synodality.

Becquart, who is the first woman ever to be appointed to her position, and who consequentially will become the first woman to vote in a synod of bishops during the 2022 gathering, stressed the need for a greater sense of co-responsibility between men and women in the Church.