The Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Culture has set up a Women’s Consultation Group within the dicastery so as to offer society the unique contribution of women. Thirty-six women are part of the new team, including Iranian theologian Shahrazad Houshmand, who said that this was a revolutionary step because never before has the Vatican had a group of this type.
She also made it clear that the group is not feminist because it would not be right to eliminate the differences between men and women. Indeed the aim of the new group, she specified, is to establish as quickly as possible channels of dialogue with their male colleagues and priests in order to learn from each other.
Consuelo Corradi, the coordinator of the new Group, underscored that this initiative does not intend to offer ideological input but instead to call attention to the concrete reality of women. The diversity in terms of vocation and career, she continued, will offer the Church the chance to better encourage Catholics throughout the world by means of a single view of women.