women carry the church
NEW WOMAN – ME! no 9
“handling the heavy body of the church”, the bishop’s vicar general said,
“is a man’s job;
you may pray”
“the priesthood”, the vicar general told me,
“is a man’s job;
you serve God in a different way
you protect young life and nourish it
you see to it that all is ready on the table
that everything is whole and tidy
you maintain and clean the church
but being a priest is a man’s job”
but we, women of this time,
we spread our frozen wings
the one after the other we will fly away
and the heavy body will in the course of time
feel no ground under its heavy feet
© Tina van Lieshout
translation John Wijngaards
Historical note: Remember Tina belonged to a farming community. In this painting Tina portrays the Church as a bull. Bulls are notoriously heavy, fierce and unpredictable. Only the strongest farmhands can handle them.
MEDITATIONS
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Tina van Lieshout was a Dutch Catholic woman who felt called to the priesthood. Her diocese refused her admission to the priestly formation programme which she challenged in high-profile court cases. She lost. Being both a gifted artist and poet, she described her despair in a series of paintings and meditations. But she also expressed through them her determination to realise her potential as a free and equal person. Her work was published in the Dutch book Ook in de Naam van de Moeder en de Dochter [= ‘Also in the Name of the Mother and the Daughter’], Wilco, Amersfoort 2000. She died in 2010.