International Women’s Day

This week, I’m collecting articles under three headings: Pope Francis, whose tenth anniversary will be March 13; Synod, but I’m waiting for the North American report, which is due March 31; and Women, which I will write about this week for International Women’s Day, March 8.

The Synod process has revealed worldwide concern about the role of women in the church; we all know that. I want to explore some of the particulars. I am intrigued by a series of articles in La Croix International by Lucie Sarr in which she profiles “Catholic women on the African continent.” So far three interviews have been published.

The first is of Marie Angélique Sagna Savané, a Senegalese sociologist and former politician, who says: “Many priests think that I am too critical or too hard because I dare to say what I think, having always held positions of responsibility.”

Among those positions was director of the UN Population Fund’s office for Africa, and Savane does not hesitate to discuss contraception and abortion. She endorses the Maputo Protocol which calls for the legalization of medical abortion in cases of rape, incest or in cases where the woman’s life is in danger. She takes on “African priests, led by Cardinal Robert Sarah…I find their attitude unjust and sexist because it is men who speak, regardless of the physical and mental health of women victims…I do not agree with the Church’s view because natural birth control methods are not reliable.” This is so important everywhere, and for the impoverished in Africa, especially.

Perhaps Savane took that position “at the time of my hardcore feminist involvement,” when “I was away from the Church. As a result, I did not have to suffer the wrath of the Church authorities in relation to my positions.” Wrath? That’s what it feels like sometimes; and people blame the Synod process for divisions!

Savane has returned to the church – “my conversion” – and finds “my feminism and my political commitment helped me to deepen my spirituality.” Of course, we say. She says: “Yes, of course I am for the ordination of women to the priesthood! I am also for married priests!” She praises the very competent work of sisters at managing their own institutions – schools and hospitals – but notes the absence of women in church decision-making.

The latter is also the focus of the other two women profiled so far, though Savane is the only one of the three who discusses reproductive care. Is that issue still a risk?

The only sister so far is Sahon Solange Sia, a member of the Congregation of Our Lady of Calvary in the Ivory Coast. She is on the theological commission of the Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM) and director of the Center for the Protection of Minors and Vulnerable Persons in Abidjan. Lucie Sarr highlights Sia’s insight that “The attitudes of resistance towards women” come from traditions in both “the African cultural milieu” and “the Church milieu; they come from men as well as from the women themselves.”

Sia examines the sexism in both cultures. She acknowledges that while in some African cultures women have a prominent economic role, subsequent colonial influences – including Christianity and Islam –imposed patriarchy, leading even women themselves to accept “the culture of the submissive, incapable woman, relegated to the background…Some women often block themselves because they have often been blocked; they inflict upon themselves their own rejection or incapacity.” Obviously, she has been willing to step forward.

To achieve their proper place in Catholic culture, Sia proposes training for women “to acquire the competencies, to understand ecclesiology and to engage with ease and dynamism…so that women have confidence and boldness.” “Increasing economic power” would also help.

Sia has published before in La Croix International, including in 2020, when she argued for theological education for all the laity to counter the pervasive clericalism of the field. “Is there not somewhere a tacit will to keep them well away from a circle that always wants to be closed?” Limiting the laity to certificates, not degrees, means that they will not be asked to contribute to ministry. I find this very interesting in light of RCWP and other ordaining groups, which encourage education. Sia does not move to ordination explicitly.

The year before, Sia explains her work against sex abuse as “the evangelization of consciences,” which I find quite elegant. The organization she heads relies on “training, awareness-raising, listening and accompaniment… to protect minors and vulnerable people.” She argues that there is also sex abuse in secular culture, but clericalism exacerbates it in the church. Asked about the abuse of nuns: “It…revolts me.” Sia is very clear about the institutional factors: “It is as if we were promoting a certain naivety that is at once spiritual, intellectual and theological…We make easy prey” for the “abuse of power.” Sia deals with the poverty from which some of these young people come; material rewards from perpetrators can be tempting.

Finally, the third profile is of Léonnie Kandolo, honored by the government as an “exceptional woman.” She was one of the “civil society and political actors” recently welcoming Pope Francis to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and she reports: “I saw Catholic dignitaries seated in the VIP section and there were no women among them. I found this shocking. Do they have a place in the Church? Moreover, in the pope’s entourage, there were also no women.”

Like Savane, Kandolo was raised Catholic but, unlike her, she characterizes herself as “a believer, but non-practicing.” Yet in 2018 she helped to found and became the spokesperson for the Lay Coordination Committee, a Catholic pro-democracy group; they were asking for elections under the constitution and for the return of political prisoners and exiles. An activist in various causes, she also co-founded an NGO that helps AIDS children.

Even Kandolo affirms Sia’s conclusion that it’s difficult for women to lead in her African society as well as in the Church, and that, sometimes, women are fearful of stepping forward. Her view of nuns has a different slant; she sees them as “somewhat cut off from their families and from what the African culture expects of them as women. Priests have more financial means than nuns, they manage to help their families.” Economic inequalities, again.

Perhaps Kandolo is just less theological than the other two; her take on ordination is that a woman “cannot be a priest or have a position that makes her a leading liturgical actor. The Church should undoubtedly make an effort to give more space to women. But what place? Because the Church has its theology and its dogmas.” That casual resignation is not stopping the others, and as a lay person, Savane is very well-informed, theologically. Kandolo could benefit from the training that Sia is advocating.

All these women are leading and speaking out. I anticipate additional profiles in this series and I encourage you to look for them if you are able to link to La Croix.

I distrust simplistic majorities, sweeping generalizations, and institutional power. I believe in prophetic voices. Whenever someone deplores the conservatism of the church in Africa, I will think of these women and bolster my faith in their African church.

Celebrate International Women’s Day this year!