Pope Francis: “Let us look to Mary as a model of the quintessential woman”

Today, the day when we commemorate the apparitions of the Virgin Mary to the shepherd children of Fatima – and today I am also very sad, because in the country where the Virgin appeared, a law is being passed to kill, a further addition to the long list of countries with euthanasia – today, then, thinking of the Virgin, let us look to Mary as a model of the quintessential woman, who lives fully a gift and a task: the gift of maternity and the task of taking care of her children in the Church.

You too, as women, possess this gift and this task, in every environment where you are present, aware that without you these environments are lonely. It is not good for man to be alone, hence there are women. Mary teaches us to generate life and to protect it always, relating with others with tenderness and compassion, and combining three languages: that of the mind, that of the heart and that of the hands, which must be coordinated.

What the mind thinks, let the heart feel and the hands do; let what the heart feels be in harmony with what the mind thinks and the hands do; let what the hands do be in harmony with what one feels and what one thinks. As I have said on other occasions, I believe that women have this capacity for thinking what they feel, for feeling what they think and for doing what they feel and think. I encourage you to continue to offer this sensibility in the service of others.

Pope Francis, May 23, 2023 - Address to the participants in the General Assembly of the World Union of Catholic Women’s Organizations (WUCWO), excerpt.