St. Paul

Today is a very special day for my religious order, the Paulist Fathers.  In our church, it is the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul.  It celebrates when Paul stopped trying to kill or imprison Jewish Christians, and began to proclaim his faith in Jesus.  Paul is our model.  One of the ways that we model after Paul is the way that we treat women.  Paul colaborated with women in his ministry.  He relied upon them to help him in preaching and running the house churches that developed in various towns where he preached.  Women preached and were in charge.  Paulists treat women more as equals and hire them to be leaders in various ministries.  We do not treat them as peons or employees over whom we are the boss.  There is more of a sense of equality.  Interestingly, the Pope, in his Latin American visit told his hierarchs that they should not treat the lay persons as "peons."  Paulists like this Pope.