Pope Francis affirmed this Thursday during a meeting with nuns that women are "generous" and "brave" although, sometimes, there are some "neurotic", like "everywhere".
"It is typical of women to be generous, that's right. Sometimes there is a neurotic but this happens a little everywhere, right?", said the pontiff when receiving the participants in the General Assembly of the Union of Mothers Superiors of Italy (USMI) in the Vatican.
In his speech, released by the Holy See, Francis dedicated several words to describe his vision of women as "good people, who know how to create new paths, who know how to give" and who are also "courageous."
He also recalled that women, according to the gospel, were the first "witnesses to the resurrection of the Lord", who also announced the news to the rest of the disciples.
"These women did not choose the meeting for themselves, nor did they choose to walk alone: they chose to walk with others. Because it is typical of women to be generous, that's right," she considered.
On the consecrated life, Francis asked that they be aware of the "diseases" associated with religious dedication.
"I would like to highlight one that goes against everything we have said: bitterness. That spirit of inner bitterness. Always looking at the difficulties, always making a monument to the 'but, although...', always repeating that things are bad," he said.
"Please, when you see that in a community or some nuns, help them get out of this situation, from the melancholic people who always think: "Oh, the old days were better! Things don't go, and here and there... "That's the devil's elixir, the liquor of bitterness," he added.
And she asked them "you must be sowers of hope, which is not the same as sowers of optimism, no. Of hope, which is something else." Because being a woman is giving life, opening paths, calling others.
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