« Scripture is a living Word … Discover the joy of hearing His voice »
Appointed one of the first women to the Pontifical Biblical Commission in 2014 and to the Dicastery for Divine Worship in January 2025 … Bringing a lay perspective to the liturgy

This article is released on July 26, 2026, in both print and online formats.

Biblical scholar Dr Mary Healy has long read and studied Scripture as « a living Word in which God speaks to us personally. » Professor of Scripture and Dean of Theology for Ecclesiastical Degrees at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in the United States, she is general editor of the Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture(CCSS) series and author of its volumes on The Gospel of Mark, Hebrews and Genesis. As a member of the Pontifical Biblical Commission and the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, and as chair of the Doctrinal Commission of the international Catholic Charismatic Renewal, she has shown how the Church can be renewed through Scripture, the liturgy and the charisms of the Holy Spirit.

Consecrated to Christ by a private vow while living as a laywoman, she recently adopted Kyle after serving as his foster mother for three years — offering a concrete example of how the Word and love can become a lived response.

Q. How can the fruits of biblical scholarship be connected with the faithful’s reading of Scripture and life of faith ?

A. Yet many Catholics have never learned how to read the Bible as a living Word in which God speaks to us personally. Because the Bible was composed in a distant time, language and culture, we need good resources to interpret biblical texts in their original context and show how they apply to life today.

In our Commentary series, my colleagues and I draw from the best of contemporary biblical scholarship and present it in a way that is accessible to ordinary readers. Our goal is for Catholics to fall in love with Scripture and experience its life-giving power as they apply it to daily life.

Every parish and diocese should cultivate a vibrant biblical culture, so that it becomes normal for Catholics to gather regularly for Bible study and discover the joy of learning to hear God’s voice through Scripture.

To do this, we need to ensure that good resources are available: readable translations, biblical commentaries, video courses, Bible study materials that show how to interpret Scripture, and so on. Ideally, every parish should have small-group Bible studies available so that parishioners can continually be nourished and strengthened by encountering the word of God.

As Cardinal Raniero Cantalamessa has said: « if we want to be fruitful in our ministry and mission as Catholics, we must learn to begin with Scripture and remain in it, rather than making our own plans and then looking for suitable biblical verses to adorn them. »

Q. In Healing: Bringing the Gift of God’s Mercy to the World, you present healing not merely as a miraculous experience, but as a matter of God’s mercy and the proclamation of the Gospel.

Healings were an intrinsic part of Jesus’ proclamation of the gospel during his earthly life, and they are meant to be an intrinsic part of the Church’s evangelizing mission in every age. Today the Lord is doing a remarkable number of healings and miracles ! Sometimes they occur at shrines like Lourdes, sometimes through the prayers and relics of the saints, and very often through the faith and prayer of ordinary believers.

Healings are a visible embodiment of the gospel, because they demonstrate in a tangible way that Christ is truly alive, that he loves us, that he is victorious over sin and all its consequences, and that his ultimate plan is for us to have the fullness of life. In the gospels, Jesus himself teaches us to pray for healing with confident faith. Although we do not always see an immediate healing in response to prayer, I am convinced that the Lord loves to heal and desires to heal far more often than we think! Every prayer for healing is an opportunity for a suffering person to experience the love and compassion of Christ.

Q. In 2014, you became one of the first women appointed to the Pontifical Biblical Commission, and in January 2025 you were appointed to the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. As a woman and a layperson, what distinctive perspectives and roles can you bring to the Church in these important areas of biblical study and liturgy ?

A. Women and men each have their own distinct gifts and ‘genius,’ to borrow a term from Pope John Paul II. Women tend to see things in a more integrated way and to keep in view the incomparable value of the person and the primacy of love.

When I was writing my commentary on Genesis, I found that my attention was sometimes drawn to elements of the narrative that male scholars had passed over, such as the spiritual development of individual characters and the Lord’s tenderness toward the marginalised. I hope the Church will provide more opportunities for women to obtain higher degrees in theology and biblical studies and to ensure that they have roles in teaching and forming the faithful.

The main focus of the Dicastery at the present time is on providing guidance and resources for the liturgical formation of all Catholics, as called for by Pope Francis in Desiderio Desideravi, so that all can enter more deeply into the liturgy and experience its transformative power in their lives. My role will be to contribute to this effort.

