Interview with Sister Rosmery Castañeda Montoya, OP, who participated in the work of the Synod on Synodality.
“Dominicanes in synodi coetu de synodalitate”
“The contribution of women is fundamental for a Church that desires renewal in accordance with its origins”, declaresSister Rosmery Castañeda Montoya, OP, in the following interview granted to the media of Ordo Praedicatorum, Sr Rosemery, who participated in the Synod on Synodality, recalls the role played by women in the first Christian communities. “With pain we note that this belongs to times gone by,” Sister says and points out that “even today many still do not want to renounce the role that has been attributed to women as second or third class beings.”
1 – Tell us about your personal experience at the Synod.
I thank God who has allowed me to have this experience of the Church. I thank you who wish to know and to celebrate this synodal journey which the Church began in 2021. It has been a three year experience of walking in docility to the breath of the Spirit in order to recover the Church’s apostolic origins. These are not pointless activities, they are not passing meetings which could become mere interviews to fill out surveys. No. Our experience shows us that there is a well-marked path which still leaves room for further developments. And that is how it should be. Some participants have become vested in the synodal path only after reading the new proposals. Others have kept their distance, but are beginning to desire a pastoral ministry that facilitates encounter, listening, conversation and the search for what the Spirit is saying to the churches. Some others know that the process is guided by the breath of the Spirit but have not yet decided to commit themselves. I am sure they will once they see the people of God excited and engaged because they have been recognized and heard. Through their participation as a Baptised people, they will bring the newness that the Church needs. The experience at the First Session of the 16th Synodal Assembly in October 2023 was an opening of our inner selves. We presented the perspectives of the children of God whom we love and serve. The round tables have had such an impact on the synod members themselves and on those who have followed us through the media. Through these round tables, we experienced conversation in the Spirit. Such conversation facilitated dialogue, reflection and the search for a way to give a new face to the Church, a face with a universal and ecumenical identity where the poor and women have their say, the laity can express the charisms received and consecrated persons are valued for the prophecy they offer. This prophecy reconfigures the face of the maternal Church. The fraternal atmosphere fostered the formation of friendship and brotherhood between the members of the synod. We spoke as equals. We found we had points in common. We want to deepen the impact of Christian initiation (the basis of baptismal identity), to encourage pastoral care that promotes unity, to reach out to the most distant. Cardinals, bishops, priests, lay people, women and religious experienced a fraternity brought about by listening to the Word of God together. The Word of God and the liturgical celebrations inserted the life of the Gospel into a process that could have remained sterile, stuck in fruitless discussions. The presence of Pope Francis throughout the Assembly had a profound impact on me. He was not only the guide of the process, but also the witness of an unshakeable faith in the Church, which he loves and to which he has given his life. His attitude of listening to “everyone, everyone, everyone,” as he likes to say, his closeness, his human warmth, his attention to the thoughts of the other, his manifest desire to defend communion over and against all polarisation or divergence, his serenity in resolving the conflicts that arose, his humility in allowing himself to be questioned… All this makes him, without doubt, the pope that the Church expected and needs today.
2 – What contribution can women make to the mission of the universal Church?
The contribution of women is fundamental for a Church that wants to renew itself in contact with its origins. We are all familiar with the role of women in the animation of the first communities and we are painfully aware that it belongs to times gone by. At what crucial moment in the Church was their protagonism lost? And how much we have missed it! Even today, many still do not want to give up the secondary or tertiary role that has been attributed to women as second or third class beings. Women in the Church have enriched the communities of faith since the first centuries. Her leadership is one of dedication, never measuring effort or time. Hers is a leadership that forms in human and Christian growth only by the grace of being a woman. Who can deny that women cradled the church? She knows how to guard life, to care with tenderness, to heal with gestures of mercy when she sees the wounds caused by violence and war. She is not afraid to take risks when it comes to creating novelty, even if it goes against the tide.
3 – In your opinion, how does the theme of synodality relate to the charism of the Order?
The charism of the Order, which has spiritually nourished us for more than eight hundred years, has been the vital relationship we as Dominicans have with the Word of God: to contemplate it and to give to others the fruit of our contemplation. It is easy, then, to find the relationship of this charism with synodality. The synodality that the Church pursues today is nourished by the Word in order to sustain, with the power of the Spirit, communion as a fraternal encounter with all, participation that generates life, and mission that breaks new ground and broadens horizons. The evangelisation of Latin America and the Caribbean testifies to the missionary ardour of the first friars who came to destabilise the exclusivity of the white society and the horror of the encomienda, to demystify a Christianity in collusion with death. They did this by the power of the Word alone (remember Brother Antón de Montesinos, OP, Brother Bartolomé de las Casas, OP, Brother Juan de Zumárraga, OP, Brother Pedro de Córdoba, OP, and others). They made the unknown Indian their brother. They humanised and defended him. How can we not affirm that these events of the Order’s history were a synodal path, even if the word “synodal” was not used? Every effort of the Order to focus itsmission on its original charism will be a valuable contribution to the synodal Church which requires the participation and commitment of all, valuing and respecting the charism of each religious family. As the Dominican Sisters of Charity of the Presentation prepare for our 56th General Chapter, we seeks to situate ourselves in the Church with a synodal face based on our poverty and vulnerabilities, in order to “together transform our life and mission” as a response to the Church of today.
4 – How can a Dominican woman contribute to peace building in the world?
We all know that the world today is fractured and has deep wounds that need to be healed. As Dominicans, we do not claim to put an end to war and widespread violence, but if each one of us, according to our founding charism, is a living presence of the Gospel of mercy illustrated in the parable of the Good Samaritan, we will recognize the wounded and commit ourselves to helping them. Our closeness to the suffering will dictate concrete actions in their favour. Perhaps it is time, in missionary audacity, to open our convents and make them houses of mercy, tents open to welcome the surviving victims of violence, inns that shelter and wrap up the anguished and lonely migrants. Our presence in the region of Urabá (Colombia), on the way to Panama, in the infamous Darien Gap, began with the construction of houses for victims of violence in the banana zone. Then came the shelters for the children of widows and, today, a humble presence among the migrants. We listen, accompany, guide and, when possible, provide food. Perhaps it is also the time to again make use of the ambulances that took our first sisters, with their limitless creativity, to help those who were wounded along the way. Perhaps we should start by disarming our hearts, so that fraternity, the foundation of our consecration, is not damaged. One day our Mother Foundress Marie Poussepin, OP, left her business in Dourdan, France, to welcome in her heart the poor of the sick and the orphans of Sainville, left over from the wars of the Fronde. As the image of the Gospel, she is our inspiration.
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Sister Rosmery Castañeda Montoya, OP, a Colombian Dominican nun of the Dominican Sisters of Charity of the Presentation, was selected by Pope Francis to participate in the Synod on Synodality. She was the only woman from the Order of Preachers to attend this 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, entitled For a Synodal Church: Communion, Participation and Mission, which was held in Rome from 4 to 29 October 2023. Sister Rosmery is a theologian, with a Masters in Theology and Bible. She is a professor at the Faculty of Theology of the Pontifical Bolivarian University of Medellin (Colombia) and at the Major Seminary of the same city. Since 2015, she has been carrying out her mission in the Archdiocese of Panama as Director of the Department of Christian Formation, with the Institute of Pastoral Theology for the formation for permanent deacons, catechists, pastoral ministers and lay people. She directs the School of Biblical Pastoral Ministry and teaches New Testament at the San José Major Seminary. She is a member of the Theological Commission of the Episcopal Conference of Panama.
