Women cannot preach, actually. And this in spite of the fact that ecclesial preaching in the Catholic home is in great trouble. In fact, one of the most widespread complaints about the daily life of churches is precisely the Sunday homily: difficult to do and difficult to find tasty. And yet, in spite of the struggles and the obvious need for help, women in the Catholic Church cannot preach. Why? Because of a legal provision that links liturgical preaching to the ordained ministry and, as we already know, this to the male sex.

And why? It is difficult to give a theological reason that holds water, especially if we look at the entire ecclesial tradition: it is no coincidence that the image that illustrates this article is ancient, it comes from the Green Cloister (16^th century) of the Monastery of St. Anne in Foligno and depicts Mary teaching in the temple.  There, a community of Franciscan Tertiaries had activated a form of evangelical life since the 14^th century, witnessing to the Gospel in the streets, alongside the needy, and even two centuries after the foundation they still resisted, commissioning these frescoes!

Returning to the present, we have ordained ministers too often struggling with preaching and women who might have the ability to be helpful, but since they are women, we decide that the gifts of the Spirit are not useful in this specific case and precisely because of the biological sex of the persons who have received the gift.

Breaking the Word: a plurality of ways

All this is so senseless that the church itself, on its own and beyond its own rules without transgressing them, finds a way to resolve and thus satisfy its own need for the word of God to be broken effectively by a plurality of voices. In fact, liturgical aids, blogs, podcasts are multiplying, in which lay people and especially laywomen, who would have no other possibility, break the word of God, explain it, offer it to those who feel a great need to pray, to meditate, to enter into the beauty of their faith.

It is a feminine take on the word. And this already counts. And it is an ecclesial female taking the floor. And this counts even more. But above all, it is a feminine statement for the Church. Women who have something to say are not silent, nor are all those who need a word to nourish them.

Why women? For the Church!

Why women? Is the word of ordained ministers not enough? Would it not suffice, if that were the problem, to provide those who are to preach with the training they need? What reason is there for women to speak? The point is that the Church transmits all that it lives and all that it is (Dei Verbum, n. 8), and what it transmits grows with the study of believers and the understanding of spiritual things, that is, with the wisdom that comes from living the faith: in all this, women are decisive, as is everyone. Without the living and feeling of women, there is no church tradition and therefore no preaching. We look at apostles, doctors and preachers and see only males, because we want to tell the story this way, but males were only some, not all.

The provocation to the reader/listener

Perhaps we should reread the conclusion of Mark's Gospel, the first one, the one that ends in verse 8 of chapter 16. We are at the tomb, on Easter morning, the women find the tomb empty and meet the young man who gives them the announcement of the resurrection. Mark (ingeniously) concludes by saying that these women out of fear said nothing to anyone. The genius lies in the provocation to the reader: it warns him that if this announcement is not told, it cannot bear fruit. But evidently if the Gospel has been written and the reader is reading it, these women have spoken and we know this from the other evangelists. What would have happened, however, if they had kept silent? What would have happened if they had obeyed the norm that does not give them an authoritative word? Quite simply and very dramatically, the ecclesial tradition would not have even begun because, whether we like it or not, the disciples are its first indispensable link.

And that is why women seek - and are increasingly asked - to speak out in the Church. Sometimes they are afraid. They also know that perhaps many will criticise. However, it is not possible to shirk one's responsibility: the talents received are to be invested, without delay.

Mary teaches doctors in the Temple

In Foligno, in the heart of Umbria, stands the monastery of St Anne, founded at the end of the 14^th century by Angelina di Montegiove and Paoluccio Trinci for a group of Franciscan Tertiary nuns who, instead of the cloister, chose the path of witnessing to the Gospel on the streets of the city, alongside people in need.

No writings remain of these mulieres religiosae, but their spirituality is imprinted in the frescoes they commissioned for the monastery. The unusual image of Mary as a child teaching the doctors in the Temple and that of the infant Jesus being circumcised by a woman - both belonging to the 16^th century cycle of the ‘green cloister’ - are a sign of the tenacity with which, despite the many oppositions they encountered, the Tertiary Sisters of St Anne affirmed their way of being disciples of Christ.

A book, through a journey through the history, spaces and iconography of the building, leads to the discovery of an important voice, still alive and relevant, of the Christian experience, the women’s voice.

See, Da che pulpito viene la predica!