A Prophet Among Us

A composite picture of CNWE member, Joanna Manning, has been assembled from different perspectives: her own; that of fellow CNWE members, Gertrud Jaron Lewis and Saundra Glynn as well as Globe and Mail book reviewer, Kathleen Byrne. We include excerpts from the Globe and Mail review with her permission.

Joanna has been called a prophet by Ched Meyers in the Forward to her recently published book, Is the Pope Catholic?¹ Meyers compares Joanna to the prophet, Huldah who, interpreting a lost book, was responsible for King Josiah's initiating reform. "Joanna Manning is a modern Huldah figure. Her rereading of Church tradition offers both judgement and hope for reform," says Meyers.

In her book, Joanna speaks as a luminary reflecting the light of the Second Vatican Council. She speaks out her rich background of Jesuit formation and theological training. Educated at a convent boarding school, Joanna loved the religion classes and embraced the religious life at seventeen, She remained in convent life for seven years. During this time, she took degrees in history and theology and was one of the first women to take the same theological and scriptural courses as men studying for the priesthood. This was the time of debate and theological ferment in Rome surrounding the documents of the Council, particularly Lumen Gentium. As a nun, Joanna had been instructed that "Laypeople …pejoratively referred to as 'seculars' [were] a threat to the serenity and security of the cloister." This thinking conflicted with the "whole new language about the Church as the 'Pilgrim People of God'" coming from Vatican II. In the end, at the age of twenty-four, Joanna knew that she had to leave the convent and return to the "lay state".

Gertrud Jaron Lewis writes:

I hesitated at first to agree to review Joanna Manning's book. Given its strident title, what else could this volume contain, I thought, but pope-bashing tirades -- and what would there be left to say. Now I am pleased to state that my anticipation was wrong. For this work is a thorough, well-documented study, generally written in an objective reporting style. While there are occasional phrases that a reviewer in search of controversy can pick out and proclaim programmatic, I found Joanna Manning's book overall to be a serious account of the official Church's increasing misogyny.

The main part of the book is a detailed history of the relationship between Pope John Paul II and women. Manning offers us an intelligent critique - both from a sociological and theological viewpoint -- of the Vatican's stand against women's equality within and outside of the Church, especially during the later years of the current papacy.

Even for those of us who have lived through this recent history, Manning's meticulous and well-documented book is an eye-opener. It shows step by step how Pope John Paul's anti-women pronouncements are a backlash against the feminist movement at large. (For feminists, after all, contrary to the papal perception, do not only live in the Western world). While misogyny in one form or another has been a shameful part of the history of the Christian Churches, its current extreme form (Manning speaks of "entrenched sexism," p.154), as evidenced in papal edicts, is a new development in Catholicism. For John Paul's determined fight against women's equality marks a shift, for instance, from the course Pope John XXIII had set for the Church. Good Pope John spoke of "equal rights and duties for men and women" in his 1962 encyclical Pacem in terris. Also pronouncements made by the Canadian bishops, such as the Quebec bishops' "Reflection on Conjugal Violence" in 1989, differ drastically from recent papal decrees. In any form, misogyny or sexism is a betrayal of Jesus' teaching and, the author states, impedes "the working of the Holy Spirit both within the Church and in the world at large" (p.92). And what is more, we are reminded, John Paul II's continuing "teaching of the maleness of God" contradicts Catholic theology and is actually "a heretical position" (p. 96). Such deviations from Catholic teaching have led to the book's title.

The accumulated effect of the pope's stance against the equality of women within church and society is profoundly alarming. However, it is important that these facts are brought to our consciousness. There are also some related informative passages in this book, such as the report about the papal attempt to crush South American liberation theology or about the official promotion of Opus Dei, that also make the reader cringe in angry frustration.

As one would expect from such a dismal chapter of church history, the papal anti-women documents collected here are not a pleasant read for anyone, especially those of us committed to the Church. In fact, it can be downright depressing or enraging - depending on one's mental state. But in the same way as we cannot be silent about the evil of the Inquisition in the past, all of us - and especially us women - must become fully aware of the current deliberate mistreatment of half of the mystical body of Christ by the papal office -- an institution that is, ideally speaking, mandated to guide all of us in spiritual leadership.

