Last November, in a wide-ranging interview with the Jesuit magazine America, Pope Francis was forthcoming in his views about the ordination of women.
Noting that ‘it is a theological problem’, Francis first expressed his repeated view that the Church is more than ordained ministry – this is in line with his insistence that women can have roles of high visibility within the Church, with access to decision making, without being ordained. He went on to distinguish between two theological principles or categories: the Petrine (to do with ordained ministry and, by implication, proper to men) and the Marian (to do with the Church as Spouse, as feminine).