The Querida Amazonía Group addressed the issue of the contribution of women in the Catholic Church

Sister Daniela Cannavina confirmed that the path of the consecrated life is lived from an ecclesial community angle, thus being a testimony of communion and unity.

On March 29, the interdisciplinary research and study group Querida Amazonía held a special session in commemoration of Women's Month, with the talk: "Women and their contribution to the Catholic Church", given virtually by Sister Daniela Cannavina HCMR, religious belonging to the Capuchin Sisters of Mother Rubatto of the Franciscan order, professor of religious sciences, graduate in theology from the Catholic University of Argentina and General Secretary of the Latin American and Caribbean Congregation of Religious (CLAR).

The session was led by Carlos Lepe, a distinguished member of the Querida Amazonía group, head of the Center for Christian Social Thought at the Universidad Anáhuac México.

First of all, Sister Cannavina established the importance of sharing her own experience as a consecrated woman, understanding that the position of women within the Catholic Church is highly relevant and valuable. She affirmed that there are gestures and attitudes that are assimilated from daily life and come from the feminine ethos that introduces us to experiences of service, sisterhood, responsibility, gestures of tenderness and love.

She also reflected on how the woman of the Latin American and Caribbean continent is understood as a resilient woman, which led her to overcome certain circumstances, that is, to recover in the face of adversity to continue projecting a future. Based on these concepts, it was shared that the vocation of women is not carried out solely around a single function, but that it is a humanizing, integral and humanizing one.

Sister Cannavina shared with us her experience at the Ecclesial Assembly for Latin America and the Caribbean, in which the new place of women in the church and in society was emphasized, as well as the importance of listening to the voices of these women who were so often silenced or excluded and violated in various ways and at different stages of life in order to highlight the preponderant role of women in society, community and church, with the aim of eradicating these attitudes contrary to the dignity of the human person.

On the other hand, other fundamental concepts about the presence of women in various circles, the different factors they face, both in society and in the ecclesial sphere, were analyzed. The difficulty that exists within the church to access a leadership position or a direction in the church generally governed by men with a more patriarchal theology, which does not consider women's thinking and does not adapt to this new reality, was discussed.

At the end, the speaker emphasized some reflections on the lights of hope, being the empowerment of women, the occupation of leadership positions, the participation within various spheres of the social environment, giving strength and stability to their work and their feelings. On this subject, Sister Daniela commented on the effort that Pope Francis makes to promote this topic and maintain it in the future.

For this, at the end of the assembly, different groups of women were formed seeking to make a more synodal church around the entire Amazon that seek to mark new stages, adding to the ecclesial journey understanding synodality as the co-responsibility of lay men-women in the evangelizing task. Synodality is the invitation to walk together as a Church that entails both mentality and practices to make decisions that generate more inclusion.

Finally, Sister Cannavina confirmed that the walk of the consecrated life is not lived from an angle of tension, but is lived from an ecclesial community angle, thus being a testimony of communion and unity.