Letter from Rome: Catholic women still relegated to second class
Musings on the pope s motu proprio on female readers and altar servers
A laywoman reads at Mass in the Casa Santa Marta in the Vatican in February 2020. (Photo: Vatican News) Holy Mother Church, ever deepening her contemplation and understanding of the mysteries of human salvation over the long course of history, has always taught in various, though sometimes veiled ways, that the Blessed Virgin Mary, Holy Mother of God, was the first human being, through the power of the Holy Spirit, to make her Son and our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, really and truly present to those who would become His disciples, during His earthly life and throughout all ages until the end of time.
bring them some water. judas. let me look at you. what is your name? i m called mary. my mother s name. come sit, please. what is your son s name? his name is judah. judah. who s she? how old is judah? 12. may i touch you, gently? you are without fear, mary? i don t fear disease of the skin or the flesh, only disease of the spirit. mm, something you ve known. i m from magdala. do you know magdala? a barracks town for roman
troops, where jewish daughters are enslaved to pay the tax debts of their families. you would see an end to such suffering. i m told it s your purpose. oh, be certain it is, mary from magdala. then my purpose must be serving you. thank you. blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. blessed are those who hunger and thirst. is it the nazarene who speaks? yes. and those who should be tending my fields are here, bewitched by him. .they will be shown mercy. blessed are those persecuted for
and that s enough. yeah. then i ll leave you to pray. mary. the cup from which i must drink how very bitter it is. go, mary of magdala. [ door creaks ] [ sighs ] [ sniffles ] [ cock crowing ] [ breathing sharply ] what is this? that beast is little more than a yearling. he told us to find a donkey colt.
men. and at the gospel of mary at the end she goes out and preaches. i saw the lord jesus christ in a vision. the gospel of mary is the only known gospel that depicts mary magdalene as a leader in the early church, but how seriously should we take it as a record of actual events? we know that mary of magdalene did not write in gospel. we can tell from the style of the text, from the language, the vocabulary that s used that it really dates back to the middle of the 2nd century. by that time the historical mary magdalene was long gone. even if this gospel can t be taken as a serious historical record, it points at something else. a possible dispute over the role of women in the early church. well, i think this really speaks to historically a tension between male and female leaders in the church. the gospel of mary shows that early christians were still trying to hash out what really the role of women was in the