WORDS Sr Christine Burke IBVM

Four hundred years after her stand for women in the Church, Mary Ward’s story still resonates.

The news of Mary Ward’s death in 1645 in York in England must have allowed the Inquisition officials to breathe a sigh of relief. She had claimed women could be trusted to be both religious sisters and active in the world. She had set up schools across Europe for girls, teaching them to read, write, learn other languages and be confident in public speaking. She had sent young women back into England, where to be Catholic was to be a traitor, and urged them to explain the faith in such a way as to help men and women to hold fast to their beliefs.

The officials in Rome believed that such works were, as the Papal Bull of Suppression of the Institute claimed in 1631, ‘…most unsuited to their weak sex and character, to female modesty and particularly to maidenly reserve’. Mary and her followers were said to ‘arrogantly and obstinately disobey [the Church’s] paternal and salutary warnings to the grave disadvantage of their own souls and the disgust of all good people’.

Mary was born in 1585, into the England of Elizabeth I and Shakespeare. In a period of harsh persecution for Catholics, Mary grew up in households where women played a leading role in supporting the spiritual lives of those in their care. Convents no longer existed in England, but stories were told of women who had made God the focus of their lives. Mary was attracted to this possibility and despite resistance from family and spiritual advisers, she sought this way of life. After two attempts at cloistered living, in 1609 she realised that God was calling her to something other, something more for the glory of God.

Mary and her companions believed God called them to model their way of life on the Society of Jesus, founded by Ignatius of Loyola in the 1530s. The freedom of this way of life was unheard of for women. Mary saw ‘freedom, justice and sincerity’ as crucial for women if they were to serve responsibly and apostolically beyond the enclosure demanded by tradition. She grounded her life by asking: what does God want of me here, in this instance? Her strong sense that God had a purpose in her life ensured that she used all her gifts to put forward this new possibility for women. She carried these weighty virtues with a light heart—believing ‘mirth is next to grace’ in hard times.

Whether working underground in England with adults, or educating girls in cities across Europe, for the thirty years following 1609 Mary never wavered in her belief that this way of life was possible for women who were vowed as religious in the Church. She also never wavered in her belief that the Catholic Church was her home and God could work through it. Her focus was always: how can we help families and individuals deepen their faith, come to know Jesus more, and do this in a way that frees rather than infantilises, that reaches out to social needs, that ensures that the gifts given to women are used to the full and not limited because men tell us we are ‘but women’. Her plan attracted derision, fear and downright rejection from Jesuits, from English clergy, from Government spies and from the Roman Curia.

Today in Calcutta, students from a Loreto school go out one day each week to teach other young children to read and write. In Ghana, in 2005, Kenyan sisters from the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary established a school for girls in a region where only boys had access to schooling. The enrolment is now close to 300. In Australia, women take their rightful place as engineers, lawyers, doctors, artists, teachers and contribute to society as mothers, carers, politicians and friends, drawing on an education that has given them confidence and hope. Mary has fostered a vision that calls them beyond consumerism and self-aggrandisement.

This year is a celebration of the 400th anniversary of the founding courage of Mary and her companions who dared to dream this new way of life for women. The Inquisition officialsl could not rest easy, because Mary’s companions remained committed after her death. They continued to educate girls and, despite orders to burn all records of Mary Ward’s role in their lives, repeatedly asked for recognition as a congregation. This came in the 1700s, but only on condition they severed connection with the name and story of Mary Ward.

In 1909 Pope Pius X finally recognised that Mary as the founder of the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary. As the circle turns, the story of this woman gains relevance in our Church. As Cardinal Ratzinger said in 1984, ‘With courage and decisiveness she opened the way in her own time for women to work in a new way in the Church … It may be said, perhaps, that precisely now Mary Ward’s hour has come.’

Sr Christine Burke is Province Leader of the Loreto Sisters Australia.

Celebrating the anniversary of Mary Ward, the Loreto Sisters in Australia have launched a Mary Ward backpack that will travel to Loreto communities throughout Australia. At each stop, people are encouraged to sign the journal, draw on the silk and record messages and photographs.

Over a three-year period the Loreto Sisters will be celebrating the vision, courage and commitment of their founder and her legacy of provinces and schools on every continent. Events will be held across Australia and internationally.
For further information about the Loreto Sisters and the Mary Ward 400 year celebrations, visit www.loreto.org.au.

Pictured: Students from Loreto Mandeville Hall, Toorak.