Book of the week: He gave power to his servants – ZENIT

The strength of this polyphonic book, published a few weeks ago, is to confront the taboo of service as power without relativizing the evangelical demand to experience power as a service.

The Xaviere nuns, Geneviève Comeau, Christine Danel, Joëlle Ferry and Agata Zielinski invited their friend Isabelle de La Garanderie to join this reflection project in which Mgr Eychenne, Etienne Grieu and Marie-Lucile Kubacki are also participating.

On the occasion of the end of the synod, five committed women take the floor to offer strong, challenging, complementary reflections on power in the Church: what it is and what it could be, with a view to assignment.

Five strong views that raise the question of power in the Church. Geneviève Comeau, theologian, places it in the perspective of the source of the Church, Christ, and its goal, the mission. Joëlle Ferry, exegete, tells how governance was experienced in the early days of the Church, and what place women had in it. Agata Zielinski, philosopher, invites us to move from “power over” to “power together”. Christine Danel, former superior of Xaviere, shows how the exercise of power in religious life can inspire other places of the Church. Isabelle de La Garanderie, ecclesiologist, rereads Vatican II and Pope Francis to invite us to form a one and plural Church.

Sr Genevieve Comeau is a theologian, professor of fundamental theology at the Jesuit university of Paris, the Center Sèvres. Member of the Council of Bishops of France for inter-religious relations and new religions, she is particularly interested in relations with Islam and especially Judaism.

Sr Christine DanelSuperior General Emeritus of the Xavieres (2017-2023)

Sr. Joëlle Ferrya Xavierian nun, has a doctorate in theology and history of religions. A permanent student at the École Biblique de Jerusalem, she is professor of Old Testament at the faculty of theology of the Catholic Institute of Paris.

Sr. Agata Zielinskiassociate professor and doctor of philosophy, is a lecturer in HDR philosophy at the Center Sèvres (Paris). She is also a member of the ethics group of the French Society for Support and Palliative Care (SFAP).

Isabelle Payen of La Garanderieis a consecrated virgin of the diocese of Nanterre. A graduate of modern literature, a degree in dogmatic theology (Centre Sèvre – Jesuit Faculties of Paris) and currently (2022) a doctoral student in theology, she also teaches in a priority education high school in the Paris suburbs.