The Holy Scripture commands us to develop our talents. It speaks of this fact, for example, in the Parable of the Talents in Matthew 25:14-30. Thus, we have God’s command to develop our talents, even to multiply them. One could say that this parable implies that if we properly develop one talent, we will receive another as a reward, and so on. Therefore, by developing our talents and abilities, we can acquire more and more of them, until ultimately, we even reach an excess. According to this Gospel, there is nothing wrong with this excess of talents! On the contrary, we are to multiply them, one might say, indefinitely.
But the important question is what the church does with these talents. We will divide the answer to this question into two parts. Today, the first part concerns women. Next time, the second part concerns men, with particular emphasis on the hierarchical structure of the church itself, i.e., the priests and their management. In today’s world, although women have increasingly more opportunities and rights, this doesn’t necessarily translate into church life, or canon law. Women have talents for learning, including the study of sacred books, theology, and a million other things. They may have the ability to speak publicly, write (including sermons and various other religious documents and content), preach the Word and convert people, evangelize, learn languages… and perform all the church’s ministries.
However, does the Church utilize these women’s talents? The answer can only be negative. The Church wastes them! It doesn’t allow women to evangelize like men, it doesn’t allow them to write sermons, speak publicly, or hold many church functions and offices. This is beginning to change somewhat, but it’s a barely noticeable margin that can be seen as a confirmation of principle. It doesn’t allow women to be ordained (a broad topic in itself). However, of course, not all ministries in the Church are strictly related to ordination, and ordination is a separate issue. Is God pleased with this state of affairs? Probably not. Definitely not! As we read in the parable of the servants and the talents, there is no specific reference to endowing talents only to one gender. Besides, this would be a blatant injustice and would completely contradict other theses contained in Holy Scripture. One could therefore conclude that the Church is wasting women’s talents and thus opposing the calling of every human being to develop them, and should be at least reprimanded for this, if not punished. Although perhaps more specifically, the Church itself should not be punished, but rather those who govern it, build its structures, and marginalize over half of the faithful solely on the basis of gender.
From its very inception, the Church has absorbed patristic ideology and become thoroughly saturated with it. Although Christ opposed it, the Church of the first centuries, even the apostles, had a problem with this fact. As a result, from apostolic times onward, it slowly and increasingly fell into patriarchy, denying women and children one after another the rights they deserve. While it is true that over time, it has elevated individual women to the rank of Doctor of the Church or to sainthood, it did so primarily to reassure women of the time and to be able to tell them that we appreciate women too. But what is the ratio of women to men who have been appreciated? How many women’s talents have been wasted, buried, or even forbidden to speak, teach, or express their opinions? They have been denied the right to spiritual, religious, human, moral, and overall development throughout their existence.
The Church, in its hierarchical structure, has thus forced women for centuries to lose their talents by neglecting them and forbidding them from developing them. It has forced them to follow a path not accepted by God Himself. How, then, can it teach women about God? She thus refused to receive further blessings from God, because, as we read in the Gospel quoted above, these come precisely from the multiplication of talents. Indeed, this has had its repercussions for centuries, and continues to do so, for example, through the humiliation of women, preventing them from working for the good of others. Women were often denied the chance to understand and discover these God-given talents, simply because they were born without male gender. Attempts were made to marginalize them, which, by the way, continues to this day, by limiting their role to serving the family—and here primarily by male church members, or priests (in something they themselves do not wish to do). This is a clear defiance of God’s will. And the Church, in its essence and foundation, should lead everyone, without exception, to growth, to salvation, but does it do so?
In conclusion, it is quite possible to conclude that the institution of the Church, patriarchy, violates the principles and equality of man imposed by God Himself.