International Women's Day

Former  President of Ireland  Mary Mc Aleese made a strong statement for International Women's Day about the Catholic Church and its official attitude to women.

The R. Catholic Church was and to an extent still is one of the most influential  bodies in the world. It should be forward in recognising human rights, dignity and potential.  Both Men and Women  should be - by right - in every place at every level in the Church where decisions are made. Religious  belief decisions, financial decisions, all decisions.

Both  men and women  should  be  at every level in all the churches'  work of creating and sharing  their  service to all people , including the work of all the "holy orders" of the church from  caretaker to priesthood and wherever leadership is to be. No question. Either we want the divine gifts of all our people to be  shared and enjoyed by all of us or we don't. If we do, let us get on with it.

In a sense we have been getting on with it for a long while.  Crab-like, believe it or not.

 Look at this for instance:

There were  times and places in which women were not allowed to sing in church - and some powerful people did some weird  things to make sure they wouldn't.  Then some genius got the great idea of having a window in a wall between choir and  everybody else so women could sing their hearts out through that. Then another great idea arrived,  that women could come forward  and let's hear the beautiful  voices in full glory - but in a balcony so as not to be looked at and maybe distract one and all. 

When the ancestors of us ordinary folk  were granted seats in church - and it took a while  for them to get that far  - it was decided eventually that standing together, men and women,  and therefore mingling, was not prim and proper at worship, so women should be  on one side of the congregation and men on the other.  Unmingling as it were.

In many parts of Ireland for centuries our ancestors had to worship in the open air, and then, when by leave of landlords and suchlike, churches were  built, they had  standing room  only, so a lot of mingling occurred. For some reason de-minglification lasted rather long in Ireland, right through half the lifetimes of us very elderly folk but now women can sit more or less where they like. Not usually in the sanctuary of course.  

Meanwhile  the approach - at crablike pace - of women towards equal place nearby  our altars was going on. Women were eventually allowed to read the sacred Books - the Bible - to our congregations, but only "if there was no suitable man available" and only outside the altar area, the sanctuary. Inch by inch however this unstoppable journey  step by step was happening. Then we took away the rails separating congregation from priest and  so women  now read happily from The Books and assist the priest in some acts of worship - inside the sanctuary.

It all took such a long, long time. But, then, it took a long time for women to make their slow approaches into the law courts and towards the judge's  benches. A long time for women  even to get voting, or into universities , longer still to get into representational politics, upwards even in trades unions, years and years, step by step, hurt by hurt. It took a long time for such a  slow step by step  movement to bring women into decision-making in business  and  into sharing all their genius in  literature.

So what did the Church do that everybody else was not doing in this unwillingness to invite  women to where they were needed as much as - sometimes more than - anyone else?  Trouble with the churches is that we expect better of them. More concern for human dignity, more concern for human rights, more concern - even if only for our own churchy reasons - for enriching ourselves with the wit and wisdom not of some members of our  churches but of all of them.

So the slow movement of women towards the altar in the R. Catholic church has been step by weary step. It's a pity the end point of this pilgrimage is not being hastened by  discussion and consent among  all of us rather than  just giving in to the inevitability of a place  for women at the altar as priests, an ending that people in high places tried to prevent and people in  humble places are going to make real.

Dr Mary Mc Aleese talked , as well she might, of officialdom in terms of misogyny.

But there is another element - fear.  Fear of what is to come -- whatever will it be?

I hesitate to do it but I will do it nevertheless, some might call it my dream, others  my nightmare, but I prefer to call it my harmless dream. The journey of women towards the sanctuary in our Church has been long and is still unfinished ....yet.......because of  a  future feared rather than a future faced........but future has its own inevitabilities.........

So imagine .  It is Christmas Day ... approaching noon.....St Peter's Square, tens of thousands of people waiting for the Pope to bless the city and the world,  blessing Urbi et Orbi..... murmurings swell , then die away as the clocks chime.... the Pope  comes out on the balcony , the cheers ....the silence. ....the silence of expectancy....what will  the pope say to enliven our faith and hope......"

And the pope, arms upraised begins to speak in welcome and prayers..

And the Pope's first words are :

"My husband and  I........ "