Women's Stories

In my morning readings today...Hildegard of Bingen and Gender and Theology...I am left with the question that keeps surfacing since Pope Francis has so graciously asked for a deeper awareness of the theology of women and that is "Is a Theology of Women necessary and is it a healthy movement for the Church?"  One of the writers within the Concilium, Gender and Theology, gets to the point of stating that we need to have gender theologies to get to the fullness of justice.  What they do is take an indepth look at power struggles, stereotypes, disadvantages, etc. and ultimately, in my words, lead us to the naming of sinful behavior and how we can seek the will of God and enter into a state of renewal.  It is using the gender to seek out God's revelation of Himself within so that movement can be made towards moral improvement.  A problem that surfaces fairly quickly, though, is that the Christian church has a history of using gender to demoralize and dehumanize, so much so, that Pope John Paul II in the late 1990's felt called to apologize for its use in minimizing the dignity of women.  Many people are afraid today that continuing towards a gender specific theology will continue to compartmentalize women in the place of the "other", the "less than", the "one who led Adam astray".
My spirit keeps going back to this idea of a fullness of justice, though, and asking the Holy Spirit "How can we enter this difficult place, this threatening place of uncertainty, to uncover the atrocities that continue to occur towards women and still move with love towards a fullness of understanding of God's self-revelation through men and women?"  I think the answer comes through St. Hildegard and many others like her...their witness.  Women need to tell their stories of faith.  It is simple yet complicated in the fact that most women are not comfortable witnessing to their lives of faith.  They feel that their lives are unexceptional and they are more the reflection of the "masses" of Christians/Catholics in the pews on Sunday mornings. 

I went looking on the web yesterday for a Catholic Women's magazine that I could possibly contact regarding submissions of writings.  I have to say I was disappointed in what is currently being offered because I did not see anything that is addressing in an ongoing way this solicitation of Pope Francis'.  There are no ongoing columns regarding women within the Catholic Church.  I just get this sense of a very distinct disconnect between daily living of faith and witnessing to the faith in ways that can challenge, affirm, and support others.  This may be an impending issue leading to lack of investment and interest in the New Evangelization.

I am not sure what is the best way to engage women in opening up and telling their stories and allowing the Holy Spirit to use them in whichever way He wills.  I welcome all ways of trying and suggestions of other possibilities.  What I am sure of is that in my life I have been called through all of my experiences to be an ambassador of wonder and  possibilities.  With women, this means that the Church can use some of its ecumenical understanding of love and difference to be in relationship with women in a fuller and more authentic way and women can be fortified by the women who have gone before and left their stories as wives and mothers and daughters of how they were graced by God's divine strength to move forward in their journeys of faith and how they proceeded to build up the Kingdom of God within the Church and in the world. Blessings....