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181 9 An Open Letter to Miryam IV, Successor of Peter and Mary of Magdala When I was invited, by the editors of an Italian volume on the agenda of a new pope, to write an article on “Feminism and the Papacy in the Third Millennium,” I decided to delineate in the form of a fictive letter the issues and problems the newly elected successor of John Paul II would have to face. Tongue in cheek, I suggested that the new leader of Catholicism would be not only a woman but a feminist who chose the name Miryam IV. The following is the imaginary letter addressed to her.1 Dear Friend of divine Wisdom, It took me a long time to find the proper way to address you: Holy Father, Your Holiness, Pontifex Maximus, Pater Patrum, Pope, Servus Servorum Dei—none of these titles seemed quite right. Among these traditional titles, Servus Servorum Dei seemed to fit. But when I remembered the many Filipina sisters working as unpaid servants of the “servants” of G*d in the hospitals and seminaries of the West, it also sounded hypocritical. To indicate a different “service” than that of exploited labor, I contemplated the address minister—a title given by divine Wisdom to those sent out to proclaim Her good news and to invite all to Her open house and table (Prov. 9:1-6). But this title referred to the non-ordained in post–Vatican II Roman Catholicism. Moreover, “minister” sounded too Protestant or reminded one too much of a political office, such as, for example, “Prime Minister.” Equally arrogant seemed “Your Holiness!” After all the weighing and pondering of an appropriate address, 1. First published in Italian as “Lettera aperta a Miriam IV, la successore di Pietro e di Maria di Magdala,” in L’agenda del nuovo papa: Dai cinque continenti ipotesi sul dopo Wojtyla, edited by Luigi De Paoli and Luigi Sandri, (Rome: Riuniti, 2002), 115-40. 182 | Transforming Vision I finally settled on friend, a name given in Scripture to the children of divine Wisdom and to the followers of Jesus’ vision of a world of justice and peace. I hope you will like it and make it your own: Wisdom Friend, Miryam IV. Papa Feminista Yet, after I had found an address satisfactory to the demands of etiquette and theological rhetoric, I was at a loss as to what I actually could say to you about the issues and problems you face as new pope in the third millennium. Writing to you as a “friend,” I became acutely aware of the pitfalls and dangers ahead of you. What could one hope for? Should I congratulate or commiserate with you, since being elected pope promises to be more a crown of thorns than a bed of roses? The best of the best would not be able to change an encrusted administrative system of mind-control and Eurocentrism such as the Vatican bureaucracy, an institution that has managed to again shut all the doors and windows that were opened only a little bit by Pope John XXIII and the Second Vatican Council. Dominus Jesus2 —that is, Lord, Emperor, Slave-master, Father—and not the carpenter of Nazareth and fisherman from Galilee seems to be at the heart of the Roman papalism that you have inherited. Remembering the threat of religious violence against theologians who have shown intellectual integrity, especially remembering the measures against those advocating the ordination of wo/men to the full office of priestly ministry as bishops, one may rightly and helplessly ask: What is a feminist pope to say? What could a good Catholic who is a feminist do in such a retrograde situation? When contemplating the most recent Vatican rhetoric and the cruel measures of the last papacy against liberation theologians and the faithful at large, the story of the emperor who has no clothes comes to mind. The emperor, so the story goes, paraded around without a shred of clothing. All bystanders pretended not to see. No one had the courage to tell the truth until a child in the assembled crowd called out: “The emperor has no clothes!” This story has become in my view a fitting parable interpreting the desperate measures of the Vatican bureaucracy to keep the faithful from becoming fully responsible adult citizens of the church. Those in the Vatican and beyond who are suffering from the fear of Dostojewski ’s Grand Inquisitor seem desperately to want to enforce legally what they...

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