The Catholic Church and Women: Some Historical Perspectives

“What does it mean to be a woman?” It was 1995. I was a college sophomore, walking across a tree-lined campus, flanked by red-bricked Georgian buildings. And all around me, young people were racing to and from class, laughing, shouting out greetings, and talking about the things college... Read more

This year marks the bicentenary of Jane Austen’s death, at the age of 41. What sort of Christian was this imaginative and highly intelligent woman? Jane was both the daughter and sister of clergymen. Her father, George Austen – “the handsome Proctor” – was vicar of the 12th-century... Read more

By a happy coincidence, as we meet for this staff development initiative, this is also the day on which the Church in the United States honors the memory of the indomitable St. Frances Xavier Cabrini. Of course, I am then reminded one of the many insightful, wise sayings of Pope John Paul II:... Read more

Women in the Medieval Church 450–523: Brigid of Ireland founds Ireland’s first nunnery and spreads Christianity there. 475-545: Clotilde, Queen of the Franks, converts her husband, King Clovis, who lays the foundation of the French nation 500–547: Theodora I, co-empress of Byzantine... Read more

One of the best-kept secrets in modern culture is the enormous role that women played in the formation and development of Christianity. Since Eve was the mother of all living and Mary was the mother of the Living One, woman are indispensable to the Catholic faith. It’s simple:No woman,no... Read more

Christianity’s first known playwright Hrotsvit lived in the tenth century (932–1002) as a canoness of the Imperial Saxon Abbey of Gandersheim (Germany). She can best be described by a catalogue of pioneering achievements: she is the first known dramatist of Christianity; the first Saxon poet;... Read more

The first autobiography in the English language was written by a Christian woman, Margery Kempe, who lived in the early 1400s. In the early Middle Ages, it was not uncommon for an abbess (the female head of a religious community) to rule “double” communities of both men and women. One who... Read more

The feminist challenge to the Catholic faith is based upon a deep misunderstanding. Feminists accuse Catholicism of being thoroughly patriarchal. They claim that women have been oppressed since the Church's inception by a male power structure. In the Catholic Church, they charge, men and men... Read more