Vatican City, Mar 8, 2017 / 03:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- A new advisory group for the Pontifical Council for Culture is being hailed as the beginning of a greater representation of women in leadership at the Vatican.
On March 7 the Council presented their 37-member “Women’s Consultation Group,” which they established in 2015 as a way to give women a voice in places where it can frequently be lacking in the Vatican.
Member Donna Orsuto, director of the Rome-based Lay Center, called the the group “a good start.”
“I think there are many other ways, or in the future there will be many other ways in which women can be more present, more involved in the Church, especially in the Roman Curia,” she told CNA, “but I think this is a very good start.”
Orsuto voiced her hope that as they carry out their work, the group would be able to “work together…as women, but also with the council.”
“This idea of men and women working together for the good of the Church and society” is key, she said, adding that she’s “very pleased that the focus isn’t just on women and women’s issues.”
Council president Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi said that like many other Vatican departments, “inside of my dicastery, I didn’t have any women at the management level. They were only there in an administrative sense as secretaries.”
And while the women who are part of the consultative group aren’t necessarily department managers, the presence of the group serves as a response to “this lack of the presence of women in the Roman Curia.”
Ravasi said he didn’t form the group to recriminate those who were angry about the lack of women, and nor did he want the women to be “a ‘cosmetic’ element in the sense that they were (only) a symbolic presence” or a mere viewpoint on “an only male horizon.”
Instead, the cardinal said he simply wanted “a feminine perspective” over every activity the dicastery does, including official documents.
A woman’s viewpoint, he said, “can see beyond our gaze” and offers a perspective that’s different and at times unexpected.
“It’s a question about interpretation, of prospective, of analysis, of judgment, above all, and also of proposal,” he said, explaining that the group will participate actively in both the preparation and duration of the council’s next plenary meeting.
Cardinal Ravasi stood beside some 20 of the 37 women who are currently part of the group at its official March 7 presentation. Coming from different cultures and professional backgrounds, the women serve a three-year term and meet three times annually to discuss ideas and possible projects.
Initially started in June 2015, the group was born from the Pontifical Council for Culture’s Feb. 5-7 plenary assembly that year, which was dedicated to the theme “La Cultura Femminile,” or, “The Feminine Culture.”
Several women were asked to help prepare for the plenary, and worked in two separate groups with members of the council to organize the event and define specific topics of conversation.
After the plenary, Ravasi decided to establish the group as a permanent entity. He invited the women who prepared the plenary to stay, and reached out to several others from various professions, including ambassadors, journalists, doctors, professors, actresses and teachers, among others.
In their annual meetings, the group focuses their discussion on proposals surrounding the dicastery’s work in the fields of artificial intelligence, neuroscience, sport and human anthropology.
Consuelo Corradi, coordinator of the Women’s Consultation Group and vice rector for research and international relations at the LUMSA University of Rome, told journalists that they waited to present the group because they wanted to be able to show something that was already well established and running.
The theme that links all of the members together, she said, is “the female difference,” because “there’s a perspective from women (and) there’s a way of living human life that’s specific to women.”
“It’s not a theological discourse, what we do inside the group. One can have an ideological discourse on feminine and masculine, but we try to avoid it,” she said. Instead, the women seek to bring their concrete experience as wives, mothers, friends and professionals in order to discuss “universal themes from a feminine perspective.”
Released during the official presentation of the group was their first project – a magazine titled “Cultures and Faith” including contributions from various members of the group in different languages that reflect on a variety of different topics.
Group members from various fields and cultures who attended the presentation – including Irish ambassador to the Holy See Emma Madigan – voiced their hope that the group would provide a platform to generate creative ideas given their professional backgrounds, and to foster greater collaboration with men on important issues.
In her comments to CNA, Orsuto said the variety of backgrounds and expertise of the members is “an enrichment for the Council,” especially given the fact that there were no women in senior positions in the dicastery beforehand.
Since last year’s plenary, the women have had a chance to evaluate various projects of the council and “and give some insight into doing things with a ‘feminine touch,’” she said, explaining that for her, the group is a concrete example of Pope Francis’ call for a more “incisive” feminine presence in the Church.
Italian psychologist and psychotherapist Dr. Laura Bastianelli touched on the necessity of collaboration between men and women as “a creative process.”
“We want to set up a process that is really cooperating” with one another, she said. “This is a way to build together, not trying to compete.”