Joanna Manning is well qualified by training and experience for such an in-depth study. Some parts of her book speak of her own life, and I think it was a good idea to include such a biographical sketch. For it shows her to be a highly trained theologian and a committed Catholic, immersed in Ignatian spirituality. Her progressive approach to high school teaching and her active social justice involvement which she describes demand the readers' full respect. The author also comes through with a clear sense of right and wrong. And one of the major wrongs in our beloved Church today is the hierarchy's on-going oppression of women's equal rights, with its far-reaching grave consequences world-wide.

Should this book have been written? The answer must be a resounding YES. Similar to the enormous impact of the early feminist works of the1960s and 70s, this book ought to have a wide-spread influence among Catholic women now.

I found Joanna Manning's book deeply touching, and I think it is a must for every Catholic, men and women alike. I would especially like to see this work in the hands of every seminarian. It should also be used in University Women Studies courses. Its long-term effect may then be that, as Manning states (p.191), "like the triple crown worn by popes until very recently, patriarchy and all its trappings will one day be consigned to history and the Vatican museum."

No doubt, once again the messenger will have to suffer for the message she delivered. This means that those of us who call ourselves feminist Catholics must stand in solidarity behind her. For the author does not fight her personal vendetta; rather, this courageous book was written on behalf of all of us who are directly addressed by the Holy See's decrees. Many of us will - perhaps perversely - feel newly invigorated to insist with more determination on our God-given rights. But we cannot read this book and return to yesterday's life. Our deepened awareness of women's plight in a Church, that is also OUR Church, must urge us on. Knowledge obliges…
Gertrud Jaron Lewis

Kathleen Byrne's review of Joanna's book occupied the front page of the Globe and Mail Books section on Saturday, July 10th .

"For questioning Roman Catholic doctrine, former nun, Joanna Manning has been banned from church property, denounced from the pulpit, and forbidden to teach religion. But it hasn't stopped her.

" It's possible that everything you need to know about the Pope, and by extension the Catholic Church, reveals itself in the fact that, in 1994, the pontiff elevated to sainthood Elisabetta Canori Mora, a 19th century Italian woman he praised as a model of Christian perfection. And why? Because, though beaten by her husband, she did not leave her marriage.

"The status of the husband remains unclear. I don't know whether he, too was recommended for sainthood. The problem is… I'm by no means sure that he wasn't. In the space of that doubt fits the entire history of Roman Catholic Church, 2,000 years of sexism encapsulated in a single fact.

" Joanna Manning, it should be said, makes no such claim in Is the Pope Catholic?
Mora is but one among many in her fact-filled arsenal; her arguments with the church are many and the British-born, Toronto-based teacher, feminist, activist … lays them out with precision and verve.

" Manning is confronting her church not only because she believes its position on a male-only priesthood is unjust (and doomed to alienate an already disaffected congregation) or because, as she argues, the male-only ordination rule contradicts fundamental Catholic theologies of baptism, incarnation, redemption, resurrection, and the Eucharist. She has also taken up the battle because she sees a direct link between the Vatican's misogynistic teachings and pandemic violence against women. 'Apartheid in the sanctuary, ' she writes, 'justifies abuse and violence in the streets.'

"This is not the kind of language destined to go down well in the Vatican. Indeed, Manning does not go down well in the Vatican. She has at different times been banned from church property in Western Canada, denounced from the pulpit in more than one Ontario church and, in1992, was forbidden to teach religion by the Metropolitan Toronto Separate School Board, essentially for airing views like those articulated above. (The ban was successfully grieved and she returned to her position in 1994,) It hasn't stopped her. 'This is the church that I love,' she writes, ' and I will not let it go.'

"Central to John Paul's arguments against female ordination is the view that women and men are two separate manifestations of human nature - 'different but equal' is the rallying cry here- a difference that is biologically founded. In short, women breed and feed, men do everything else. It is, as Manning points out, the theological equivalent of Freud's 'biology is destiny'.

" This line of thinking culminates in what is for the Vatican an irrefutable argument: Christ's human nature was male; as women and men are irreversibly different, women cannot represent Christ as priests. It is a 'theological position based on genitalia…not Genesis,' Manning writes, on that accords an 'overly significant weight to the gender of Jesus Christ'
"Then, in the mid-nineties, the Pope went one further, stating that the church has no authority to instate women as priests as a male-only priesthook was part of Christ's eternal will regarding the structure of the church. 'That is a most outrageous assertion for a Catholic to make,' Manning writes: Taken to its logical conclusion, it 'would mean that when Jesus ascended into heaven, the whole Roman structure of the Church was already present on earth, complet with bishop's miters and scarlet socks for cardinals…

Yet "dismissing the papal pronouncements as 'merely the quaint ramblings of an old man,' she writes,' is a naïve view of what is in fact a dangerous situation.' She goes on o catalogue in chilling detail the Vatican's 'prodigious international effort' to promote his reactionary views worldwide. Not least among these - and they include alliances with the CIA, the Reagan -Bush White House, the U.S. religious right and such fundamentalist states as Saudi Arabia. Kuwait, Iran, Sudan and Libya - are the Vatican's attempts to deep-six the agenda if three United Nations conferences: Rio (1992), Cairo (1994) and Beijing (1995), international assemblies featuring discussions of women's rights.

