Calling on women of courage and confidence

About a month ago my DD colleagues Anna Robertson and Lisa Amman each texted me at the end of the same day, saying how they went down a rabbit hole studying the women of the Colonnade on St. Peter’s Square in Rome in preparation for an upcoming activity with college students. Their messages were animated:

“DID YOU KNOW THERE IS A WOMAN DEACON IN THERE?! Maybe 3!!!”

“At first blush it says they were widows – but if you research their stories, there was a lot more going on!”

I must confess: I was not sure how interesting or compelling this would be to a group of college students. But the Holy Spirit clearly planted it in both Lisa and Anna’s minds – and it was a real grace to be part of what unfolded as we made our way around the Colonnade this week. We shared the stories of these saints with ~60 college and graduate students as part of Synodality CENTERS, a creative collaboration of 15 colleges from the U.S. who are sowing seeds for a synodal church through engagement with young adults, theologians, and campus ministers.

Students were invited to an optional tour – and Anna and Lisa, together with Kascha Sanor, Director of Social & Environmental Justice for the Congregation of St. Joseph, brought the statues to life – inviting us to look up and contemplate the depths. Disrupting assumptions that the people up there were only apostles or early church fathers – and then expanding the story from simply “virgin martyrs” and the occasional “wife and mother”” to “deacon”, “abbess”, “writer”, “founder of a hospital”, etc. They wore many hats alongside their vocations as wives, mothers, and single women.

We let the communion of saints, the statues above the colonnade, embrace us – hold us, just as they hold the millions of pilgrims who pass through the square and enter into St. Peter’s Basilica each year. They held us as we sang the refrain “Receive her in the Lord” in between our contemplation of each saint, and they extended their hands over us as we extended ours towards each other singing, “Courage, my friend, you do not walk alone.”

We were invited to ask: what part of this saint’s story resonates with you? What wisdom does she have for the church today as it discerns about women’s participation? And if this saint was in the synod assembly, what might be her message or intervention?

Part of the pain of these stories is how frequently the saints are ahead of the Church. St. Clare was on her deathbed when she at last was given approval by the pope for the rule of life that she had been petitioning for. St. Teresa of Avila spent time in prison for her attempted reforms of the Carmelite order before eventually receiving approval. St. Thecla faced multiple attempts at execution for her decision to forego life as a wife and mother for one of itinerant preaching, inspired by her teacher St. Paul.

We are in a moment today of new pathways emerging – even as at times it’s hard to know exactly what is unfolding. Check out the voices of synod members reflecting on building pathways for women in a synodal Church in this collection of videos from the World Women’s Observatory, a project of the World Union of Catholic Women’s Organizations (WUCWO).

They include calls for expanded participation in decision making, governance, and in our liturgical life – including permission to proclaim the gospel and preach. These calls are fueled by an urgency to be visible and have a voice in every space where we gather to live the mission of the gospel with greater authenticity.

In these final weeks of the synod we continue to join ours hearts in prayer —

All you holy men and women, pray for us.

Pray for the Synod.

And friends – we would ask you to pray for us in DD as we continue to seek to be partners on this synodal journey – trusting in the Spirit, and seeking Christ who is the way-maker.