Wijngaards Institute for Catholic Research Announces New Documentary on Jesus' Female Disciples: The New Evidence of Women's Role in Spreading Jesus teaching in Early Church

"The disciples in the shadows: the Easter story from the feminine perspective.

Luca, our director, has been collaborating on a TV documentary shown on Channel4 in the UK entitled Jesus’ Female Disciples: The New Evidence. The main premise of the documentary is that the women of the early church were pivotal in spreading Jesus teaching. They sustained the emerging church with their own resources and spread the Word to feminine audiences which couldn't be approached by the male disciples. It was only in later centuries that their role was 'airbrushed' out and their influence diminished. Bible scholars Helen Bond and Joan Taylor, professors of Christian origins at the University of Edinburgh and King’s College London, respectively, say that the number and importance of women devotees has been underestimated for centuries and their significance ignored. The church has become more male orientated despite developments by recent Popes.

In all four gospel accounts of the Easter story, Jesus appeared to women and commissioned them to go proclaim his resurrection to his male disciples. That he appeared to Mary Magdalene first can only mean that this was by divine appointment and was a deliberate act on his part. Women as well as men were credible witnesses to the gospel and were commissioned to preach it to all with whom they came into contact. And the women were faithful in proclaiming the Gospel, even to the disciples. It is by recognizing Mary Magdalene's reputation as an early church leader that women's leadership can be reinstated in the Catholic church today, including the ordination of women."

For more on Mary Magdalene see http://www.womenpriests.org/mary-magdala-overview/
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