（2021.1.11 La Croix Xavier Le Normand and Lucie Sarr)
バチカンの聖書委員会に新たに女性委員が選ばれ、これによって20名の委員のうち5人を女性が占めることになった。
聖書委員会は ルイス・フランシスコ・ ラダリア・フェレール教理省長官・枢機卿が委員長を務める、重要な委員会だ。
（以下、翻訳中）
Add to your favourite storiesIt’s not yet arrived at parity, but the fact that five women are among the 20 scripture scholars that make up the Pontifical Biblical Commission is notable nonetheless for a Vatican institution.
The “feminization” of this world-class body of Bible experts, a trend that actually began a number of years ago, was reinforced recently when Pope Francis named ten new scholars to the 20-member commission.
Although the Vatican has not yet publicly announced their names, it did inform the ten new members in a January 13 email of their appointments to the five-year term once renewable.
“At first I thought it was spam, so I had to look at it twice!” laughed Bénédicte Lemmelijn, a Belgian theologian who was one to two women to be appointed.Father Philippe Lefebvre, a Dominican who teaches at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland, said he initially thought his appointment to the biblical commission was a “hoax”.”Like the prophets of the Old Testament”He praised the added presence of women — there were only three before this new wave of appointments — as something “very important” for the Vatican body.
“There is always a woman in the Bible to be listened to, perhaps because women present themselves differently than men in relation to the mystery,” Father Lefebvre said, pointing out that a woman was the first to announce Christ’s resurrection to the disciples.”
There is something fundamentally biblical in working together as men and women, and so much the better if it is in harmony with the signs of the time,” the Dominican said.
The prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, currently Cardinal Luis Ladaria SJ, is the president of Pontifical Biblical Commission. He advises the pope on choosing its members.
But those just most recently appointed to the commission said neither the cardinal nor the pope had consulted them beforehand or told them exactly why they had been chosen.”I feel like the prophets of the Old Testament, who receive a great task without it being worthy of their merit,” said Lemmelijn, a professor at the Catholic University of Louvain.The common thread of biblical reflection in the Church
But she offered a possible explanation.”Since the beginning of my career, I have always tried to make a contribution to the general public, in addition to my truly technical work in the field of exegesis,” she said Father Lefebvre echoed that.”Along with my academic work, I have always been concerned with making my work accessible through publications that are not reserved for specialists,” he explained
.He said he is already looking forward to participating in the work of this institution that “maintains a common thread of biblical and theological reflection in the Church”
.Professor Lemmelijn and Father Lefebrve confessed that they did not know how their work would be organized within the Pontifical Biblical Commission, which usually meets annually in Rome in the days following Easter.
In any case, Lemmelijn hopes to maintain her current methodology. “Studying the Bible in a scientific approach combined with a balanced interpretation for the service of the Church,” she pointed out.
African Jesuit also added Another of the ten new members on the biblical commission who has revealed his appointment is Father Paul Béré.The 54-year-old Jesuit from Burkina Faso, is a full-time professor at the Pontifical Biblical Institute (or “Biblicum”) in Rome
He was a 2019 recipient of the Ratzinger Prize in theology, the first African to get the prestigious award from the Joseph Ratzinger-Benedict XVI Foundation.Father Béré was born in 1966 and joined the Society of Jesus in 1990.
He did philosophy studies in DR-Congo and then theology in Kenya, with a specialization in Sacred Scripture.After teaching scripture for a number of years at the Jesuit Institute of Theology (ITCJ) in Abidjan (Côte d’Ivoire ) he became a permanent member of the Biblicum’s faculty in 2019.
He is a former consultant to the General Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops and currently has a similar role with the Pontifical Council for Culture and the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity.
The Pontifical Biblical Commission was established by Pope Leo XIII in 1902. It’s original mission was to promote biblical studies, counteract erroneous opinions regarding Sacred Scripture by scientific means, and to study and illuminate debated questions and emerging problems in the biblical field.
The commission originally consisted only of cardinals but Paul VI radically changed it in 1971, decreeing that its members be experts in biblical sciences from different schools and various nations. You may also like
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The Pontifical Biblical Commission was established as a committee of Cardinals, aided by consultors, who met in Rome to ensure the proper interpretation and defense of Sacred Scripture. This function was outlined in the encyclical Providentissimus Deus.
The first appointments to the Commission were in August, 1901, but it was not formally established by Pope Leo XIII until October 30, 1902, with the Apostolic Letter Vigilantiae Studiique.[1] The first Commission was composed of three Cardinals and 12 Consultors.
The Consultors met twice a month, with Secretaries present. The Secretaries reported to the Cardinals on the Commission, who met on the 2nd and 4th Sundays of each month. The Cardinals proposed questions for the consultors to consider and voted on the answers received from the consultors. The Cardinals could send questions back to the consultors for further study, commission a single consultor to investigate a matter more deeply, or sanction or modifying the study results. If a decision was reached, the secretaries reported to the Pope, who could send the matter back for further study, or ratify the results of the study.
The duties of the Commission were:
- to protect and defend the integrity of the Catholic Faith in Biblical matters
- to further the progress of exposition of the Sacred Books, taking account of all recent discoveries
- to decide controversies on grave questions which might arise among Catholic scholars
- to give answers to Catholics throughout the world who may consult the Commission
- to see that the Vatican Library was properly furnished with codices and necessary books
- to publish studies on Scripture as occasion might demand.[2]
The Commission was granted the power to grant pontifical academic degrees in biblical studies by Pope Pius X‘s Apostolic Letter Scripturae sanctae of February 23, 1904. Pope Pius XI, by the Motu Proprio Bibliorum scientia of April 27, 1924, and the Apostolic Constitution Deus scientiarum Dominus of May 24, 1931, clarified that such degrees were equivalent in status to those of the Pontifical Universities.[3]
