Peadar O’Callaghan: NEED OCTOBER BE A WICKED MONTH FOR WOMEN

Breaking with the customs of time

It was the title of Edna O’Brien’s (15 December 1930 – 27 July 2024) fourth novel, August is a Wicked Month, first published in 1965 and subsequently banned by the Irish censors for the story’s sexual candour that August (not the book) makes me glad it’s behind us.

On the threshold of the final session of the Rome synod on Synodality in October it may be good, before the dark nights draw in, to focus our minds and raise our hopes again after disastrous summer forecasts clouded our vision of the horizon.

It will take place from Wednesday 2 October to Sunday 27 October 2024 in order to continue the work of the Synod on Synodality around the theme “For a Synodal Church: communion, participation and mission”. 

One hopes the excitement and expectations are building in every Roman Catholic parish which sent delegates to preliminary preparatory diocesan meetings – and are following up on their submissions.

I was just thinking this session is being held on the eve of Christian churches worldwide recalling next year the seventeenth centenary of Nicaea I (325). At that time, and indeed for the succeeding councils of Constantinople I, Ephesus and Chalcedon, the pagan people of the western isles (beyond the rule of Rome) were happy and at home celebrating the great deeds in festivals, songs and stories of their heroes alive and kicking in its Celtic myths. And probably still influencing thinking and behaviours up to Constantinople III (680-81), and probably well beyond. We may have been ‘out in the cold’ when the great Christological debates were being formulated, against a background of political and theological controversies, but we have the fruits of their outcome in the Creed of the Latin Mass. So now, that we know more, and have no excuses for our ‘ignorance’; what impact will the People of God make on the ongoing development of Roman theology?

While many lament and protest women have not been acknowledged deacons it may be important to reflect that women have been acknowledged ‘Doctors of the Church’: beginning in 1970, within the decade of the closing of Vatican II, with the declaration of ‘doctors ecclesiae’ of two women: Teresa of Avila and Catherine of Siena. The 1967 edition of the New Catholic Encyclopedia made the observation “it would seem that no woman is likely to be named [doctor] because of the link between this title and the teaching office which is limited to males”. Pope Benedict XVI went further than Pope John Paul II and let through the door of doctors Hildegard of Bingen. On 10 May 2012, he extended the veneration of Saint Hildegard to the entire Catholic Church in a process known as “equivalent canonization,” thus laying the groundwork for naming her a Doctor of the Church. On 7 October 2012, the feast of the Holy Rosary, he named her a Doctor of the Church. He called Hildegard “perennially relevant” and “an authentic teacher of theology and a profound scholar of natural science and music.”

It is now five years since Pope Francis drew attention to Hildegard of Bingen (the pope made the comments in a message to members of the Women’s Consultation Group of the Pontifical Council for Culture):

“It is significant too, that your Conference is being held under the aegis of a great woman who in 2012 was proclaimed a Doctor of the Church: Saint Hildegard of Bingen. Like Saint Francis of Assisi, she composed a harmonious hymn in which she celebrated and praised the Lord of and in creation. Hildegard united scientific knowledge and spirituality. For a thousand years, she has masterfully taught men and women through her writings, her commentaries and her art. She broke with the customs of her time, which prevented women from study and access to libraries, and, as abbess, she also demanded this for her sisters. She learned to sing and compose music, which for her was a means of drawing nearer to God. For Hildegard, music was not only an art or science; it was also a liturgy.” (Rome, Saint John Lateran, 1 October 2020, Memorial of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus)

Hopefully, some of her tunes will accompany ‘new’ deacons through Curial doors and maybe October will not be so wicked for women and a new encyclopaedia of the Catholic Church will have added something more from Pope Francis’ to the daring of Jesus who encouraged ”Put out into the deep water and let down your nets” (Luke 5.4).

It was when tired from journeying in the company of his disciples that Jesus pointed to the woman of Samaria the depths of the well ‘of living water’ the true source of life for her village (and not parish committees) – a spring meant to well up to eternal life (Jn.4.14).

P.S. I’m penning this reflection after being allowed (through the doors of ZOOM and a wonderful welcome by women) to accompany the symposium of Flourish and Thrive on EMPOWERING OURSELVES and flagged here on August 13, 2024) held this weekend in Leeds at whom two Irish speakers, priest and president, were guests – it was there my hopes and thoughts above took root. My Sundays will never be the same and my teachers will always be women since Mother Joseph (PBVM), a daughter of Nano Nagle, from the banks of the river Blackwater, first prepared me for First Holy Communion.

Peadar O’Callaghan is a retired priest of the Diocese of Cloyne