CNA Staff, Mar 8, 2024 / 05:00 am
On the day before International Women’s Day, Pope Francis addressed participants of the international conference “Women in the Church: Builders of Humanity” on Thursday at the Vatican.
The conference highlighted the witness of 10 women noted for their holiness: Sts. Josephine Bakhita, Elizabeth Ann Seton, Mary MacKillop, Laura Montoya, Kateri Tekakwitha, Teresa of Calcutta, Rafqa Pietra Choboq Ar-Rayès, Venerable Magdeleine de Jesus, and Blessed Maria Beltrame Quattrocch.
“All these women, at different times and in different cultures, each in her own distinct way, gave proof through initiatives of charity, education, and prayer of how the ‘feminine genius’ can uniquely reflect God’s holiness in the midst of our world,” the pope said in his address.
Francis acknowledged that throughout periods of history, women have been “largely excluded from social and ecclesial life” but that even in these times “the Holy Spirit raised up saints whose attractiveness produced new spiritual vigor and important reforms in the Church.”