“Competition is not the key to the resolution of solving problems between women and men. It’s a cooperation, so we want to co-create starting from the group in the dicastery and then to print a model that can be replicated.”
Bastianelli said she also sees the establishment of the group as a direct response to Pope Francis’ call for a greater inclusion of women in the life of the Church, and is hoping to use her background in psychology to help shape the council’s projects.
Currently a professor at Salesian university, Bastianelli trains psychotherapists and specializes in youth psychology. She is the founder of an association dedicated to working with youth and preventing diseases in children and young people.
“It’s a big work, it’s very demanding, because there’s a lot to do,” she said, explaining that the consultation group’s magazine includes an article from her on youth culture in which she reflects on difficulties today’s youth face.
Specifically, she delved into the topic of neuroscience and what it says about “the use and abuse of the internet (and) what the impact of these technologies on our youth is.”
“This is a big problem,” she said, explaining that the result of the current expansion of technologies among youth will start to be visible in the coming years.
But in addition to speaking just about the challenges, Bastianelli said she also explored the “richness” of today’s youth, “because we have young people very rich and full of competencies, but they can’t find space and they can’t develop because of many bad influences.”
She also spoke during the 2015 plenary for the Council for Culture, focusing on the topic of “generativity (procreativity) as a symbolic code,” meaning how we generate life without necessarily giving birth.
Bastianelli said her greatest hope for the consultation group is that it would spread to other realities even outside of the Church so the “richness of this experience can be replicated. It’s like leaven.”
Emma Madigan, Irish Ambassador to the Holy See, told CNA that she also hopes to use her diplomatic experience to help foster dialogue and open channels within the Vatican.
As an ambassador, “you want to understand better your interlocutors,” she said, explaining that for a diplomat, “dialogue is a core value and activity.”
“You’re basically furthering the bonds between the two countries, or in this case with a global religion, and seeing what you can bring to the table from your experience,” she said, noting that she has worked in a number of different fields where she’s had to encounter the problems people face on a daily basis.
When it comes to the Vatican, “you’re interacting with priests, dealing pretty much with the pastoral issue. You can understand some of what they’re going through,” she said, explaining that she also tries to present and discuss issues important to Ireland and to share information in order to foster greater mutual understanding.
Madigan said she was invited to join the group by Cardinal Ravasi around the same time as the 2015 plenary when he was thinking of establishing it, and initially had reservations about joining for fear of appearing to advise the Church on what they were doing.
However, since it was specifically working with one dicastery in particular, she said yes, since it speaks to people from all walks of life, including Catholics, non-Catholics and even non-believers.
“That’s something I’m really interested in,” she said, noting that she’s been invited to join “because of my position, but I’ll be representing my own perspective.”
“I do feel it was courageous in bringing this up,” she said, explaining that to have 37 women gather around the same table can get “a bit chaotic,” as each one brings their own experience and contribution.
Madigan said that when she initially came to Rome, she thought she would be the only woman ambassador, but quickly found out that wasn’t the case, and “already it means you’re not the only woman in the room.”
For the Vatican, “it is a leadership that is male, but it is changing,” she said, noting that especially when working with the Vatican, women “naturally gravitate towards other women to be interlocutors, share experiences.”
There is “still plenty of room for growth in this area,” she said, but recognized the group as “a practical example of saying ‘we want a woman’s perspective.’”
While many say that “we value women and want to bring them into the fold,” the group “is actually a practical sign that that’s happening. It’s a beginning. You have to start somewhere.”
[…]
Today’s Church hides its head like an ostrich and wants to be a doormat Christianity. But this has been going on for centuries. This gave rise to the Crusades, which were valiant and manly Christian efforts to stop the religion of peace from destroying Christianity. All these following areas s were once majority Christian: Egypt (90% Copts until the religion of peace came in the seventh century); Israel, Lebanon, the Palestinian territory, Syria (where Christians were first called Christians!), Anatolia (today’s Turkey), North Africa (the land of Tertullian and St. Cyprian of Carthage, St. Athanasius of Alexandria and St. Augustine of Hippo!)…there were even Christian (and Jewish) enclaves in Arabia. Then came the religion of peace in the seventh century and in a century turned all these places into religion of peace majority. In Egypt alone, Christian now make up less than 10% and continue to be persecuted and oppressed). Only Greece, Armenia and Spain ever managed to recover their Christianity after being conquered for many years by the religion of peace. Western Europe will be next to fall in a few decades just from its self-inflicted demographic conquest. See below historian R. Ibrahim account of the persecution of Christians just in the last few decades. Lamentably, neither most of the media nor even CWR mention all of these:
‘We Were Commanded [by Allah] to Kill You!’ The Muslim Persecution of Christians, June 2025
https://www.raymondibrahim.com/2025/07/28/we-were-commanded-by-allah-to-kill-you-the-muslim-persecution-of-christians-june-2025/
So what to do? Peter was told to lay down his sword.
