Lucetta Scaraffia (Turin, 1948), Italian journalist and historian, is an uncomfortable voice in the Vatican who for seven years, until 2019, directed the women’s supplement Donne Chiesa Mondo in L’Osservatore Romano, the official newspaper of the Holy See, from where he managed to touch the wounds of the Church and remember the position of inferiority in which women find themselves within it. She resigned because she felt delegitimized. Now she has just published in Spanish La mujer cardenal (San Pablo), a thriller in which a Guatemalan pope decides to name a woman secretary of state and cardinal.
Your book is fiction, but to what extent is it a wish that there might one day be a female cardinal?
I don’t think the good pope will ever come along to give women the role they deserve. Women must take what they want, also become a cardinal or a secretary of state. They must force the ecclesiastical hierarchies to accept them, to listen to them, to respect them, something that nobody does, not even Pope Francis. No one in history has given women the space they deserve.
Do the mechanisms exist to create a female cardinal?
Yes, until the 20th century there were cardinals who were not ordained priests. Women could be created cardinals without facing the problem of the female priesthood, and perhaps not be elected popes but to participate in the election of the pope, it would be very important. The current Church is not ready for anything, but I have thrown it here as a proposal. It takes a lot to ask to get something.
Do you think feminism –and some great battles, such as the right to abortion– is contradictory to Catholicism?
In my opinion it is not, not at all. Jesus is one of the great feminists in history. In the Gospel women play very important roles, beginning with Mary. The only true contradiction is abortion, which should not be considered the main right of feminist movements because they have fought for much more important rights such as considering women victims of sexual assault, something that the Church has not yet done. I am very surprised that feminists do not support the battle of religious women against abuse, which is very serious.
There is much talk about the abuse of minors but less about the abuse of nuns, such as the case of the Jesuit artist Marko Rupnik, accused of abusing dozens of nuns.
Because the Church does not want to talk about it, and because these nuns are forced to abort or use contraceptives. It’s not just sexual abuse, but to save face the Church contradicts her moral rules. It is a huge phenomenon, not only in Africa, but also in Italy, France, Spain, and Latin America, always by priests or spiritual fathers. Spiritual guidance is mixed with sexual abuse.
This Monday marks the tenth anniversary of the pontificate of Pope Francis, who in recent times has appointed several women to important positions in the Vatican.
But they are chosen by the hierarchy, not by the nun associations, and this changes everything. The Church chooses obedient women, who will not create problems and also chooses one in the midst of 30 men, so even if she wanted to, she would not have the chance to change anything. Have any of them said a word about the abused nuns? The nuns are treated as servants, and until they are heard the presence of these women is feigned. Francisco could not do anything other than appoint women to these positions, because he is very attentive to the image, and he knows very well that if he places someone here and there, he looks like a feminist pope, but he is not a feminist pope, not at all. His words about abortion are terrible, he has said that it is like sending a hitman to solve a problem, without taking into account the physical and psychological suffering that he represents for women.
It has also changed canon law to allow Catholics to read the word of God during masses, help at the altar and distribute communion.
But this was already done in many countries, it has simply recognized a reality. The real problem is the female diaconate, and on this he has been at least ambiguous. He created a commission that ended a relationship that has never been made public, and then he created another commission that rarely meets and doesn’t know how it will end. The diaconate would be important because women would have a recognized role within the Church, they could preach, but it is seen as a degree to become priests. I, for example, do not agree with the female priesthood, but I believe that there should be recognition of women in the Church.
Why don’t you agree?
Because tradition in religion is important and because if there is this fight against clericalism, which the Pope does, it would simply be making women clerical. Instead, if women participate in the governance of the Church as laywomen they constitute a much more important diversity.
How do you assess these ten years of pontificate?
I judge them empty, ten years of media construction, but that do not correspond to the renewal of the Church or to the approach of Christians to the Church. It is much more liked by non-Catholics, who continue to be non-Catholics, while Catholics continue to dwindle in the churches. The reform of the curia is a chaos that is not very well known how it will come out and it is seen that it does not work at all. Then he talks a lot about synods, but how to preach synodality when he is an absolute monarch who does not give any example? He has said precious things about abuse but then he protects the abusers if they are his friends, as in the case of Rupnik – who was excommunicated by the Department for the Doctrine of the Faith, which is in charge of prosecuting sexual abuse, and later the punishment was lifted. Francis has said no, but by law only he can cancel a provision of the Doctrine of the Faith. What did do well was the encyclical Laudato Si on the environment, not only because it spoke of ecological problems, but because it explained that poor countries are the ones that pay the most for the disasters of the climate crisis.
