Irish Examiner view: Time for a patriarchal institution to change

Pope Francis has appointed a woman to head up the governorate of the Vatican

Pope Francis. Picture: AP Photo/Andrew Medichini

DURING proceedings at the Second Vatican Council, which ran from 1962 to 1965, Cardinal Leo Jozef Suenens of Belgium asked his fellow cardinals: "Why are we even discussing the reality of the church when half of the church is not even represented here?" 

The half he was referring to was, of course, women, the half of humanity that is barely represented in the institutional church.