The synodal path of the Churches in Italy has reminded us that the Church cannot be defined solely in terms of hierarchy, but as and within the People of God, in which men and women share the same baptismal dignity.
One of the most delicate areas where this is tested is the formation of future priests, where the participation of women is indispensable to understanding that authority and ministerial service in the Church are not exclusively “male”.
The Ratio Fundamentalis Institutionis Sacerdotalis emphasizes that priestly formation is eminently communal from the very beginning and must develop through real contact with all members of the Church, particularly with women.
The Synod on Synodality’s Final Document not only proposed that such formation be shared between laypeople and ordained ministers, but also that professional women and experts participate in the vocational discernment of candidates.
This is not starting from scratch, because Praedicate Evangelium, by separating the power of order from that of jurisdiction, has already laid the foundations for restoring gender equality in the places where decisions are discerned and made in the Church.
It is a fact that women already sustain a large part of the pastoral life of the Church. They transmit the faith within families, run schools and hospitals, coordinate communities, engage in theological research and teaching, and have begun to assume roles of responsibility in some dioceses, Episcopal Conferences, and within the Roman Curia.
The question is not whether they are capable of doing so. The question is why, despite all this, their contribution continues to be considered secondary or even nonexistent within the formative structures of the clergy.
The issue is not ideological. It is ecclesial. It is not a matter of giving more space to women as if these spaces were the property of ordained men. It is about putting into practice an authentic differentiated co-responsibility.
This implies that we accept, as Lumen Gentium explains, that the relationship between pastors and other faithful involves a reciprocal and constitutive bond.
If, as Cardinal Suenens maintained, there are no “super-baptisms”, seminary programs should include communal and pastoral experiences that involve shared decision-making with laypeople and women on an equal footing.
We should have more women as theology professors, psychologists, and spiritual directors. Even more, they should serve as members with a voice and a vote on seminary formation teams and admission committees.
We will not have a truly synodal Church as long as a large majority of the ecclesial body continues to be absent from presbyteral formation, because the Spirit is present in the “totality of the faithful” and not in “one” or “some” in isolation, as Lumen Gentium reminds us.
Without women, presbyteral formation will remain incomplete, and we will fail to train clergy to build the ecclesial “we” in seminaries and formation houses from the very beginning of the formation process.