A Pause…

 We’re going to take pause this month in our reflections on Francis’ Let Us Dream text. Several of you have been online for the Synodal Sessions for Religious Life sponsored by the National Catholic Reporter and the Global Sisters’ Forum. (I’ve seen your dear faces on-screen!) I’m going to pick up two significant questions that came from the March 31 session.

 1.     Isn’t the Synodal Listening Process just moving the Church to be a Democracy where the majority rules?

No. The Church is not a democracy in the sense the Greeks proposed it as a form of government. The Church is s Spirit-ocracy. It is a community permeated by the Holy Spirit where the charisms or Gifts of the Spirit are shining everywhere for those with eyes to see. Two of these communal gifts are infallibility and indefectibility. The first guides the Church to eventually discern the fuller truth on an issue, and the latter guides the Church to eventually discern how to shake off the sin that daily infects the Church. This is because the risen Christ in his Spirit is the heart of the Church and tolerates no error or sin. The Synod is tuning the Church to listen to these charisms in the whole Body of the Church in a global way for the first time. Make no mistake: that listening is going to bring forth both great wisdom and a lot of bias. The Spirit’s presence helps us to discern the ego/bias when it appears: blaming, complaining, shaming; worry, whining, and withdrawal. Guess what the Spirit will keep, and what the Spirit will guide us to put aside? Yes…wisdom. This is more than democracy…this is Spirit-ocracy at work.

 2.     Will there be a breakthrough in regard to the leadership gifts of women, e.g the Female Diaconate?

Maybe so. But in my view we need to take care of some unfinished business. The Church has not been able to produce a solid Theology of the Woman for our time. What is the role of woman in the cultures of the world, and in the Church? Until this question is addressed, we women continue to think we will become heard and visible if we imitate what men are doing. The norm is still the male. No…we need to come into our own, and we need women to do it…theologically trained women. I believe this is calling to Dominican women today for clarification and articulation.

 More on Let Us Dream next month…!