Let me tell you a story. When St. Francis founded the Poor Clares, it was expected that he would be their superior and that he would write their rule. Afterall, Benedict was Scholastica’s superior. Dominic was the superior for the Dominican nuns and Augustine for the Augustinian nuns.
On another note, we have a female chancellor. What happens is that the Vicar General is a priest and he grants faculties. The Chancellor runs the diocese. She’s excellent. She and the bishop make a great team.
Our Superintendant of Catholic Schools is also a woman and she’s very good. She’s very pro-life education in Catholic Schools.
My boss, the Archdiocesan Director of Respect Life is a woman. She runs an organization with over 200 people, five centers and coordinates more than 20 programs. There are deacons, priests, brothers and sisters working for her. We don’t care that she is a woman or lay. She’s good and makes things happen.
The diocese recently hired a new Vicar for Religious. This is the person who deals with religious superiors and oversees everything that has to do with religiuos in a diocese. This position is usually held by a priest and usually a secular priest, which is ironic. Our new Vicar is a Sister, a very young one, about 30 yrs old. We have over 150 young sisters in our diocese. Anyway, she’s better than any priest that we have ever had at that post.
When I was a Dean at a university, the President was a woman, the Chairman of the Board of Trustees was a woman and I loved them. They were good at what they did.
Maybe it’s because I’m Franciscan, as I said, we’re taught that men and women are equals, to the point that we see Francis and Clare as equals and we would never think of interfering or discouraging a woman, religious or lay, from taking charge.
Let me tell you another story. When I was very young (was not born a brother), I was married and we had three children. When my kids were 9, 7, and 4, there was an accident. My wife, father and 7 yr old son were killed. I was left alone with a 9 yr old daughter and a 4 yr old son with Asperger Syndrome (a type of autism).
Everyone thought that I should give the kids to an aunt or a grandmother or that I should marry again, so they would have a mother. I was determined to raise them, autism and all.
Fastforward 21 years. My daughter is a neuropsychologist and my autistic son is an independant artist who illustrates children’s books and does art for advertising campaigns. The biggest trouble that my son ever landed in was not doing homework. My daughter has never been in trouble, yet. She was engaged to be married and terminated the engagement, because the fiance asked for sex before the wedding. Her position was, “If he doesn’t understand my values now, when we’re still ‘lovey dovey’ whill he understand them in 20 years?” They both finished school. She has a PhD and he has an MA.
I went on to become a Franciscan. They decided to buy a house for the brothers to use to serve dads in crisis pregnancies. I’m very proud of them.
However, for many years, I held a job, cooked, cleaned, did laundry, went to parent meetings, helped with homework, took my kid to every therapist in town, tutored my kids and their friends, and I even baked cookies for my daughter’s Girl Scout troop when they went camping. That one I never understood. I thought Girl Scouts came with their own cookies.
Point is, men and women do things differently, but we can do them equally well.
Fraternally,
Br. JR, OSF