a) The Church does not forbid self-defense: even to the point of killing the attacker who wants to kill your family, yourself, your society, see the Catechism of the Catholic Church and St. Thomas Aquinas on Just War
http://www.catholiclane.com/the-catechism-on-the-right-of-self-defense/
b) The Church allows for Just War; see among many, the work of St. Thomas Aquinas
c) Jesus tells us to turn the other cheek (Sermon on the Mount); but this is an individual action of Christian forgiveness. He does not command Christians to not fight and instead let their wives be raped and enslaved, their children and family and friends and fellow Christians be enslaved or killed and so forth.
d) He does not tell the Roman centurion (officer commanding 100 roman soldiers) to go and stop carrying weapons and fighting and killing people if the duly constituted government tells him to do so. He actually helps the centurion by healing the centurion’s servant. See Matthew 5: 8ff
e) Jesus himself uses violence to promote justice when he overturn the tables and possessions of the money lenders and merchants at the temple.
f) “In Luke 22:36, Jesus tells His remaining disciples, “If you don’t have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one.” Jesus knew that now was the time when His followers would be threatened, and He upheld their right to self-defense. Just a short time later, Jesus is arrested, and Peter takes a sword and cuts off someone’s ear. Jesus rebukes Peter for that act (verses 49–51). Why? In his zeal to defend the Lord, Peter was standing in the way of God’s will. Jesus had told His disciples multiple times that He must be arrested, put on trial, and die (e.g., Matthew 17:22–23). In other words, Peter acted unwisely in that situation. We must have wisdom regarding when to fight and when not to.” (gotquestions.org/self-defense.html)
g) St. Paul nowhere tells soldiers to depose their weapons and not to fight to protect their society.
h) Again, the Christian must use judgment as to when to forgive verbal and even physical assault and when to respond with deadly force to defend himself, his family, his fellow Christians, and his society in general.
i) Again, the Church does not forbid self-defense. That is why Pope Urban II organized the First Crusade in response to Eastern Roman Emperor
Alexius I Comnenos request for help to fight off the relentless advance of the religion of peace.
See historian R. Ibrahim book Sword and Scimitar: Fourteen Centuries of War between Christianity and Islam at
https://www.amazon.com/Sword-Scimitar-Fourteen-Centuries-between/dp/0306825554/ref=pd_bxgy_d_sccl_1/135-8389023-4202224?pd_rd_w=buGLk&content-id=amzn1.sym.dcf559c6-d374-405e-a13e-133e852d81e1&pf_rd_p=dcf559c6-d374-405e-a13e-133e852d81e1&pf_rd_r=HPXKFKPRGHR30J7RNR2X&pd_rd_wg=MauWm&pd_rd_r=1f59df96-dfee-4d7a-a78a-f602f92fcbee&pd_rd_i=0306825554&psc=1
See also these scholarly interviews by CWR Fr. Connolly:
https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2020/12/16/the-forgotten-history-of-christian-slavery-under-islam/
https://www.thepostil.com/christian-slavery-under-islam-a-conversation-with-dario-fernandez-morera/
Neither Parolin nor anyone else at the Vatican would have called out Islamic jihad for an act of terrorism during the reign of Francis. Most of the time, there was no comment at all after one of these attacks in Africa. It’s subtle and incremental, but there has been some improvement since Leo has taken over. It is probably more a testament to how bad it was under Francis. I am grateful that at least some degree of moral decency has been restored.
We read: “For [Cardinal Parolin], this group is a force ‘that in practice represents Islamic jihad and that imposes itself through force and violence’.”
About the Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly the Belgian Congo), yours truly is reminded of Joseph Conrad’s “The Heart of Darkness”(1899), where ivory hunters show that beneath the veneer of European rationalism and the Enlightenment, they are capable of sinking into an abyss of cruelty and beastiality not seen even in animals.
