August 2, 2026
Sometimes it happens that when we read a text of the Gospel, suggestions come to us that we have already heard many times. It doesn’t matter: repetition is pedagogical and thus the values of the Gospel penetrate deeper.
The thing is that we know by heart the account of the multiplication of the loaves with its thesis that by sharing there is enough for everyone, poverty being no obstacle. Let us repeat it, let us believe it.
But today we want to emphasize the tail note with which the text ends. It says that five thousand men ate WITHOUT COUNTING WOMEN AND CHILDREN, as if women and children did not eat.
Many theologians have said that thus far we have gone and that women, children and any person are part of the Christian community on equal footing. They are not wrong. Women and other social groups, we have said actively and passively, do not find in the Church the place that corresponds to them. Progress is slow and all the old atavisms still rule, although it is disguised.
It is necessary to abandon so much study, so much theology and so much interested spirituality and open, once and for all, the doors of the community to every person, especially to those who have suffered the most exclusion. Let us think about it: would a Christian community led by a woman lose? Would a community guided by a council of lay people be less rich? Would not the hierarchy benefit from sharing its function with others? Would it not be beautiful if the diocesan community chose its bishop or bishopess?
These are not mere whims. It is giving way to the equality and fraternity on which the Church of Jesus must be built. It is summer: let us cultivate equality. We will all benefit.