Rome Reflections Day 7: Our Last Day Together
Posted on October 13, 2023 by Mary Ellen Chown
As I reflect on our last day in Rome, I will remember it as a day of powerful public witness, prayerful remembrance, and deep gratitude.
We gathered for the “Walk with Women” in the courtyard of our residence in the early afternoon sun: each of us in purple, symbolic of women’s equality in the Church. We put on Canadian flag lanyards, sourced in Ottawa by Virginia Lafond, and including a QR code for the CNWE website sourced by Nancy Quan. We pinned to the back of each other’s shirts a canvas cloth patch that said, “Women Rising for Reform” and “Catholic Network for Women’s Equality Canada” (including the 2015 CNWE conference logo created by friend of CNWE and artist, Andrea Nairn).
As it happened, there was a statue in the courtyard of 16th century astronomer and Catholic canon, Nicolaus Copernicus. I mused that just as the ‘Copernican revolution’ caused a paradigm shift in humanity’s understanding of the sun as the centre of our solar system, so too were we calling for a paradigm shift in our Church’s teaching and practice. We were raising our voices for our Church to truly embody, in ministry and governance, our central belief in the God-given dignity and equality of persons of all genders.
To begin the Walk with Women, we gathered with other members of WOW (Women’s Ordination Worldwide) at San Giovanni dei Fiorentini church, which, according to tradition contains a relic of the foot of Mary Magdalene.
Kate McElwee, Co-Executive Director of Women’s Ordination Conference (WOC) made a statement on behalf of all participants and invited us all to walk in silence.
I found it very moving to silently wind our way through the busy streets of Rome and over the Tiber River to Castel Sant Angelo – our group of nine CNWE members among a ‘small but mighty’ group of reform-minded Catholics from around the world. The silence spoke volumes to me, as a symbol of the ways that women have been silenced, erased, excluded and dismissed over centuries in Catholicism. It also brought to mind for me the witness of many years of CNWE’s Holy Week silent Purple Stole Vigils.
I was reminded too, as we walked, of the many walks for justice of all kinds, throughout history and the world over. Since I was toward the back of the group, I could see that our CNWE signs were visible to all, and it was a proud moment in my 23 years as a CNWE member!