Instead, a profound darkness of heart” in a fallen world, and the jungle world of “impenetrable darkness,” feed upon each other. The narrator says of Mr. Kurtz:” I was curious to see whether this man who had come out equipped with moral ideas of some sort would climb to the top after all and how he would set about his work there.” Then, a few pages later: “Hadn’t I been told in all the tones of jealousy and admiration that he had collected, bartered, swindled, or stolen more ivory than all the other agents together.” And, of the system: “What saves us is efficiency—the devotion to efficiency.” About this deity, Kurtz’s last dying words: “the horror, the horror.”
The horror of reason detached from faith, and in the Congo of jihadist belief amputated from reason. Pope Benedict was onto something when we delivered the Regensburg Lecture (2006), more than an off-the-cuff meme, with a dual message to the West and to the encroaching domain of Islam. https://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/speeches/2006/september/documents/hf_ben-xvi_spe_20060912_university-regensburg.html
Against the moral bankruptcy of modern efficiency and of jihadist finality, both, today the Church has the historic calling to propose the reality of the historic and historical Incarnation (the actual event)—the unity of both the fully human and the fully divine in Jesus Christ, and this unity eternally within the unity of the Triune One.
SUMMARY: “Christ the Lord…by the revelation of the mystery of the Father and His love, fully reveals man to himself and makes his supreme calling clear” (Gaudium et Spes, The Church in the Modern World, n. 22). Is it a true “sign of the times” that we must get past the navel gazing roundtables and even the 15 expert study groups on “hot button issues,” none of which had even a single word to say about fatalistic Islam or unchecked jihad.
“’This is a dangerous sign,’ Parolin declared.”, as he sits safely tucked away in the Vatican fortress, totally isolated from the rest of suffering humanity. People who flap their gums and do nothing, as does this Prince of the Church, are worthless.
Moslems consider themselves the enemy of and ultimate conqueror of Christianity. Their long game, as directed by Muhammad himself, is to immigrate mass populations of Moslems to Cristian countries in order to reach the point that they are the largest population group, at which time they will implement sharia law. At that juncture, they can and will force the remaining population to either convert to Islam or be put to death.
Mamdami, the radical candidate running for mayor of New York City, is neither a communist nor a liberal socialist. He is a radical Islamist. He seeks nothing more or less than the Islamification of the United States of America.
We let the enemy in of our own naive free will.
Islamists have slaughtered nearly every Catholic in Nigeria. Now, they have begun open warfare on the Catholics in the Congo. They won’t stop until we decide that they need to be stopped. The burden of this battle falls on us who are willing to witness to Jesus Christ in our words, in our actions and, if it be God’s will, with our very lives.
The enemies of God are not just on some remote continent. They are there as well as here, in our own cherished homeland.
“Slaughtered nearly every Catholic in Nigeriia” – gross hyperbole?
No it’s not’gross hyperbole’ it is a statement to wake up people like you. Christians are being slaughtered throughput Africa and the ME. Meanwhile smug chumps in the safe west sit in relative safety. Have you been to the East End of London or any port city in France? The barbarians have breached the gate and the sad pathetic fact is that people like you prefer to stone their own side.
Alice, I’m not in any way disputing or minimizing the seriousness of world wide persecution of Christians. This is a sad fact and must be taken seriously. What I am disturbed with is the many very inaccurate statements being made . To say that Catholics have been practically wiped out in Nigeria is very misleading since there are currently over 25 million living there. This is clearly a case of gross hyperbole.
Not to worry. As long as the religion of peace stays over there.
These are the same barbarian Muslims our Church hierarchy has chosen to get into bed with. The consequences are predictable.
Many Catholics murdered by Muslims on July 27th in the Congo, and the Vatican spokesman says , “This is a dangerous sign.”
Three Christian residents of Gaza are accidentally killed and we get weeks long verbal attacks on Israel.
There is no balance. No matter what the Chinese do to Catholics/christians, or Muslims do to Catholics/christians the Vatican does not call them out by name.
As to the phrase “radical Islam” we should take the Turkish president at his word when he said there is no radical Islam, only Islam.
Indeed. And notice too how the Vatican obfuscates by bringing in Israel and the “Palestinians” in comments about the murder of Christians by the religion of peace in the Cogo to avoid stating the true nature of the problem. Very depressing to see that in the Vatican plus ca change plus c’est la meme chose.
Master of understatement…so have been the massacres in Nigeria and the mid east,and elsewhere…not to mention the persecution in China, of which you are one of the architects