Woman in the Roman Catholic Church

The aim of this study is to reveal the Roman Catholic Church's view of woman from the early Church to the contemporary period and the debates on current issues related to women. For this purpose, in the first chapter the position and roles of women in the Church from the early Church to the Second Vatican Council are given. In the second chapter, first the participation of women in the council and then the texts about women in the council documents are mentioned. Then, in the following process, the Church's view of women was discussed in the context of the popes of the period and their evaluations of women were emphasized. In the third chapter of the study, the topics of gender theory, birth control, abortion, homosexuality/same-sex marriage and the priesthood of women, which are determined as current discussion topics related to women, are discussed. The topics are addressed first with the teachings of the Church and then with the views and criticisms of Catholic scholars and theologians. In the study, which is based on the case study design, one of the qualitative research methods, the historical phenomenological method, one of the traditional methodological approaches of the History of Religions, was used. In the study, document analysis method was used as a data collection tool. According to the findings of the research, it has been determined that various developments in the historical process have caused some changes that can be recorded as progress in the Roman Catholic Church's view of women and its discourses. Especially the period of Pope Francis I is important in terms of the moderate attitude towards women and the first steps taken. It is seen that Francis, who prefers to approach contemporary problems cautiously in a way that does not harm the theology and hierarchy of the Church, exhibits an attitude that fits the spirit of the time but does not break with tradition. At this point, it was realized that the various feminist movements and Catholic women's movements forced the Church to revise its discourse on women. Catholic feminist theologians and women's movements expect the Church to put into practice the principles of freedom, equality and justice that it advocates in all areas.