The Vatican oasis that doesn’t stereotype women

The Casina Pio IV, the villa begun by Pope Pius IV, is a Renaissance jewel in the midst of the lush greenery of the Vatican Gardens. And it houses one of the few Vatican institutions that can boast some degree of equality between women and men – the Pontifical Academy of Sciences.

There is one academy of natural sciences and one of social science. The latter institution is on its second woman president – the previous head was Harvard law professor Mary Ann Glendon. The current one is the distinguished British professor of sociology, Margaret Archer. Women academy members are chosen on the same criteria as men – academic excellence.

The role of the academy is to provide the Catholic Church and its Magisterium with scientific input. So it might perhaps have been more accurate to speak of the International Women’s Day last weekend event taking part ”in the brain of the Vatican”, rather than ”in the heart”.

I would have loved a woman member of the academy to have been included among the speakers. Not that there was any lack of female brain-power present. The organisers, Voices of Faith (an initiative of the Fidel Götz Foundation, a Catholic grant-making body) must take credit for bringing together an amazing group of intelligent, courageous, creative women.

Among the individual speakers I will particularly remember is the Argentine Sr Marta Pelloni, who works against trafficking and, more or less singlehandedly it seems, has taken on the Argentinian mafia. I will also remember Washington-based Mary McFarland of Higher Education at the Margins, an initiative involving the Jesuit Refugee Service and several universities around the world. Its goal is to make higher education available online to people living in refugee camps, with a conscious effort to involve women.

Two prizes were awarded. One went to a project that aimed to provide work for Syrian women refugees. The video we were shown during the press conference – where one woman after another emphasised what earning her own money had meant for her dignity – would be excellent food for thought for the bishops gathering in Rome in October for the Synod on the Family. The other prize went to a project to empower Nicaraguan women farmers. Both projects would no doubt gladden the heart of Pope Francis: they were a living illustration of the fact that women are his best allies in his fight against global poverty.

And what came out, loud and clear, especially in the panel discussion (with Indian doctor Astrid Lobo, British theologian Tina Beattie, Austrian Vatican Radio journalist Gudrun Sailer and myself), was the message that women want the Catholic Church to emphasise the common humanity of women and men. Women are tired of being qualified, collectively, as ”patient, tender, sensitive, motherly”. Not that these are not sterling qualities – but men, too, can be sensitive and tender. An outstanding example at this event was Fr Orobator SJ, Jesuit provincial for East Africa, who spoke about the right of girls and women to education. Read carefully how the Catholic Church describes women saints like St Agatha, St Lucy, St Agnes, and male saints like St Martin of Tours and St Martin of Porres. As I was, you’ll be surprised. But why wasn’t there a single cardinal present?

Ulla Gudmundson is a writer and political analyst and from 2008 to 2013 was Sweden’s Ambassador to the Holy See