The female aspect in the Church

Do women have a place in, what you call, the inner circle. The Catholic Church in particular has definite rules assigned to women, which, suggests an air of chauvinistic ideals. What are your views on this?

The Catholic Church, along with other organized religions are still greatly influenced by the Judaic belief system. This includes Islam as the Koran is also based on the Old Testament. St. Paul, for instance, is the main culprit for the suppression of women in Christianity. Jesus himself did not adhere to such superiority. In fact, there are various references to certain women being closely associated with him. Mary Magdalene is the most famous. Naturally, there have been many speculations concerning the closeness of the relationship. I won't get into any details concerning my own opinions and let each consider their own.

Over the years there has been much speculation and study concerning Leonardo da Vinci's famous painting of the last supper. Within this painting there is not only one woman, as is commonly believed, but in fact two women present.  This is more evident in the rendition made by Zabarteri.  No one really knows what possessed da Vinci from breaking with tradition. This would have been considered as heretical within the Catholic Church. Traditionally, seated at the table there was only Jesus and his twelve disciples. In order to include the two females, two of the disciples would need to be removed. But that's not under our consideration as we are looking at the female connection where Jesus is concerned. But, definitely, da Vinci most certainly did not undermine the presence of females.

Zabateri’s rendition of the Last Supper

This should make us wonder – did da Vinci know something that we today are not aware of? Most assuredly. We know by the Gnostic writings that Mary Magdalene played a very important role in the ministry of Jesus, and continued this importance after Jesus disappeared from the scene. In fact, in the light of what is written, we can easily accredit Mary as not only having been an apostle of Christ, but the highest of the apostils. The Knights Templar also regarded Mary with high providence. They thought that highly of her that they built cathedrals in her honour. So we need to ask: why did the Knights Templar honour her to such a degree? No one really knows. But what we do know is that, while on Crusade in Jerusalem, the Knights Templar secretly excavated beneath the palace of King Herod. These tunnels are still there today. What we don't know is – what did they find. All we know is that the Templers suddenly got very, very rich and the Church had a rather unusual respect for them and exempted the order from many vows and obligations. This is enough to make one think that they may have black mailed the Church.

But no, I have absolutely no problems with women attaining prominent roles within the Church, or the Inner Circle.