VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Service
October 1, 2018
In response to current scandals, clericalism and the need for reform, Catholic women must take the initiative and make their voices be heard, according to a series of articles in a Vatican magazine.
The October edition of Women Church World, published Oct. 1 in conjunction with the Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, dedicated its monthly issue to “Women Confronting the Crisis of the Church.”
“We wanted to give voice to a critical reflection from the point of view of women,” Lucetta Scaraffia, the magazine’s director, wrote in the opening editorial.
The first article, titled “Holy Rage,” was a Q&A with Sister Veronique Margron, a moral theologian who works with abuse victims, is president of the Conference of Religious in France and is provincial superior of the Dominican Sisters of Charity of the Presentation.
She said one major factor behind the “omerta” or culture of silence in the church lies in the image the church often has of itself as being a family, which, when it comes to incidences of sexual abuse, “has disastrous consequences.”
The image of a family is meant to describe the beauty of reciprocal care and love for each member, she said. However, just like when abuse is experienced in a family, that abuse is rarely talked about and finds support in sayings that warn against “airing your dirty linen in public.”
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