Bridget Mary's Response: Cardinal Anders Arborelius 's idea of an advisory body of women will do little to advance women's equality in the church , unless canon law is changed and this Women's Advisory Body is given the same authority as the College of Cardinals. Now that would revolutionize the Roman Catholic Church!
Currently, canon law reserves decision-making to the ordained. This is a catch-22 for the hierarchical, male dominated church! Roman Catholic Women Priests are leading the church toward a renewal model of inclusivity that celebrates the baptismal equality of all in the celebration of sacraments and ministry. We are changing the model from a pyramid to a circle. Bridget Mary Meehan ARCWP, www.arcwp.org
"One of the five prelates Pope Francis just made a new cardinal of the Catholic Church has suggested the pope consider creating a special advisory body of women akin to the College of Cardinals to offer more opportunity for women's leadership in the church.
Stockholm Cardinal Anders Arborelius, whom Francis made Sweden's first cardinal in a consistory Wednesday, June 28, said he thinks "it's very important to find a broader way of involving women at various levels in the church."
"The role of women is very, very important in society, in economics, but in the church sometimes we are a bit behind," Arborelius said in a June 28 NCR interview. The new cardinal mentioned that Pope John Paul II had often sought counsel from Mother Teresa and Chiara Lubich, founder of the Focolare movement.
"Maybe it could be made more official," he suggested, adding: "We have a College of Cardinals, but we could have a college of women who could give advice to the pope."
The College of Cardinals is the body of all the cardinals of the Catholic Church. Cardinals are usually senior Catholic prelates who serve as bishops in dioceses or in the Vatican's central bureaucracy and have a special tie to the pope as the symbolic heads of Rome's parish churches..."
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