The Church - a community of Jesus' friends for women too?

The first part of the article presents a brief overview of the discussions between Catholic theologians and feminist theologians on the Church as a community of friends in general and in particular for women. In the second part of the article, the consequences of the introduction of the friendship concept without a clear definition of its meaning and particularly the juxtaposing of the concept of friendship to that of betrothal in the establishment of male/priestly spirituality for the status of women in the Church are analyzed. The consequences of opposing these two concepts for women are analyzed in the third part within the framework of the image of the Church as the betrothed that is offered in Church documents on women as the framework for the consideration of women's position in the Church. Compared to theologians who believe that the Church can become a friendly community without substantial structural changes, the article explains the necessity of structural changes based on analyses of church documents on women, while the fourth part presents theological postulates in the spirit of the Franciscan intellectual tradition which indicate the possibility of such changes.