"The people who come here don't know the history of the church... We Romans know the church very well."

This morning the conclave team, together with Sr. Joan Chittister, OSB, and Dr.
Andriana  Valerio, professor of Christian History at the University of Naples,
"Federico II," and President of the European Society of Women in Theological Research, took
the train from our beachside accommodations near the ancient ruins of Ostia into the
city.  The Metro ended at the Church of St. Paul, just outside the walls of Rome,
where St. Paul was reportedly beheaded by Roman authorities. As a Roman citizen, he could
not be subjected to the slow tortuous death of crucifixion.

The Circus Maximus ruins are nearby and during the taxi-ride across the city, Anthony
Padovano, who lived in Rome for six years while he attended the Gregorian University,
pointed out various historic sites and regaled us with tales of popes, their mistresses,
children, and ancient church politics.

The press conference began at 11 at the ornate Cavour auditorium not far from St.
Peter's.

The auditorium is located in a monument dedicated to the valiant Italians
injured in the country's various wars, including the famous war that deprived the church
of its vast landholdings at the turn of the 19th Century.  There is a love-hate
relationship between the people of Rome and the papal apparatus. For example, one of the
members of the We Are Church-Italy group pointed to an impressive structure that housed
the Emperor Hadrian's remains, which was seized by the Pope after the fall of Rome.
"We had a lot of problems and a lot of invasions," he said, referring to his fellow
citizens and their legacy. "At that time the church became very powerful and they just
took many palaces and monuments that belonged to the people of Rome." The tone with which
he imparted the story implied that the resentment of the church and its acquisitiveness
is still a matter of some feeling among Roman citizens.

"The people who come here don't know the history of the church," he told me.
"They just say that they love the pope and the church, but they don't know what
they did.  We Romans know the church very well."

About 40 people turned out for the Dr. Valerio's presentation, but few came from the
Italian press and there were no cameras from Italy's three stations, which are owned by
Berlusconi who owns three television stations and the government controls two of the
three public stations. The government-controlled press and Berlusconi's media empire
totally ignores anything that women or anyone else has to say that is the least bit
critical of the church.

Valerio told the press that text books used by seminarians studying for the priesthood
contain no references to the historic role of women in the formation of the early church,
nor of their later contributions as abbesses, mystics, and prophets.  Similarly, the
texts used for study of the various theological fields contain nearly no references to
the ground-breaking theological work done by women in the modern church. Unless women are
completely subservient to church teachings, they cannot take teaching posts within
Catholic universities.

This state of affairs apparently galvanized the women journalists, who begin to
comprehend the enormity of the problem. Most say they have long ago stopped going nto
church, but the education they are receiving is beginning to motivate them to dig deeper
into the cleansing of history and the silencing of women's voices.

Robert Blair Kaiser pushed the organizers of the conferences to go to the streets and
do some sort of public protest, such as burning bras, to compel the press to turn out in
greater numbers.  Frankly, it's too cold to take off my shirt here, but I am
considering burning my supply in the public square.  Kaiser also was critical
because the organizers have not yet sent "these important speeches" to all the
cardinals.  He said we should  be working furiously to email them to all the
cardinals before they are shut off from the world. So, tomorrow morning, I will follow
his advice and go to the Vatican bookstore to purchase a Vatican directory for the
preposterous price of $70 Euros.

That's it for tonight.  To read the press release from Valerio's press
conference, please click here: http://www.we-are-church.org and follow the link to the
IMWAC Papal Conclave Project. That's it for now; I have more press releases to
generate.