The role of women in the Roman Catholic Church should be of 'service' and not 'servitude', the Pope has said.
At a Vatican conference, Pope Francis said he suffered when he saw in the Church, or in certain Church organizations that the woman's service role slips into one of servitude.
He also singled out two dangers facing Catholic women, beginning with 'motherhood being reduced to a social role'.
According to news.com.au, the 76-year-old also said he likes to think of the Church as feminine.
He told some 150 people attending the conference marking the 25th anniversary of the publication of papal text on the woman's vocation that the Church is a woman, a mother that is beautiful.