The alliance between men and women in the Church today

The presentation of a new magazine - Ekklesía. Paths of communion and dialogue – a round table in progress (https://www.cittanuova.it/ekklesia-vivere-conoscere-la-chiesa-oggi/) on the theme “How to be today’s Church? Possible paths for this epic change” involved the participation of Marta Rodriguez from our Dicastery. “I believe that today’s Church must look at education on the relations between the sexes (not sexual relations!). In saying this, I do not mean the imposition of stereotypes that distinguish the characteristics, roles and functions of men and women in a rigid manner. Rather, an education on the relationship between the sexes makes us able to accept the other with all its specificity. Without this education on the encounter with otherness, we are all impoverished: men (lay, religious and priests) and women”. This is so, for example, in the reiterated need for more participation of women in the training of priests or, in the words of Pope Francis to the Pontifical Academy on Life: “The alliance between man and woman is called upon to take into its hands the direction of all society ... It does not mean simply equal opportunities or mutual recognition.. It means above all the understanding between men and women on the meaning of life and on the path of peoples. (…)  To talk to each other and join forces, because neither of the two – neither man by himself nor woman alone – is able to take on this responsibility”.  Precisely because sexuality is a dimension that touches the whole person and cannot be reduced to a pure biological fact. There are many factors involved in shaping identity. In this sense, Saint John Paul II spoke about the special likeness to God inscribed in human sexuality as a “gift and a duty”. A gift because it is given, a duty because not everything is given.