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Pilgrims Trace Women's Role in Early Church Published April 16, 2006 at 5:47 PM EDT Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Listen • 0:00 Sylvia Poggioli, NPR Female pilgrims from FutureChurch in
prayer at St. Praxedes church in Rome.
Inscriptions and images found on tombstones, frescoes and mosaics throughout the Mediterranean show that women held respected roles in the early Christian church that were identical to those
held by men. They were apostles, priests, deacons and bishops.
But the Vatican's official view of church history presents women in a different light. Recently, a group of 31 American Catholic women, organized by the group FutureChurch, visited Rome to
inspect the archeological evidence of female leadership.
Many who made the trip say they were inspired to become more active in their local church communities.
"We would just like to talk to our leaders," said Sister Christine Schenk, co-leader of the pilgrimage, "and tell them of our experience--how we can begin to re-institute that wonderful
balanced leadership we had in the first three centuries of both women and men leading the communities."
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Sylvia Poggioli, NPR / A mosaic of women who became saints after risking their lives to collect the relics of martyrs, St.Praxedes church, Rome. Sylvia Poggioli, NPR / A mosaic in St. Praxedes church, Rome. Theodora is on the left with a square halo, indicating she was alive when the mosaic was made.
