"God only knows" N ° 11: A female archbishop of Lyon?

A LACHON ARCHBISHOP WOMAN?

You never get bored on the planet of religions. Current affairs there are often dominated by the Catholic world, but it is rare that a week goes by without a major question of society being raised by spirituality.

Thus a case with goofy appearances but very serious because it announces a fierce debate: that of the place of women in the Catholic Church . It also arises in Judaism and in Islam. Rabbi women, often self-proclaimed, are considered dissidents, as are imam women.

The “fact” that we are going to evoke seemed to me so manipulated on the media level - it was its object, to be talked about - that I preferred not to treat it as such, in the columns of Figaro, for this only reason.

We are well aware of the ant work of pharmacies of all stripes who push subjects into newsrooms for the sole benefit of a person or of the cause defended by a lobby , therefore using the media to influence opinion and make it evolve.

Our work - without giving any lesson to anyone because it is a daily and constant attention where we learn constantly - begins with discernment on the nature of "information". What is more, when an AFP dispatch from the Lyon office seemed to accredit him.

We have also given this "information" in the news feed on the Figaro site , so this is not a form of censorship, the proof elsewhere with this article, but the The question is to accurately assess the place given to this type of “remote-controlled” information aimed at causing a shock. This kind of highly thought out, organized "news" requires hindsight, distance, analysis.

Having said this preamble, I personally think that the question of the place of women in the Catholic Church is a real and great subject. It is also a question of the future. But it deserves better than a pro domo media hit.

Anne Soupa OLIVIER CHASSIGNOLE / AFP

So what is this "fact"? Anne Soupa, theologian, biblist, graduate of the Catholic Institute of Lyon and that of Paris, announced on May 21, that she would apply for the nunciature of Paris to be appointed - by the pope -, archbishop of Lyon , therefore Primate of the Gauls! The position is vacant, it is true.

With her friend and sister, Christine Pedotti, director of Témoignage Chrétien , Anne Soupa is no stranger to testing . Together, they founded in 2009 the "Catholic conference of baptized Francophones" which fights against all forms of clericalism. After having founded in 2008 the resounding "skirt committee" site where Anne Soupa also explains her candidacy in Lyon. These two women also stood out in March 2019, with a tribune from our colleague Le Monde who asked for no less than the "decanonization" of John Paul II!

Failing to attract many disciples - if not from a certain generation and a progressive ecclesial environment - this duo of theologians therefore does not lack daring to advance their ideas.

Beyond the person of Anne Soupa, completely respectable, her methods of activist quite questionable and the very Lyonnais character of this initiative, this 73 year old woman - in the Church the retreat of the bishops rings at 75 - actually launches a heavy block in the clerical pool . Beyond the excess, it imposes an inescapable question.

Even if we know, in advance, the fate that awaits him: an equally heavy clerical silence.

This colorful provocation is indeed the symptom of an internal protest movement that has been going up for years, with the crisis of child crime but not only. It aims at the rather opaque governance of ecclesial bodies whose credibility is called into question.

This act of female candidacy also raises the question of the priesthood only attributed to men in the Catholic - and Orthodox - Church but open to women (even if it is not of the same nature) in most Churches of the Protestant family where women bishops exist especially in the Anglo-Saxon and Nordic world.

We could write at least two books on these two subjects, governance and priesthood, here are three elements for reflection:

• THE MALE PRIESTHOOD IS "FINAL" FOR THE CHURCH

The decision taken by John Paul II in 1994, expressed in the apostolic letter "Ordinatio Sacerdotalis" to consider " definitively ", therefore without possible future debate, the priesthood reserved for men in the Catholic Church, was confirmed on May 30, 2018, under the pontificate of Pope Francis. The prefect of the congregation for the doctrine of the faith, Mgr Luis Ladaria Ferrer, then explained that this papal decision had been taken ex cathedra and that it would therefore never be called into question by the Catholic Church.

• FRANÇOIS SEARCHING FOR A WAY FOR WOMEN'S DIACONATE

The openings that Pope Francis is trying to find in order to give women in the Catholic Church the status of deaconess, come up against multiple difficulties.

The first commission he had launched in 2016 on this subject concluded that it was impossible to find precisely, in the history of the Church, the exact role of the "deaconesses" and especially their status in the primitive Churches. This is at least what François explained to us during a press conference after returning from a trip to Macedonia because the question is recurrent.

Faced with this failure, Pope Francis launched, on April 8, 2019, a new study commission on the subject.

But Francis had told us at another press conference during an apostolic trip that by advancing on the ground of a possible recognition of a “diaconal” status - there are permanent male deacons - the Church should not “clericalize” women . Moreover, he did not retain this eventuality, however, very much pushed by the last synod on the Amazon.

• A VERY SIGNIFICANT CASUS BELLI IN SWITZERLAND

Last very recent observation. In Switzerland, the appointment on May 19 of last by Mgr Charles Morerod, bishop of Lausanne, Geneva and Friborg, of Mrs. Marianne Pohl-Henzen as "episcopal delegate" for the German-speaking part of the canton of Friborg in succession to Father Pascal Marquard, episcopal vicar, immediately prompted an ecclesial debate. It would be the first time in the Catholic Church that a woman would thus receive hierarchical power over ordained priests. What, it seems, canon law does not allow.

Here, dear readers, are elements to reflect, discuss, debate. Do not hesitate to let me know your thoughts. And have a good week!

Notable this week:

A LARGE FALLING FIGURE

Enzo Bianchi Bose

The resignation of Enzo Bianchi, founder of the Bose monastery in northern Italy. This charismatic and ecumenical man - who was not a priest or a religious - had founded this given community as an ecumenical and Christian model, very internationally recognized. A Vatican commission of inquiry led Pope Francis, whom he was close to, to dismiss him from office for what would appear to be authoritarianism. It is a shock to the ecumenical world . Other prominent Italian communities are not immune to the same problem of the founder's absolute power.

Bose Bose Monastery

FOUR VERY INTERESTING REFLECTIONS POST COVID19

This news is abundant. I have retained these four elements for you. There would be others:

- Mgr Luc Ravel, Archbishop of Strasbourg gave us a very interesting interview.

- The Catholic Academy of France delivers a strong analysis of the crisis and the economy.

- Bishop Eric de Moulins-Beaufort publishes Tuesday (Bayard, Cerf, Mame) the letter he gave to the President of the Republic at the end of the week, entitled with a biblical phrase "in the morning, sow your grain" on the after covid 19. The same Archbishop of Reims returns to the controversies of the attitude of the episcopate to defend freedom of worship, in Paris Notre Dame

Nadine Davous, doctor and ethicist, notes with our colleague Jean-Luc Mouton on Campus Protestant that "death, we talked about it as little as possible".

LAST BUT NOT LEAST

Somewhere in France, but where? Christophe DESPLATS / kikokiko23 - stock.adobe.com

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