Peter
Novecosky, OSB
PM takes vacation
It’s summertime and the Prairie Messenger staff will be taking
holidays for three weeks. The next issue of the PM will be dated Aug.
25.
Parish and diocesan activities slow down considerably during the summer
and so there is less news to report. Holidays also provide staff with
a chance to reconnect with family, enjoy leisure time or just do something
different. They also provide time to catch up on some reading —
even past issues of the PM.
Likely, few vacationers will use their holiday time as Pope Benedict XVI does. He arrived at Castel Gandolfo on July 7 for a month-long holiday. Immediately he began reading and studying in preparation for writing the third and final volume in his series on the life of Jesus.
The pope began his project, entitled Jesus of Nazareth, during his 2003
summer vacation, two years before he was elected pope. The 400-page
first volume, published in 2007, covers Jesus’ public ministry
from his baptism to his transfiguration. This spring he finished his
second volume on Jesus’ Passion and Resurrection; it is expected
to be ready for publication in various languages in early 2011. The
third volume will cover the infancy and childhood of Jesus.
The pope was said to appear “restored and beaming” as he
got into his writing. The PM staff wishes the same thing to our readers
as they enjoy their summer holidays.
Women play vital role
In the wake of the church’s sexual abuse scandal, some commentators
have noted that the problem would have been avoided if more women were
involved in upper levels of church administration. Charlene Spretnak,
for example, writing in the May 28 National Catholic Reporter, says,
“The church hierarchy does not seem to realize that its appalling
failure to protect children from sexual abuse stemmed from an infrastructure
of patriarchal values . . . .” She says that psychological research
shows that women “routinely experience far more empathy than do
most men and tend to favour an ethics of care.” The church needs
the “relational wisdom” of women to replace “patterns
of domination and control with more co-operative ways of interacting,”
she says.
At least one Vatican official seems to agree.
One of the church's leading women is calling for wider recognition of
the contribution women make, particularly as spiritual guides. Flaminia
Giovannelli, undersecretary at the Pontifical Council for Justice and
Peace, made this proposal in L'Osservatore Romano July 22.
She said her image of the church is that of Pope John Paul II and Mother
Teresa shaking hands. She said women have a special gift for some ministries,
especially for spiritual direction.
She explained, for example, that "if it is essential for Christians
to receive the sacrament of reconciliation, as it reconciles them with
God, spiritual direction is of fundamental importance for life: to know
rationally that our sin has been forgiven is not always the same as
feeling that one is forgiven.”
"How important is the help of someone to recognize and back the
plan that the Lord has for each one of us," Giovannelli said. "And
how many times this help comes to us from a woman, precisely because
of the sensitivity and affectivity that are hers."
Working at the Vatican office since 1974, Giovannelli said she always
had the feeling that her ideas are taken into account “precisely
because they are the ideas of a woman, complementary and hence necessary
in order to come to an objective judgment on the issues on which she
has been consulted."
Here’s another example of one of Pope John Paul II’s favourite
phrases: The church needs to breathe with both lungs.
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