Women

See also: Mary, Mothers, Collaboration Between Men and Women.

• Catholic Church: Most pro-woman institution ever

• Popes on women

• Men and Women's Reciprocal Enrichment

• Ven. St. Bede:
  It is right that before the birth of the Lord or of John, their mothers should utter prophecies; for just as sin began with a woman, so too does redemption. Through the deceit of one woman, grace perished; the prophecies of two women announce its return to life. -Div. Office, Dec 22,

• Mother Theresa on women -Beijing Conference

• Women ordination

Pope Francis

• "A man without a woman beside him - whether as a mother, as a sister, as a bride, as a working companion, as a friend - that man by himself is not the image of God..." mass-casa-santa-marta/2018-06

• Called to service, not servitude

• Church is femenine

• Woman: Help us grow, accompany, give tenderness... Translated from Spanish
  There is only one model for you, Mary: the woman of faithfulness, the one who did not understand and yet obeyed. The one who, upon knowing that her cousin was in need, went running, the Virgin of promptness. The one who escaped as a refugee to a foreign country to save the life of her son... the one who helped her Son grow and accompanied Him, and when her son began to preach, she went behind him. She is the one who suffered everything that was happening to that young man, that big young man. She is the one who was besides that son and would tell Him about the problems that came up: 'Look: They have no wine'. The one that at the Cross was next to Him. 
  
  You (women) aspire to consolidate with your lives tenderness and fidelity. You are in the path of those women that followed Jesus in good times and bad. Women have that treasure of being capable of giving life, being capable of giving tenderness, being capable of giving peace and joy. A capacity to give life and to give tenderness that we men do not have...
  
  The church is female, it is like Mary. That is the place for you. Being Church, forming Church, be next to Jesus, to give tenderness, to accompany, to let grow."
  "May Mary, the Lady of the Caress, the Lady of Tenderness, the Lady of Readiness to serve, show you the way. ...May each of you find Jesus, the risen Jesus. And I tell you one thing: Do not be afraid! Look to Jesus, look at Mary and go forward!
  
  
  

• Without Reciprocal Enrichment, Men and Women Cannot Know Who They Are.
  Pope Francis, April 15, 2015, General Audience
  Experience teaches it: to know himself well and to grow harmoniously, the human being is in need of reciprocity between man and woman. When this does not happen, the consequences are seen. We are made to listen to and to help one another. We can say that without the reciprocal enrichment in this relation – in thought and in action, in affections and in work, also in the faith – the two cannot understand in depth what it means to be a man and a woman. ...God has entrusted the earth to the alliance of man and of woman: its failure makes the world arid of affections and darkens the sky of hope. The signs are already worrying, and we see them. I would like to indicate, among many, two points that I believe must be attended with greater urgency.
  
  The first. It is without doubt that we must do much more in favor of woman if we want to give back more strength to the reciprocity between men and women. In fact, it is necessary that women not only be more listened to, but that her voice has real weight, a recognized authoritativeness in the society and in the Church. The way itself with which Jesus considered women –we read it in the Gospel, it is so! -- in a context less favorable than ours, because in those times women were in fact in second place ...We have not yet understood in depth what things the feminine genius can give us, which woman can give to society and also to us. Perhaps to see things with other eyes that complements the thoughts of men. It is a path to follow with more creativity and more audacity.
  
  A second reflection concerns the topic of man and woman created in the image of God. I wonder if the crisis of collective trust in God, which does us so much harm, and makes us become sick with resignation, incredulity and cynicism, is not also connected to the crisis of the alliance between man and woman. In fact the biblical account, with the great symbolic fresco on the earthly paradise and original sin, tells us in fact that the communion with God is reflected in the communion of the human couple and the loss of trust in the celestial Father generates division and conflict between man and woman.
  
  From here comes the great responsibility of the Church, of all believers, and first of all of believing families, to rediscover the beauty of the creative design that inscribes the image of God also in the alliance between man and woman. The earth is filled with harmony and trust when the alliance between man and woman is lived well. And if man and woman seek it together between themselves and with God, without a doubt they will find it. Jesus encourages us explicitly to give witness to this beauty, which is the image of God.
  

Benedict XVI

• Women in Early Church