Despite the fact that we had studied theology at the same Faculty and despite having heard of her, I was not lucky enough to meet Begoña until recently. One fine day, after a talk about synodality, she approached me interested in the matter. “You said you are going to teach a course on synodality, the ‘listening’ and the ‘co-decisive’”. That’s right, I replied. “I would like to enroll.” Begoña joined the Theological Updating Course at the Faculty of Theology of Vitoria-Gasteiz. And from the first day, we were able to see -immediately- that her perspective or way of approaching all issues was feminist, including, of course, synodality.
Here’s what the reader can also verify in this letter addressed to Pope Leo XIV. **Jesus Martinez Gordo**
Dear brother, Pope Leo XIV:
I write to you because I want to share with you a concern that arises from the depths of my Christian experience. Picking up the proposal of the theologian José Ignacio González Faus, I dream of a new humanity and a renewed Church, which springs from the gospel and the legacy that Jesus of Nazareth left us with his life and his embodied presence in our history.
God has spoken through his Son and has revealed to us the intrinsic relationship that exists between the divine and the human. God is interested in humanity and wants a full life for all his sons and daughters. This means that he places his gaze, in a special way, on the poorest and most needy, on those people to whom growth with the dignity that every creature deserves is denied. In the project that God has left us, through his son Jesus of Nazareth, there is no room for injustice and discrimination.
Full humanity – manifested in Jesus – is for all, men and women, without any kind of discrimination. And in this, dear Pope, we have much to do.
Women throughout history have lived with permanent discrimination. Being born a girl already means that rights and freedoms are denied to us…, that the same opportunities are not given to men. And this accompanied by an intrinsic violence that, in many cases, manifests itself with extreme severity.
Discrimination evident in the Church
I would like you to take our pain, our frustration into account. We feel that what is happening to women is not consistent with the message that Jesus of Nazareth left us. This discrimination is evident in the heart of the Church.
The Second Vatican Council defines the Church as a sacrament of salvation and as a people of God, in which all the baptized are called to participate fully according to our charisms, but this, in practice, is not possible for us.
In Thomas Halík’s book, in his first letter, he says that listening to the Spirit must lead the individual believer and the entire Church to deepen in truth, and this cannot be replaced by mere obedience to the bearers of ecclesial authority.
The Catholic Church, in coherence with the Gospel, with the God made flesh, must be attentive to the signs of the times, and listen to the Spirit. Believing cannot be confused with obediently accepting what leaders present to us in the name of tradition. The art of listening to the Spirit has been replaced by obedience and loyalty to the institution.
The Spirit manifests and speaks in many ways and helps us to see and feel through the experience and practice of faith of all the people of God. It helps us to listen to prophetic voices, often uncomfortable, but suggestive. Voices that lead us to review assumptions that have been upheld as unquestionable and that, as history has shown us, are not, but rather a path of conversion and renewal.
Although the reflection I am doing is a path of liberation and conversion, we are confronted with clericalism, which prevents us from moving forward in this sense. Pope Francis insisted and pointed out the need to address this problem.
Jesus did not discriminate against women
I earnestly ask you, to take the situation of discrimination that we women suffer seriously. We need a more inclusive and participatory Church, with concrete and courageous decisions. Your predecessor took some important steps regarding the role of women in the Church. These are small but important advances, but insufficient.
Many have trusted that the synodal process be an instrument to make progress in this regard, but we observe that it advances slowly and with resistance to addressing sensitive issues, such as the issue of the ordination of women.
Many Catholics are living this situation with pain. We want to be heard and to move forward together to overcome this historical discrimination. Discrimination that denies the plan initiated by Jesus with his disciples.
In the New Testament, we find texts that clearly speak of the participation of women in the group of Jesus and in the nascent Church. Mary Magdalene was a direct witness to the Resurrection and received the mandate to announce it.
We cannot limit the incarnation of God to the masculine gender
Jesus was brave and a pioneer in this sense and inaugurated a new way of doing things, involving women in his mission. But that trust that the Master granted was silenced in the Church very early on, and we have dragged it until our days.
Brother Leo XIV, today I want to ask you to be aware of the trust that Jesus had in women, and that, imitating the Master, we move forward so that this issue changes.
I am aware that it is not easy, but we must continue to take steps in this regard, and that women, too, can represent Christ sacramentally.
Jesus in his concrete presence in history, as a Jewish man, represents all humanity, men and women of all races, of all times… **we cannot limit the incarnation of God in history to the male gender.**
We might think that if women are excluded from the priestly order because Jesus was a man, then do women participate in the salvation offered by a God incarnate, **or only men**?
We are aware of the immense work that our Church has. We see communities in need of dedicated ministers to offer the Bread and the Word. And in the midst of this need, it is painful to observe priests exhausted, trying to be everywhere and not succeeding. And among us, there are some with vocation and preparation, who cannot assist in this need because of a senseless tradition.
Dear brother, what does the Church need to heal this open wound caused by exclusionary arguments? The lack of young women in our parishes in Europe is a sign of a Church that does not know how to welcome them. They are leaving because they strongly feel discrimination in an institution run by ordained men. How can the Church, today, be an institution that does not recognize full equality between men and women?
Advances in the recognition, promotion, and rights of women are unstoppable in our world. Progress that prophetically Jesus himself gave in his time.
On behalf of thousands of men and women, I ask you to be brave
The task is arduous, but the Spirit is strong. On behalf of thousands of men and women, I ask you to be brave and let yourself be guided by the Ruah that blows with force to **restore justice with women**.
To conclude, I wish you that the Lord bless you and that your work be fruitful to respond to the will of God. **I pray for you and I pray for our beloved Church**.
…And I will convey a dream: hopefully, the generation of my granddaughters, one day will find **a Pope or a Mama** as head of the Church.
Your sister in faith
Begoña Cigaran
English version translated with AI