CV NEWS FEED // Pope Francis asked members of the International Theological Commission (ITC) to “demasculinize the Church” during a Thursday audience at the Vatican.
“The Church is woman,” Francis said. “And if we do not understand who women are, what the theology of a woman is, we will never understand what the Church is.”
The pope called “masculinizing the Church” one of “our great sins.”
“And this is not resolved through ministerial means, that’s another thing,” he said. “It is resolved through the mystical, the real way.”
“This is a task I ask of you, please,” he directed the ITC. “Demasculinize the Church.”
Francis was reportedly unsatisfied with the fact that the Commission’s membership is mostly male and said that “we must progress” on having more female members.
“Women have a different capacity for theological reflection than we men,” he explained. “At the next meeting of the nine Cardinals, we will reflect on the female dimension of the Church.”
The ITC was created by Pope Paul VI in 1969.
According to the Vatican website, “the task of the Commission is that of helping the Holy See and primarily the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in examining doctrinal questions of major importance.”
The website continues:
The Commission is composed of theologians from diverse schools and nations, noted for their knowledge and faithfulness to the Magisterium of the Church. The members, which number no more than 30, are nominated by the Holy Father ad quinquennium after having been proposed by the Cardinal Prefect of the Congregation and after consultation with the Bishops’ Conferences.
Women have been allowed to become ITC members since 2004.
Again per the Vatican website, the Commission has 28 members, of which five are women. The majority of its members are priests or religious. The ITC’s official membership listing only names two laywomen and one layman among its ranks.