Reclaiming the Question: “Why Women?”
In a rich and expansive conversation hosted by Dr. Abigail Favale, Dr. Angela Franks traced the Catholic Church’s evolving understanding of women’s role in doctrine, symbol, and society. Franks opened with the simple yet profound question: “Why women?”—suggesting, with both reverence and wit, that she had nearly titled her talk “The Gratuity of Women.” At the heart of the discussion was the Church’s view of sexual difference not as hierarchy, but as gift—grounded in Genesis and animated throughout salvation history.
Scripture and Symbol: Equal in Being, Distinct in Mission
Beginning with Genesis, Dr. Franks emphasized that both male and female are created in God’s image and are co-participants in His creative work. She unpacked the Hebrew term ezra (helper), noting its theological depth—it is used elsewhere in Scripture to describe God Himself. She also drew from the New Testament, highlighting Jesus’ boundary-breaking encounters with women and St. Paul’s radical declarations of spiritual equality, especially in Galatians 3 and Ephesians 5. The upshot: Christianity affirms both the equality and meaningful distinction of the sexes, offering a framework both ancient and subversively modern.
Doctrinal Continuity, Historical Change
Franks distinguished between doctrine—which develops organically, like a seed into a flower—and Church practices, which may shift in response to culture. She traced the increased restrictiveness in women’s roles after the Council of Trent and the Protestant Reformation, but also the 20th-century recovery of women’s public witness, especially in consecrated life. Throughout, she stressed that Christian history contains both setbacks and surprising surges in female agency—from early martyrs and educators to reformers and theologians.
John Paul II and the Theology of Woman
Dr. Franks spent much of the discussion unpacking Pope John Paul II’s contribution to the Church’s theology of women. She highlighted three key principles: essential equality, bodily asymmetry (especially in reproduction), and symbolic differentiation. His writings, especially Mulieris Dignitatem, propose that women’s unique gift is not confined to motherhood, but lies in their capacity to receive and nurture life—physically, spiritually, and relationally. Woman, in this view, becomes an icon of the Church: receptive, generative, and prophetic.
The Feminine Genius: More Than a Slogan
The “feminine genius,” often reduced to vague sentiment, was reclaimed in Franks’ telling as a robust theological vision. It affirms that women are entrusted with the human person in a unique way—not to be confined, but to be mobilized. Whether in motherhood, consecrated life, or professional vocation, women mirror the Marian posture of receptivity and strength. Crucially, John Paul II emphasized that women must be free to choose among these vocations—not be reduced to any one of them.
A Marian Vision of Mutual Gift
Franks closed by returning to Mary—not just as a model of obedience, but as the Church’s most perfect cooperator. God desires collaborators, not automatons, she emphasized. The “genius” of woman is prophetic, not utilitarian: it invites the world to recognize the fundamental truth of human life—that love must be received before it can be given. And in this, women point all of us toward communion.
Closing Reflections
Dr. Franks’ presentation blended doctrinal clarity, historical honesty, and spiritual vision. Rather than flattening the Church’s teaching into slogans or slogans into apologies, she offered a compelling account of the theological imagination behind the Church’s vision for women—one that challenges easy binaries and invites deeper partnership between men and women in both the Church and the world.
