Bidding farewell to the threeday trip to Bahrain in the Middle East, Pope Francis said on Sunday (6) that women in leadership positions have helped improve the Vatican and have proven they can surpass men in the same positions.
“I realized that every time a woman gets a job [de responsabilidade] Things are getting better in the Vatican,” the pope said on board the papal plane. “Women are a gift. God did not create man and then give him a puppy to play with. He made man and woman.”
The statement sounds like a criticism of machismo in the region. The pope was asked about the role of women at the forefront of protests in Iran but declined to comment directly on the demonstrations that erupted after the death of a 22yearold Kurdish girl in September, three days after she was arrested was a morality police officer for allegedly improperly wearing the hijab, the Islamic veil.
Referring to the Vatican, Pope Francis said that “things have changed for the better” following the appointment of women to leadership positions. He made honorable mentions to Sister Raffaella Petrini, who was promoted last month to the post of deputy governor of Vatican City, responsible for overseeing some 2,000 staff.
Francis also commented on the influence of five women he appointed to a department overseeing Vatican finances.
“This is a revolution because women know how to find the right path,” the Pope said, adding that “there is a lot of machismo” in the Catholic Church and society in general.
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As head of the Catholic Church and head of state at the Vatican, the pope has also appointed women to the posts of deputy foreign minister, director of the Vatican Museums, deputy director of the Vatican Press Office, and four counselors at the Synod of Bishops preparing major meetings.
With positions seen as progressive, Francis has repeatedly raised calls for gender equality in recent months. Last year he helped found the Synod of Synodality (the way the Church is and acts), the largest democratic consultative movement in Church history, marked by centuries of rigid hierarchy, conservatism and little transparency.
The move is expected to help the Vatican accelerate greater participation of women in decisionmaking and increase its involvement with groups still marginalized by traditional Catholicism from homosexuals to remarried divorcees.
At the end of the discussions, however, the decisions follow as usual: while respecting the traditional hierarchy despite the democratic character of the public consultation, the Pope will have the last word on the proposed topics.
In Bahrain, too, the Pope condemned the death penalty and defended freedom of religion. The Arab country, a Sunni emirate since the 18th century, has been accused of persecuting Shias and violating the human rights of prisoners, which King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalif denies. It was the second trip by a pope to the Arabian Peninsula the first, also by Francis, was to the United Arab Emirates in 2019.
At least 10 antideath penalty protesters were arrested on Saturday before Pope Francis celebrated a mass in front of 30,000 people at Bahrain’s National Stadium.
On Sunday, the pope also prayed for “martyred Ukraine” and called for an end to the war after more than eight months of conflict. Earlier, Francis had urged religious authorities in Bahrain to help bring the world back from “the brink of a precipice” and oppose a new arms race that the pope says is reshaping spheres of influence caught up in the Cold War era have arisen.
Francis also commented on sensitive issues for the Catholic Church. He said he was “working to the best of his ability” against pedophilia within the institution and regretted that there were still people who “don’t see things clearly”.
“Some things have been hidden. Before the Boston scandal [as pessoas envolvidas] were transmitted,” the Pope said, referring to the revelations that rocked the Catholic Church in the United States in the early 2000s. “Now everything is clear and we are making progress on this issue.”