But as Pope Paul VI also remarked, 5 a very large number of Christian communities are already benefiting from the apostolic commitment of women. 4 This charge of the Second Vatican Council has already set in motion the whole process of change now taking place: these various experiences of course need to come to maturity. Nor could one forget the great number of women who have consecrated themselves to the Lord for the exercise of charity or for the missions, and the Christian wives who have had a profound influence on their families, particularly for the passing on of the faith to their children.īut our age gives rise to increased demands: “Since in our time women have an ever more active share in the whole life of society, it is very important that they participate more widely also in the various sectors of the Church’s apostolate”. The latter, moreover, and Saint Catherine of Siena, have left writings so rich in spiritual doctrine that Pope Paul VI has included them among the Doctors of the Church.
One has only to think of the foundresses of the great religious families, such as Saint Clare and Saint Teresa of Avila. In the life of the Church herself, as history shows us, women have played a decisive role and accomplished tasks of outstanding value. 2 The resulting equality will secure the building up of a world that is not leveled out and uniform but harmonious and unified, if men and women contribute to it their own resources and dynamism, as Pope Paul VI recently stated. 1 Along the same lines, the Second Vatican Council, enumerating in its Pastoral Constitution “Gaudium et Spes” the forms of discrimination touching upon the basic rights of the person which must be overcome and eliminated as being contrary to God’s plan, gives first place to discrimination based upon sex. This is a development that is perhaps of swifter growth among Christian nations, but it is also happening extensively, if more slowly, among nations that are heirs to different traditions and imbued with a different culture”. The Role Of Women In Modern Society And The ChurchĪmong the characteristics that mark our present age, Pope John XXIII indicated, in his Encyclical “Pacem in Terris” of 11 April 1963, “the part that women are now taking in public life. Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith The First General Council of the Vatican, 1869-70 A.D.Council of Basel-Ferrara-Florence, 1431-45 A.D.Fourth Council of Constantinople : 869-870.Third Council of Constantinople : 680-681 A.
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