Pages 37-38 in A Post-Plague Women's Studies Reader

This partial draft of a letter found in the files of the first female Cardinal Secretary of Briefs after her death in 2008 reveals how the Great Death's toll on the population had firmly equalized gender roles in the church a mere hundred and fifty years after women were first allowed to administer the sacraments. Nonetheless, Cardinal Marano, like all men and women in the transformative society of the plague years, was unwilling to jeopardize her status in favor of truly revolutionary change.

...regarding the preliminary copy of the dissertation you sent me, you should advise your student to look into a few pertinent revisions. For the beginning section: the arguments against "An Essay on Population" are not brilliant; any student of history is well-versed on the breaking of the seemingly eternal, post-Conquest Malthusian deadlock by the external factors of plague and resulting population loss. Sister Mary Charles's true inspiration lies in the second section, during her discussion of the 1844 plague's effects on demographics; the impact of the aging population of survivors cannot be underplayed in any such survey of the Great Death, and yet, so often has been.

Her observations about the current trend of low-level population stagnation are also insightful. She has a keen sense of the long-term psychological effects of suddenly losing two-thirds of the world population. Her analysis of the "the shock that was like no other in all of human history, of immediate, omnipresent and nonnegotiable death, leaving a dearth of population amongst both the high and the low, amongst peasants and lords, gravediggers and physicians, drovers and clergymen. It opened a path for women to achieve greater equality with men than ever before, in all walks of life; no profession was closed to them any longer on basis of sex alone." Yes, this is incisive--as are her observations about effect of the hundred years of continuing epidemics, capped by the "sudden psychological relief" of the introduction of antibiotic drugs fifty years ago.

However, it is to be recommended that Sister Mary Charles excise the five pages following this in which she provides a "solution" for the population crisis. Her notions on the marriage of the clergy are heretical enough; her suggestion that the sacrament of holy orders is equivalent to matrimony and is thus sufficient for the bearing of children is preposterous.

I note that she does not indicate whether fornication or artificial insemination is the preferred methodology, which shows that she has not taken all leave of rational sense, but does indicate that she has not thought it through. While it is true that there is a natural desire among all women to emulate the Queen of Heaven and bear children, this is not the true solution to the problem of repopulation. Further, I do not think we wish to open an academic dialogue on this subject, lest it become a common opinion that women be barred once more from the higher ranks of the Church, or from taking holy orders altogether.

The plague gave us an opportunity to redraft society in a fashion which is more pleasing to God's eyes, not less so; as the third millennium of the new era draws near, we must remain ever vigilant that the exigencies of the situation do not dictate to morality. We are far enough removed from the continuing ravages of the plague to be certain that the world can be rebuilt; we need not rush things.

Other than this, Sister Mary Charles shows that she indeed possesses the sort of mind requisite for both teaching and research. She might do well installed in any university on the Northern New Continent, but she must not publish these heretical views if she wishes to be employed at any Christian university...

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Cardinal Catherine Anne Marano to Professor Daniel R. Clemente, 02 May 1973, Beatrix Collection, Henderson Library, St. Teresa of Avila University of Cincinattus.