CHARLOTTE — Women should be offered the chance to participate in the life of the Church as much as possible because of the dignity given to them through their baptism in Christ.
That was the message featured speaker Jesuit Father Agbonkhianmeghe Orobator offered to a crowd of close to 300 who gathered Jan. 25 at St. Peter Church in Charlotte for the 25th annual Kennedy Lecture.
Father Orobator, an internationally known theologian and author of three books, was a voting member at the Synod on Synodality in Rome and found the synod’s discussions on women’s roles in the Church, including greater leadership, to be some of the most important parts of the discussions.
Father Orobator grew up in Nigeria and practiced traditional African religion before becoming Catholic. Ordained in 1998, he holds a doctorate in theology and religious studies from the University of Leeds, England, and is fluent in four languages. He is past president of the Jesuit Conference of Africa and Madagascar and is currently the dean of the Jesuit School of Theology at Santa Clara University in California.
At the synod, hearing laywomen and women religious call for more opportunities to participate in the life of the Church led him to think deeply about how women are treated in many spheres.
“I believe in the revealed and self-evident truth that women and men are created equal in the image and likeness of God, and any exclusion of women from the life of the Church is not only an injustice but a violation of humanity,” Father Orobator said. Participation in the Synod led him to learn about the “pivotal role” of women in the Church.
“I learned the importance of listening to how women choose to define themselves, women reclaiming their voice,” he said. “Beyond the traditional roles of mothers, wives and sisters, I heard women define themselves differently – as leaders, ministers, accomplished theologians…roles that includes leadership and ministry within the Church.”
“There is more than enough room to receive and honor the gifts women bring. Listening to their voices would make us a better Church. It is that simple. In this Jubilee Year, I long for the day when women serving in ecclesial leadership will become the norm and not a news headline.” — Jesuit Father Agbonkhianmeghe Orobator
He urged both clergy and laity to “avoid talking about the role of women as an issue or a problem” but instead to consider the gifts women bring and seek to involve them in the fullness of life of the Church.
“As an ordained male cleric I have never had to fight for perks or privileges, so why do women have to?” Father Orobator asked. “The synodal process uncovered many gaps in how we treat women, and we cannot address these disparities by simply creating more rhetoric and giving women flattering titles.”
Future expansion of women’s roles in the Church is an “open question,” he said. He noted how Pope Francis recently appointed the first woman to lead a Vatican dicastery: Consolata Missionary Sister Simona Brambilla is the new prefect of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.
“There is more than enough room to receive and honor the gifts women bring,” he said. “Listening to their voices would make us a better Church. It is that simple. In this Jubilee Year, I long for the day when women serving in ecclesial leadership will become the norm and not a news headline.”
Father Orobator’s talk was followed by an interview session with Tim Funk, a St. Peter parishioner and former religion reporter, and Toni Tuppence, a writer and speaker on social justice and cultural equity and member of Our Lady of Consolation Parish in Charlotte.
He fielded questions about topics including the future of the Jesuits, his journey to becoming a Catholic, the rapid growth of the Church in Africa and the global South, and meeting Pope Francis, who he said in person and conversation is “an ordinary, down-to-earth human being.”
Father Orobator said the growth of the Church in Africa springs naturally from the cultures there, “where religion flows in our veins, where we see divinity everywhere.”
The annual Kennedy Lecture is funded through Thomas and Richard Kennedy in memory of their parents Keith and Joan Kennedy. The annual lectures feature prominent speakers in the fields of religion and ethics with the goal of stimulating thought by taking a deeper look at Catholic teachings.
— Christina Lee Knauss