"As Manning makes eloquently clear, in anecdotes drawn from her own experience, the question of women's equality is not abstract and academic. Daily I asserts itself, from the Canadian classroom where boys steeped in the superior-male mentality of the Catholic catechism act out their sense of entitlement in the sexual harassment of female students, to underdeveloped countries in Africa, where overburdened mothers, desparate to limit the number of their offspring, are forbidden any form of birth control but the criminally inefficient 'rhythm method.'

"Would the machismo of theis Catholic culture flourish if God was addressed as Madre as well as Padre?' manning writes. 'Would a Catholic man be so ready to raise a hand to slap his wife if he had seen the hands of women lift up the body and blood of Christ at the altar? Would catholic soldiers in places like Bosnia and Rwanda consider the rape of women just another act of war if they knelt in confession to a woman priest?'

"Valid questions all. The fact that they are unlikely to be posed inside the Vatican has not deterred sucj passionate believers as Manning, which is the real wonder; barring an about-face by the Pope, it's the closest thing to a miracle the modern church is likely to experience."

Saundra Glynn Defends Manning in the Catholic Register

Denouncing Msgr. Joe O'Neill's article, Author's radical feminist crusade evident, Glynn
defends Manning's evaluation of Pope John Paul II's papacy. She goes on to define the terms used by Msgr. O'Neill: feminist - a person who advocates equality for women within the traditional pyramids of power - political, economic, social and religious; Christian - a person who believes in the teachings of Jesus Christ and acknowledges His divinity; radical - root, basis or origin Glynn then reminds the reader that the term Catholic means universal. She adds that "to be authentic, all Christian feminists must be radical" as they probe the basis of Catholic teachings. "Manning finds many of the teachings of the current pope less than universal," writes Glynn, "because they fail to acknowledge in deed the fully equal humanity of the female half of the human race. She criticizes also the fact that the pope and the curia, the Vatican civil service, have closed the doors on discussion of the issue."

Glynn points out that only in chapter three does the reader require a degree of theological sophistication to cope with Pope John Paul's "two-nature anthropology of gender…and its implications for our traditional understanding of both baptism and redemption." Msgr. O'Neill does not refute Manning's arguments when he faults her for twisting "the Pope's inspiring 'Letter on the dignity and vocation of women' by skipping any mention of his insistence of the equality of women and men." Instead, according to Glynn, he avoids the centrality of the anthropological issue, "which," she says, " has been used since long before the birth of Christ to keep women subordinated in the political, social, economic and religious spheres." Manning cites evidence from a U.S. Medical journal, Pediatrics, which provides evidence that "a person's sexual identity is mutable and does not develop in some cases until after birth. …Far from being fixed and immutable from conception onward, gender identity is in fact variable and divers and arises over a long period of time as a result of the interplay of complex cultural and other forces which go to make up the environment of human development… These findings are in direct contradiction to the "view of John Paul II," who, Manning says, sees "men and women as polar opposites. Each gender possesses unique attributes to which the other half of the human species has only secondary or indirect access; …women's attributes are always conditioned by biology, whereas men's are not. Men's attributes, such as right to the priesthood, power and authority, are derived from their resemblance to God. According to John Paul, [however], a woman's destiny lies within the natural law of her biological construction…there is very little detail in any of John Paul's teachings that defines how women are made in the image of God,"

Glynn discovered in Manning's book "a deep sense of pain and alienation, a feeling that the church that once challenged her has now failed her. Like many women and men,"says Glynn, " she now realizes that the "equal but different" argument is intellectual piffle - no matter who states it."

Your CNWE editor sees "different but equal" as the Catholic equivalent of "separate but equal" used by white, racial segregationists to preserve their privileges. Please send us your views.
cnwe@telus.net

1. Joanna Manning, Is the Pope Catholic? A Woman Confronts Her Church. Toronto: Malcolm Lester Books 1999. 247 pp. Can.
$21.95.