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Francis’ address to participants in an international inter-university conference 7th March 2024
“Women in the Church: Artisans of humanity”
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
I warmly greet all of you who have come from different countries to participate in the Conference “Women in the Church: Artisans of Humanity”.
I thank you for your presence and for organizing and promoting this event.
It especially values the witness of holiness of ten women. I would like to mention them: Josephine Bakhita, Magdeleine of Jesus, Elizabeth Ann Seton, Maria MacKillop, Laura Montoya, Kateri Tekakwitha, Teresa of Calcutta, Rafqa Pietra Choboq Ar-Rayès, Maria Beltrame Quattrocchi and Daphrose Mukasanga.
All of them, in different times and cultures, with their own different styles, and with initiatives of charity, education and prayer, have demonstrated how the “feminine genius” knows how to God’s holiness in the world in a unique way..
In fact, at times when women were most excluded from social and ecclesial life, “the Holy Spirit raised up saints whose fascination gave rise to new spiritual dynamics and important reforms in the Church”.
Not only that, but I am also anxious “to remember so many unknown or forgotten women who, each in her own way, have sustained and transformed families and communities with the power of their witness” (Gaudete and Exsultate, 12).
And the Church needs this, because the Church is a woman: daughter, wife and mother, and who more than a woman can reveal her face?
Let us help one another, without coercion or rupture, but with careful discernment, docile to the voice of the Spirit and faithful in communion, find appropriate ways to enhance the greatness and role of women in the People of God.
You have chosen a special expression for the title of your Conference, defining women as “artisans of humanity”. These words recall even more clearly the nature of their vocation: that of being “artisans”, collaborators with the Creator at the service of life, of the common good, of peace.
And I would like to emphasize two aspects of this mission, concerning style and formation.
First of all, the style.
Ours is a time torn apart by hatred, in which humanity, which needs to feel loved, is instead often scarred by violence, war and ideologies that drown the most beautiful feelings of the heart.
It is in this context that the contribution of women is more indispensable than ever: women know how to unite with tenderness..
St. Therese of the Child Jesus said that she wanted to be love in the Church.
And she was right: in fact, women, with their unique capacity for compassion, with their intuitiveness and with their natural propensity to “take care”, know how to be eminently useful to society, “intelligence and a heart that loves and unites”, bringing love where there is no love, humanity where man struggles to find himself.
The second aspect is formation.
You have organized this conference in collaboration with various Catholic academic institutions.
And in fact, in the context of university pastoral care, offering students, in addition to an academic study of the Church’s doctrine and social message, testimonies of holiness, especially for women, encourages them to raise their gaze, to broaden the horizon of their dreams and of their way of thinking, and to be prepared to follow lofty ideals.
In this way, holiness can become a transversal line of education in the whole approach to knowledge.
For this reason, I hope that your environments, will not only be places of study, research and learning, “informative” places, but will also be “formative contexts”, where you help to open your minds and hearts to the action of the Holy Spirit.
For this reason, it is important to make the saints known, especially the saints, in all the depth and concreteness of their humanity: in this way, formation will be even more capable of touching each person in his or her totality and uniqueness.
One last thing about formation: in the world, where women still suffer so much violence, inequality, injustice and abuse — and this is scandalous, all the more so for those who profess faith in God “born of woman” (Gal 4:4) — there is a serious form of discrimination, which is precisely linked to the formation of women.
Indeed it is feared in many contexts, but the way to better societies is precisely through the education of girls and young women, from which human development benefits.
Let us pray and commit ourselves to this!
Dear sisters and brothers, I entrust to the Lord the fruits of your Conference and I accompany you with my blessing. And please, don’t forget to pray for me. Thank you
