Scottish Catholic Observer

The Vatican opened its doors last Sunday for the second year running to Voices of Faith, an event celebrating International Women’s Day by bringing to the Vatican women of faith whose intrepid but often little-known work on the margins of society can be an inspiration for all Catholics.

In his remarks following the Angelus on Sunday, the Holy Father offered ‘a fraternal ‘thank you’ for all those women who, in a thousand ways, bear witness to the Gospel and work in the Church.’

The brainchild of Catholic philanthropist Chantal Goetz and supported by the Fidel Goetz Foundation and Caritas Internationalis, Voices of Faith was held at the Casina Pio IV in the Vatican Gardens and was broadcast around the world online.

The Holy Father saw the event as an opportunity ‘to repeat the importance of women, and the necessity of their presence in life.’

“A world where women are marginalised is a sterile world, because women don’t just bear life but transmit to us the ability to see otherwise, they see things differently,” Pope Francis said. “They transmit to us the ability to understand the world with different eyes, to understand things with hearts that are more creative, more patient, more tender.”

The Pope also offered ‘a prayer, and a special blessing, for all the women present here in the Square, and for all women.’

A day earlier the Pope said to find new ways for women to be ‘full participants in the various areas of social and ecclesial life…can no longer be postponed.’

Speaking in a message on Saturday with members of the Pontifical Council for Culture, the Pope said a ‘more widespread and incisive female presence’ in the Church ‘is desirable, so that we can see many women involved in pastoral responsibilities, in the accompaniment of persons, families and groups, as well as in theological reflection.’

The Holy Father added he is ‘convinced of the urgency of offering spaces to women in the life of the Church… taking into account the specific and changing cultural and social sensitivities’ yet added the ‘irreplaceable role of women in the family’ cannot be forgotten. While women’s ‘effective presence’ in the public sphere, in decision-making and in the world of work must be encouraged and promoted, he said, so must their ‘presence and preferential attention for the family’ be upheld.

“We must not leave women alone to carry this burden and to make decisions,” he added. “ Rather, all institutions, including the ecclesial community, are called to ensure freedom of choice for women, so that they have the possibility to take on social and ecclesial responsibilities in a way that is in harmony with family life.”

During the course of Sunday’s event, Voices of Faith and Caritas Internationalis presented €10,000 prizes: ‘Women: Sowers of Development.’ One was awarded to Caritas Nicaragua for an agricultural development project and the other to Basmeh Zeitooneh, a cooperative in Lebanon that gives new hope to Syrian and Palestinian refugee women.