Pope Francis about the Church

Pope’s off-the-cuff remarks, following Dr. Ghisoni’s address: “Listening to Dr. Ghisoni, I heard the Church speaking of itself. That is, all of us have spoken about the Church. In all our talks. But this time it was the Church Herself who spoke. It’s not only a question of style: it’s the feminine genius that is mirrored in the Church who is woman. “To invite a woman to speak does not mean to speak does not mean to enter into an ecclesiastic feminism, because all feminism ends by becoming chauvinism in a skirt. No. To invite a woman to speak about the wounds of the Church is to invite the Church to speak about itself, the wounds it has. And I think this is the step we need to take most strongly: the woman is the image of the Church, who is woman, wife, and mother. A style. Without this style, we will speak of the people of God, but as an organization, maybe as a union, but not as a family birthed by the mother Church. “The logic of Dr. Ghisoni’s thought was precisely that of a mother, and it ended with a story of what happens when a woman brings a child into this world. The feminine mystery of the Church that is wife and mother. It’s not about giving women more roles in the Church –yes, this is good, but you do not resolve the problem–it’s about integrating women as a figure of the Church in our thoughts. And to also think of the Church with the categories of a woman. Thank you for your testimony.”