As a layperson, my perspective is not that of an ordained minister who celebrates the liturgy in persona Christi, but that of a member of the congregation who exercises the common priesthood of the faithful. I and the other lay member of the Dicastery can help keep the reflections on liturgical formation practical and concrete, focusing on what the faithful actually experience when they participate in the Sunday Mass at a parish and how they carry the liturgy into their lives. It’s wonderful that the Dicastery now has these complementary perspectives.

Q. At some seminaries, women teach or conduct research but have no role in priestly formation. What part can women’s gifts play in the formation of priests ?

Women tend to be more intuitive than men and to see persons from the heart. For this reason, women sometimes have deeper insight into the human and spiritual maturity of a seminarian; they may notice signs of an emotional or relational difficulty that the male formators have overlooked. It is crucial that such matters be addressed, since the priest needs to be someone who not only teaches orthodox doctrine and celebrates the sacraments, but who relates to all kinds of people with the respect, love and compassion of Christ.

All Catholics, both ordained and lay, need to abandon the mentality that regards the ordained as a special class above others, who are somehow beyond criticism and not subject to human weakness. All Catholics need to learn to relate to women and men in a healthy way, to know ourselves well, and to develop close friendships with others. Above all, each of us needs to be deeply grounded in our identity in Christ as a beloved son or daughter of the Father. Without this, under all the pressures of life there is a risk of developing unhealthy habits and coping mechanisms such as addictions, media overuse, or relationships of manipulation and control, which can even result in abuse of others.

Q. Beginning in 2013, you served for about 12 years as a member of the Catholic delegation to the International Pentecostal–Catholic Dialogue organised by the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity. How does discerning the gifts of different Christian traditions contribute to Christian unity and evangelisation ?

Many have become aware of how much we can learn from the gifts of others. For instance, we Catholics can learn from Pentecostals’ openness to the Holy Spirit and his gifts, Baptists’ love for Scripture, and Evangelicals’ fervor to bear witness to Christ. As Pope Francis wrote in Evangelii Gaudium, ecumenism « is not just about being better informed about others, but rather about reaping what the Spirit has sown in them, which is also meant to be a gift for us. » (no. 246)

As we approach the year 2033, the two-thousandth anniversary of the event at the center of all history — Christ’s passion, death and resurrection — we are once again becoming aware of the scandal of our divisions, which are an obstacle to evangelisation. How can we convince unbelievers that we are ambassadors of Christ, bearing a message of reconciliation, if we cannot get along with each other ? It is more urgent than ever today that we find ways to draw closer to one another and to collaborate in proclaiming Christ to those who don’t yet know him.

Q. What would you like to say to the Church and young people in Korea as they prepare for the 2027 WYD in Seoul, and to The Catholic Times Korea as it approaches its centenary ?

Yes, WYD will undoubtedly be a moment of special grace for the Church in Korea ! I hope that through it many Korean young people will encounter Christ personally and discover the joy of belonging to a global family of faith. I hope all the participants will come to know Jesus as the treasure, the pearl of great price, and embark on the adventure of living as his disciples.

I encourage the Church not to be timid about taking WYD as an opportunity to proclaim the gospel anew, both to those already in the Church and those outside it. Young people can be the best evangelists because of their energy, creativity and enthusiasm. I hope the Church in Korea will directly involve young people in the preparations for WYD, and that the WYD events will include many opportunities for Catholic youth to invite their friends to come and encounter Christ for themselves.

Catholic media is all the more essential in our time, since it can turn people’s hearts and minds toward what is truly valuable — what is good, true, and beautiful. With all the troubling events going on in the world, Catholic media can provide a compass that helps people interpret the signs of the times in the light of faith.

Congratulations to all of you and to the Church in Korea, whose saints and martyrs are a profound inspiration to me and to all Catholics ! May the Lord continue to bless you and to make you alive in the Holy Spirit, so that you can bear witness to Christ in Korea and beyond.

reported·translated by reporter Bak Juhyeon ogoya@catimes.kr

박주현 기자

ogoya@catimes.kr

기자의 다른 기사 보기