Just in time for Philadelphia 11 Day (see previous post), Pope Benedict has issued a children’s book, Friends of Jesus, featuring 14 of Jesus’ closest friends. Evidently our Lord’s top 14 did not include women:
Pope Benedict XVI is described by the Vatican Information Service as the author of the 48-page book about Jesus’s 14 friends who are listed as Peter, his brother Andrew, James the older, John, Thomas, Matthew, Philip, Bartholomew, James the younger, Simon, Judas Thaddeus, Judas Iscariot, Matthias and Paul.
The book, thought to be the first written for children by a pope, came under attack because no mention was made of Mary Magdalene or any other female friends of Jesus. The hardback edition, which was published in Italian by Piccola Casa Editrice and is available in bookshops near the Vatican, brings together passages from the Pope’s teachings.
The role of women in the life of Jesus is regarded by scholars as being of increasing significance. Jesus has three important conversations with women in the Bible, including with a Samarian woman who is often held up as proof of Jesus’s support for minorities. After speaking to him, the Bible says, the woman became a disciple. It is Mary Magdalene who discovers Jesus’s empty tomb and tells the disciples of his resurrection.
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The book went on sale on July 22, the Feast of Mary Magdalene.
Mary Magdalene, the first Great Communicator. Would there have been a church without her, and her loyalty to Jesus?
Read Pope’s book on Jesus ‘edited out’ women.
Thanks to the Ship of Fools twitter stream for the tip and the headline. It’s worth following.